Labor Day Sale at Ribbonsmyth 20% Off

Everything is on Sale ~ 20% off Labor Day Savings!
We are feeling fall in the air here at the farm, and that means what will we begin to create for holiday gifts! I have a Christmas Tree Crazy Quilt Skirt that I so hope gets stitched in time for my Mother's tree! I can see it in elegant shades of burgundy and gold velvets with one of the fringe trims that I've saved for a special piece. Now where to find the time to make this a real gift and not just a vision!

So gather a few ribbons and vintage images for those holiday gift "visions"!

Featured is one of my Altoid tins that I created with a vintage image on a base of doupioni fabric and edged with 7mm silk ribbon French knots and hand-dyed Venice motif. The pattern is available and features a little velvet pincushion on the inside. I finished this piece by adding little legs to my tuffet case. To easily embellish the sides of the tin, I glued rococo lace around the tin.

In November, please catch my article featuring a variety of my embellished tins in the November issue of CQ Mag.

Your are Invited to the WTWW ArtBra Exhibit

If you have a chance, we hope you will check out the WTWW ArtBra
Exhibition at Byers' Choice during the month of October.

The exhibit will feature 35 ArtBras and three crazy quilts and ArtBra designers will be attending the exhibit the week-end of October 2nd

To purchase WTWW 2010 ArtBra calendars, they will begin to ship the last week of September and can be purchased through www.ribbonsmyth.com

Calendars will sell for $14 and the proceeds will be donated to Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, PA

Blog Give-Away - sign up with this post

Each month, I put together a gift bag of RibbonSmyth items and we send three gift-bags to lucky winners, as a way to express our gratitude. All you have to do is just say "hello" and be sure to leave that email addy. My husband pulls random emails and without an email addy we have no way to contact you!

We will announce winners the end of September. The gift bags will ship October 11th when I return from Conneticut!

In this photo is a bra I designed for Byers Choice. The WTWW ArtBra exhibition will be on view at Byers Choice for the month of October. All monies raised from the sale of tickets to attend the WTWW ArtBra October 2nd opening, will be donated to Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. If you are in the area, we hope you can attend. Or bring a group of your friends and guild members out to Byers Choice to view the ArtBra exhibit in beautiful Bucks County, PA

If you can't attend, we hope you will purchase a WTWW ArtBra 2010 Calendar. All monies from the calendar will be donated to local breast cancer centers at several of our local hospitals.

This year's calendar will include three crazy quilts as well as bras.

Little Miss Dynamite

I am beyond thrilled to spread the word that there will be a 2010 ArtBra Calendar! Please sign up for our newsletter at www.ribbonsmyth.com to receive updates on the Calendar. The calendar will begin to ship early October. You will definitely want a copy, as it promises to be a stunner! All money from the sale of the calendar will be donated to Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, Pa for breast cancer research. The calendar project is underwritten and managed by two generous benefactors. I get the fun of being involved solely with the creative end.

May I introduce "Little Miss Dynamite" by Leonie Hartley-Hoover? Isn't this the most amazing ArtBra? Leonie designed this ArtBra in my honor and donated it to Somerset County in Maryland, to raise donations and funding for their breast cancer awareness program. We hope to see "Little Miss Dynamite" featured in the 2010 calendar. Notice "Little Miss D" is holding a pomegranate margarita (one of my favorite drinks) and those sticks of dynamite are constructed out of ultrasuede. I will load additional photos with construction details. It is a work of art. My gratitude to Leonie for such a generous, creative tribute that I know has inspired many.

Memory Cushion

This is a Memory Cushion I designed for my aunt, to keep her company while she is in the hospital. This is a pic that was taken in the 1940's of her only child. Her son is now buried in Arlington Cemetery and this pic captures his sweet spirit. I designed the pillow in two sessions of stitching. I stitch late at night, when it is quiet and no disruptions. I like the silence, my Ott light and the indoor critters around my feet!



I've made many Memory Cushions. Without a doubt, a cushion can be made for any occasion. Among many of my collections, I collect fringe. I find fringe wherever I travel and if it's more than a yard, it comes with me. I love dyeing rayon fringe to create a vintage look. If a fringe puts you off by it color, buy it anyway. I picked up a gorgeous silk fringe in a horrible orange color, in a second-hand store in Surrey, England a few years back. I dyed it and it is now the most beautiful crimson/bronze and waiting to be stitched to a cushion.



I print photos onto our cotton fusible fabric, which I love. It does not fade and because it is fusible, there are no puckers when stitching down the image, because the image is ironed to the base fabric in a couple of seconds. I then tack down an ivory trim around the photo.



I have a small stash called "Private Collections" of specials buttons and beads that have meaning to me. I stitched a Civil War button in the top left corner, taken from a 19th Century Salesman's Sample book. I know the book would be worth more intact, but I bought the buttons to use.

After I tack down the button, I added a few silk ribbon stitches and then added a few glass pearls that I picked up in a French flea market in Paris. My favorite flea market and I haunt flea markets! Then continued to fill in with ribbon embroidery stitches. I like any ribbon embroidery packed together, no "wandering" flowers. I finished with a bit of feather stitch using RibbonSmyth's variegated silk twist (which is killer to work with) and then added a few copper rondells I picked up in New York.



When working with silk ribbon, only use three or four stitches. This gives the piece uniformity and the stitching goes quickly. I used a bullion lazy daisy, lazy daisy french knot, frilly flower and a few loops using all our variegated bronze 4mm silk ribbons.



After the embellishing was finished, I fused a lightweight fusible to the back of the silk. Really important step for your piece and then finished the assembly. I used one of our vintage images and wrote a note to my aunt and then fused the image to the pillow back, signing the piece with a name, date and county where the piece was stitched,adding her name and location.

Dress it Up Challenge!

A New Challenge ~ just in time to win a $100 RibbonSmyth basket filled with embellishments, fabrics, ribbons and trims for holiday creating! 1st place - $100, 2nd place - $50 gift basket, 3rd place winner - $25 gift basket. Purchase your Dress It Up Kit, submit your entry via jpeg no later than September 13th. Winners will be voted on from our newsletter members. Entries will be posted on our blog and votes tallied from our blog comments.

The finished piece is approximately 3 1/2"x 8 1/2". Sign the piece on the back and use as an upscale post card art. Would make a great gift. The kit includes: doll hanger, interfacing, dress pattern, wire-edge ribbon, 2 yards silk ribbon, cotton floss, purple sequins, purple satin butterflies, RibbonRuffles, green silk organza fabric, brocade fabric, purple moire fabric and purple satin fabric.

Kit - $9.95

Embellished lace Stocking

This is a sample of embellishing one of our red silk velvet stockings we have in our Outlet Store at RibbonSmyth. I've used a variety of 19th and 20th century lace that I gathered wherever I can find lace! I'm a lace junky. Finished with a a gathered rose using our French red wire-edge ribbon. I have a special affinity for this ribbon as I purchased it while sitting in a chair in the middle of a Paris street, while my ribbon vendor pulled spools of ribbon made in local villages, for me to select. What fun! He even brought champagne to sip while I shopped!

I added a simple 65mm ivory silk bow from our 65 mm silk ribbon selections, stitched a small feather stitch gold silk twist and added ivory 4mm silk loop stitches and embellished that spray with crystal seed beads. Finished by adding some Czech 1920's buttons. These beautiful crystal buttons have such sparkle and come with a glass shank on the back. They make stunning focal pieces. More of these stockings will probably end up on our etsy site.