Garden Lace....Lucite Bead Circle

I can't visit my son Max (he's a techie) and his girlfriend Esther in Seattle without a trip to Fusion Beads, which is literally just down the street from them.
Fusion always has a yummy supply of vintage lucite beads...so I bought some for my Garden Lace project.

I also stopped in on Weaving Works, which is in the vicinity as well. I brought home some goodies.

I was on a budget or else I would have gone pretty nuts with those flower beads!

I also spent a most splendid afternoon at the home of Paul and Jean Krynicki, who are the proprieters of River Silks, my favorite silk ribbon in all the world.
Paul and Jean have traveled extensively all over Asia to source the very highest quality silk. Their ribbon will NEVER run or shred while you are using it, because the thread count is so high.

They sent me home with a copy of the book they use in their classes. I plan on devouring it; you can have a look inside here.
Also shown is a sample of their 13mm (that's 1/2") ribbon. Non-shredding wide ribbon is something I can't wait to stitch with!

Jean showed me how to do this combination Folded Ribbon Stitch/French Knot.
You can see how dense the ribbon is, but it is not stiff at all. It just behaves itself beautifully.

I put my newly acquired lucite flowers and Swarovski pearls to fine use on my Garden Lace piece...but otherwise got no stitching done at all! The weather was just too nice....

I like how the five-petaled lucite flowers mimic the five-petaled borage and verbena blossoms in the round center print....
They really catch the light better than the above picture shows. Maybe from an angle...

That's better!
I hope to get the rest of my simple stitching done on this over the coming days...but while the weather stays nice I'll have to get into the garden......