Floral Motif

Here is a close up of the floral motif I created on Lillian's block.
I just love how it turned out. It has spider web roses in 3 different colors of 4mm silk ribbon. Clematis flowers made out of ribbon stitches in purple 4mm silk ribbon. Little yellow french knot flowers which are made by making a french knot with 1 wrap and loosely tightening with 3 wrap french knots in 1 strand DMC floss for the center. I made stems using the stem stitch and 1 strand silk floss and added leaves with 4mm silk ribbon in ribbon stitches. The little rosebuds are made from the twisted chain stitch in 4mm with a fly stitch in 4mm green worked around them.
I added clear swarski crystals to the roses as dew. Also I added amber glass seed beads to the middle of the clematis flowers. Then I added some larger amber beads and some small clear AB seed beads as dew drops near the rosebuds.

I took the air-erasable pen and kind of put circles where I thought roses would look nice then I drew little ovals to point towards the other area of the block which became the rose buds. Then I kinda felt where the clematis flowers would go and drew that in. I liked what I saw so I got some floss and made the spokes for the roses, but then I was on a role and went ahead and made the roses. Then I took a chance and instead of making the lazy daisy flowers I tried doing the ribbon stitch and ended up with clematis flowers which I like way better than the old daisy flowers. Then the next day I looked though JBM's floral stitches book and found the french knot flower and made those, I tried to make them a little looser and free so they'd look like a filler flower more. Then I drew in where the stem would go and the smaller stems I wanted to get them pointing in good directions and proportionate to the bouquet. Then when I felt it was right I stitched those in then added the leaves but I realized I needed more stems on the big long stem in order for it too be more realistic for roses so I drew in what I thought would look nice, stitched it and added the leaves. Then I added the little buds and the fly stitches on them. Then I went though what beads I thought would look nice, did a lot of bead tryouts before deciding which ones to use and where. Then I stitched them down and it was done!

My secret to making motifs is to get the foundational elements in and the filling stuff just comes together after that. To me the main flowers, and stems are foundations then secondary flowers after that, then I add the filler flowers and leaves in around them.