This is a close-up view of a small pillow that I made using both ribbonwork and silk ribbon emboridery stitches. The base is made from two silk fabrics pieced together and embellished with vintage ribbon trim, a basket made from vintage lace, embellished with a variety of ribbon flowers and ribbon trims. This was an example used in my book Ribbonwork Gardens from C&T Publishing.
Happy Stitching, enjoy~ Christen!
Many of you know that I love hearts! I love the shapes and all of the possibilities. This heart-shaped pillow was a project featured in my book Embroidered and Embellished. I really loved working the flowers and vines using variegated flosses, you never know how it will turn out!
Happy February to you!
~Christen
Marie's Boudoirs Pillow- 2
When I first pieced the fabric for this pillow it was origionally to be a purse, but then I decided I would be able to look at it more often if it were a pillow. I cut a plain fabric for the back, the other half of the purse has already been posted.
The entire pillow is made from silk, excluding the vintage jacquard ribbon (and the stuffing). The striped and solid color fabrics, the embroidery ribbons and thread.
The embroidery ingredients are:
The embroidery stitches I used include:
I just love working with silk ribbon because it is so elegant and feminine and I feel that I am a part of history: where the ladies were beautifully dressed and demure and the gentlemen noble and well mannered…. another time and place!
6″ wide x 8″ tall
Happy stitching and dreaming! enjoy- Christen
Celtic Flowers Pillow
I have two book shelves on either side of my sewing table, and I placed an old pantry door on top to create a shelf. I placed many of my dolls in groups on top of this shelf, and the smaller pillows such as this one reside there
The fabric is a silk shantung, embroidered with pearl cotton thread. The stitches I used are:
After the pillow was sewn and stuffed, I added a rayon cord to the edges to finish off the piece.
5-1/2″ wide x 6 ” tall
Happy stitching, enjoy your creative adventures! Christen
Marie's Boudoirs Pillow-1
When I first pieced the fabric for this pillow it was origionally to be a purse, but then I decided I would be able to look at it more often if it were a pillow. I cut a plain fabric for the back, and I am embroidering the other half of the purse that will be a second pillow.
The entire pillow is made from silk, excluding the vintage jacquard ribbon (and the stuffing). The striped and solid color fabrics and lace, and the embroidery ribbons and thread.
The embroidery ingredients are:
The embroidery stitches I used include:
I just love working with silk ribbon because it is so elegant and feminine and I feel that I am a part of history: where the ladies were beautifully dressed and demure and the gentlemen noble and well mannered…. another time and place!
6-1/2″ wide x 8″ tall
Happy stitching and dreaming! enjoy- Christen
Jean’s Summer Garden by Christen Brown
When I was younger my family spent summers in Canada at our cottage on Chandos Lake. My grandparents and many of their friends had “summer gardens” planted in pots and boxes around their cottages. These gardens started from bulbs that were planted in containers in basements and nurtured through the winter and spring months.
Jean Beck and her mother Myrtle always planted lovely petunia’s and the colors that I used in this pillow remind their lovely gardens that were planted amongst the rocks around thier cottage.
This pillow is a sample of the stitches that are covered in my class “Elegant Additions”. The stitches used include traditional, free-form and silk ribbon embroidery. I also stitched flowers and leaves from Hanah silk ribbons, and tacked these in place on the pillow.
Happy and Joyous Stitching! Christen
French Bouquet by Christen Brown
This pillow is made from a silk fabric remnant that I found at local fabric store. I really thought that the champagne colored silk was so pretty, and saved it for this project.
The silk ribbon embroidery is stitched with 2, 4, and 7mm widths of ribbon, some of the ribbons were hand dyed. I used Mokuba ombre ribbons for the rosette flowers. Silk and cotton threads were also used in the embroidery stitches. The ribbon rose at the top of the pillow is made from Hanah Silk ribbon and leaf is made from wire ribbon.
This pattern was also used on a purse which is called “Ellen Matilda’s Rose Garden”. This was my father’s mother an immigrant from Sweden, who never had the time or luxuries for a rose garden, so I embroidered one in her memory.
Happy and Joyous Stitching! Christen
Rose Garden by Christen Brown
The design for this pillow is very similar to the La Vie en Rose, the purse that I created for the November/December issue of PieceWork Magazine.
This actually was the first design, but I did not use an embroidery hoop, and the fabric puckered TERRIBLY! So I turned the shape into one that would look like a pillow and stuffed it to a maximum density, and voila: no more puckers!
For the embroidery design I used pearl cotton in 6 shades of pink, and 3 shades of green. The stitches I used were: bouillon, woven, cast-on, lazy daisy, feathered leaf, French Knots, and Peking knot.
8-1/2″ W x 7-1/2″ H
May you have many hours of Happy Stitching! Christen
Christen's Creations 