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I designed three more bands, some of these incorporate ribbons. The tulip one was actually started as an individual design, based on the tiny cross stitch tulip I designed for the miniature sampler, but then I realised it would actually fit in quite well with the bell pull.

As usual, please imagine the beads quite a bit bigger; the first band has ribbon woven through the hardanger, the third band uses gathered ribbon stitch (the larger circles) and ribbon french knots (the smaller one) with backstitch in either stranded cotton or #12 pearl.







I'm going to try out the tulip as a stand-alone project at stitching group tomorrow!

very pretty bands!!

Lovely work Mabel

Nice designs! I'm looking forward to seeing the tulip done up!

Stitched up the tulip -- did some of it at stitching group (also a bit of the Lustrum tile on black -- I'm finding that quite hard going!) and finished it last night. I may try one in yellows and then let the dark colours overlap a bit more, not sure which would work best; also a lighter green, I think. Anyway, here it is:

I love it!!! Can't wait to see your next version of it, I'm sure it will be great too....but I love the colors in this one .

That's beautiful Mabel!!

Very nice!! Your picots are great too! I like your idea of yellows with a lighter green, I think that would look great.

The fnal bands -- I have now printed it all out and will be trying out combinations !

I'm afraid these ribbon ones don't look particularly attractive charted, but they should stich up quite well *shrugs in resignation*. The middle band should look like tulips and snowdrops, the third sort of daisy-ish

Great work, Mabel!

Played with the bands last night and found that the tulip one was just too big and dominant, so left it out. I think the order is OK now but I have now recharted the pink double cable stitch one in green, and added another Hardanger band as I found that I wasn't really using any filling stitches. I could have added them to the heart at the bottom, I suppose, but I want to keep that very open and lacy, so maybe some picots there but most probably nothing. Anyway, here is the order I came up with:



Here is the recharted double cable band:



And here is the additional hardanger band, which i still have to find a place for:

It looks great. It's nicely balanced as it is. If I may, I think your last hardanger band would do well as the first, topmost band. You don't really have a "heart" theme throughout the piece and everything is well spaced as is. If you put that band first, it will complement the large heart motif at the very bottom. JMHO.....

I was about to say the same thing...

Oooh, that's an interesting idea ! I'm fickle and have just been playing with the bands and changing the order completely (well, pretty completely), but I keep having the satin stitch band at the top. I may need to rethink that....

I think it's developing nicely! It will be a treat to see where the final placement of things... and then to see it stitched up
Faith

The "stitching up" bit may take a while... for one thing it looks like it's going to be a a BIG piece of fabric and I'm not very good with that -- perhaps I could do all the bands separately and then stitch them together -- and for another I'm beginning to wonder if I've got enough ribbon and silk perle . The silk perle I know where to get more of, but the ribbons I bought at the Knitting & Stitching Show and I have no idea from whom . I have found an online source which seems to do similar shades though, so in an emergency...

Anyway, I decided that yes, it would be a very good idea to have the hearts at the top, balancing the bottom. Always advisable to have a well-balanced bottom . So after several more goes here is what I am fairly confident is the final version; you will note it has both the green and pink Double Cable stitch band. I did chart a green version of the ribbon-woven-through-hardanger band as well, but discarded that. Anyway,

TADAAAAAA



Click on it for a bigger version.

really love this last one!! Looking awesome!

I'd been thinking what to do with the tulip, and remembered I still had a dark green round satin Rajmahal box (originally meant for my aunt's Labrador puppy, but that didn't fit so I found a tray for it), so I finished it tonight and it will hold my Mill Hill beads:







The box looks almost black in the pictures , but it's like a dark bottle green.

Your band designs are lovely, and so well balanced. I love the bottom part of it particularly.Looking forward to seeing it stitched up...and the tulip box is so pretty and beautifully finished off.