A Homespun Year...An Ode to the Rose....

 

It's no secret that I'm a Rose lover.

 

I have them everywhere in my home. Dried as seen above...and on fine china as seen here below...

 



 

My Husband knows that there's pretty much no point coming home bearing any other flower but the rose...

 



 

...and they even adorn organising items in my craft room, like these lace and ribbon organisers I made recently..

 



 

When thwarted by Mother Nature who sometimes, despite all my hard work, refuses to reward me with real roses in my garden, I make these Crepe Paper Roses with hand dyed and hand stamped crepe paper streamers....

 



 

I decorate sugar cubes with them and box these like chocolates as gifts.

 



 

I make rosettes out of pastry to serve as a sweet nibble...

 



 

And I even use them as adornments on my Dreamcatchers...

 



 

I use them to decorate my Jelly Cakes...here's Nanna's recipe in four sentences...

 

Cut a sponge cake in to cubes or diamonds. Make up any flavoured jelly (jello), according to the directions. When the jelly (jello) has set to the consistency of egg whites, dip the cubes or shapes of sponge cake into it, and follow by rolling them in desiccated coconut. Chill well, and decorate as desired.

 



 

This week, I've been working on using up my excess lace and ribbon, by turning it into these pretty rosettes. These will be made into hair clasps, headbands, wrist corsages, embellishments for t-shirts for my Granddaughters, gift toppers, and to pack as 'Boxes of Beautiful' to gift to friends who need cheering up. These are so quick and easy, that once you've got the hang of them, you'll be finding excuses to cozy up on the lounge and stitch a whole afternoons' worth...

 



 

First, choose two contrasting or toning lengths of lace, or scrap fabric. This looks prettiest when you use at least two textures, if not three. My Shabby Roses embellishing my Dreamcatcher above, were made using this same technique and lengths of satin, chiffon, and georgette, then ironed flat with a damp teatowel over them. So this is a really useful little craft.

 



 

Cut about an arms length of your laces, ribbons or fabrics, and vary the widths to make your rosettes interesting. You get all kinds of effects using similar widths, differing widths, and different textures.

 



 

Run a row of large tacking stitches along the bottom length of your strips, then pull them up to gather them.

 



 

Stitch the two ends together to secure the rosettes shape, and add a button, sequin or any other pretty to the centre to disguise the hole in the middle.

 



 

I've added Mother of Pearl buttons to these ones...

 



 

 

And I varied these by using one layer each of Violet lace and Cream satin edged organza ribbon.

 



 

Add them to hairpins or hairclips, headbands, strips of lace of ribbon to secure them to gifts, velvet bands to use as wrist corsages...you are only limited by your imagination.

 

I've boxed these ones up to gift to a friend who was a bit sad. I added vintage brooches to the box, and she was completed enamoured!

 

 

Will you find time to make your world more Rosy soon?

 

You can now find Five Star Frou-Frou as a neverending linkup here. You may link whenever you like, as often as you like. I will choose a feature each and every time I post, and add it to the bottom of my page here.

 

Todays feature is Thel, who shared her own gorgeous teacups with...you guessed it....roses! Please visit Thel. Her teacups and her table setting are truly beautiful!

 

 

...Mimi...