I haven't done any more on the stumpwork as yet as DH is often around when I want to work on it. However, he'll be out tonight and so I can get it completed. Don't know when I can post the photo as he'll also be around most of the time tomorrow and it may be hard to get a chance without him seeing it. Will think of a sneaky something though.
I finished the ribbon piece last night and here it is full frontal and also from the side so you can see the elevation of some of the parts of it. It's far from perfect. A close-up examination shows scrappy ends of ribbon that ought to be have been well hidden, but that this beginner struggled to manage with this gathering technique.
I enjoyed doing this, but am not sure I'll get very much into ribbon work. It's mostly that there are just so many different guages of ribbon used and I'd need quite a large amount of both cash and storage space in order to get a workable basic stash. Might do a few kits here and there and some other little bits with theplentiful leftover ribbon you get with VS accessory packs.
Margaret, you asked about fabric, esp on the Stumpwork Strawberry posting. Well, I almost always use plain old polycotton. If it's good enough for Helen M Stevens, then it's good enough for the likes of me!!! If I'm going to be doing heavy embroidery, (say raised work or a lot of silk shading), then I apply a piece of iron-on interfacing (Vilene) to the back to give it more strength. I also put this on silk when I stitch on that. Does that help??