Silk Ribbons & Mangoes

Hi everyone and welcome to my 2nd Blog. You may well ask, how do silk ribbons and mangoes come together.   working with silk ribbons is a passion of mine, some work above. They are hand dyed and just make your work very special.

Mangoes..well thats a whole "nuther story".  I met my partner  several years ago and yes you have guessed we have a mango farm and although we are both retired its not really hard work. The trees age from 3 yrs to 10yrs old and more or less look after themselves.  They need spraying, pruning and feeding. Today we put up a new fence at 7am when it was a cool 23c.  It helps to be part mountain goat our farm is very hilly and it took some doing with the pair of us...me l was the goffer and hanging on grim death to a roll of unwealdy wire.  We were protecting our last area with our youngest mango trees which are producing fruit for the first time.

We live in the mountains, not too high up, with around 2 1/2 acres of land with a beautiful Cortijo  built there by my partner. Previously 300 yr old Cortijo stood on this spot, but falling down and John was granted permission to build on the same spot. Only one wall stand here now.A Cortijo translates to Manor house and 300 yrs ago would have been the largest house in the area.  When excavating he found various old objects, the original old key to the house, a coin dated 1723 with King Alfonso III 's head on it, a donkey and horse shoe.  The one wall remaining of the original house still stands with the hole which is where they would have hidden their precious things.

Above an aerial  photo of our home you can see how high it is.
 Its a large house 3 double bedrooms with ensuites, separate toilet and a dressing room. He made the reijas as well. The metal reijas are a compulsory part of any Spanish house, they cover the windows and doors and without these you cannot insure your house.  There are 3 patios and a swimming pool which we use every day.  This has been a hot summer and this June particularly temperatures hitting 37.5C equaling 106 degrees.  We don't have mains water only a well and so far so good we still have water albeit 3mins every 3hrs which is pumped up to large holding tanks which in total are 30,000ltrs.  Here in Andalucia we have had a drought for the last 6 yrs, this year it has we hope broken with more rain than the previous 6yrs. Last year our well ran dry in May so we have a tanker deliver some 10,000 litres as mangoes need 5000 ltrs a week, well actually they need more but thats all we can manage to make the books balance.  Spain is a fairly large country so its only the Southern part that is suffering a drought, northern Spain is lush and green, where all the cattle are, there is insufficient grass for them here to graze, so we have goats, pigs, and chickens.

7

Some exotic flowers growing and of course the mangoes are nearly palm sized now.

September is harvest time and we hope for a big one, more later.

SILK RIBBONS
Whenever I use silk ribbon embroidery on my quilts l get asked "how do you  do that".  I have decided to show you the first basic stitch to start you off.  More will follow.  Remember practice makes perfect.

We are going to work on a simple design and make a leaf.
Only ever use about 12" of ribbon at a time and remember to keep the ribbon flat as you work.
You will need a  Chenille 18/24 and its essential that the needle makes a large enough hole in the fabric. So that the silk glides smoothly through the fabric, pull gently and keep the work loose.
To begin we will use size 7mm  (3/8th" wide) ribbon.
Start by threading your needle, as shown in the pictures below. Cut your ribbon always on the diagonal like so, as though you were using thread, but then bring the ribbon to the end of your needle and pierce it about 1/4" up from the end and pull it all the way through till it catches in the eye of the needle and forms a small knot.
Pictures to show you how:

I thought it might be fun to actually make something, so l have drawn an "N" for Needlecase on a piece of fabric.

Your ready for your first stitch.  Start at the back of your fabric and pull your ribbon through the fabric leaving just 1/2" at the back...no knots to hold it in place, it will be held in place later.
Picture

If your thread is a bit twisted sort that out now by using your needle to make it flat.

Now you need to put your needle directly into the middle of your ribbon now gently pull your ribbon till it forms a pointed tip.  Keep your work loose, do not pull your thread tight.

You have made your first leaf shape. In the picture above it shows your first leaf and starting a leaf with a left hand curl.

So you can make your leaf bend to the right or the left putting your needle into your ribbon to the left or right and not the centre as you did in the first step. However this time to give your leaf a nice curl, place a second needle into the loop and pulling it over the second needle.
Clear as mud,  ok picture to show you....

I think you need to actually try this as sometimes reading it is not the same, so try what l have said above and should you have questions please ask.

Okay thats all for this week, hope you enjoy reading about my life in Spain.  Hope some of you try my silk ribbon tutorial.  Come back next week and l will be teaching how to make a spiders web ribbon rose.  Have a great week everyone.

Eleanor

Now linking to WOW: Estheraliu.blogspot.com