Friday Flowers: Coastal Edition

Last week, I went to stitch with a few of my friends in a house at Bodega Bay. Besides the fun of being with friends and stitching non-stop, one of my favorite things to do is taking Katie Lou for walks in a new environment. Here are some of the things we enjoyed seeing. First of all, Bodega Bay:


then lots of interesting houses looking out at the Pacific Ocean:

plenty of trimmed bushes in spring colors (they look a little bit like Easter eggs, don't they?):



and of course, pretty flowers:




It was a very cool getaway, as you might guess....

Anyway, Happy Friday and I hope you get some stitching done this weekend!

My Kimono with Fans

I keep meaning to show you the way I framed this particular square piece within a standard rectangular frame, because it might give you some ideas for framing some of your own pieces that are unusual or non-standard sizes.

Normally, for my pattern covers I scan each finished piece onto my scanner for the best possible close-up image of the stitched model. I don't provide a photo of the framed piece, since THAT part of the process I leave for each stitcher to determine themselves.

But the way I framed this piece provides a rather simple way to create an elegant look and I thought you'd be interested in seeing the overall piece.... After I finished stitching this piece, and laced up the back around a piece of mat board, I went looking thru my pile of frames. As I recall, I had to get it framed quickly to send it off to a show, and I didn't have time to shop around for the "perfect" frame.

All I had on hand was a lovely rectangular frame with a gold finish that matched the golds in the piece. [ASIDE: I took this photo on a dark grey day, but the frame and kimono actually are a deep gold color, like the kimono lapels.] To eliminate the extra space on the top and bottom, I decided to use pieces of fancy wallpaper (from an old discarded wallpaper book) - that I tore up "artistically" and placed on the background purple mat. (You could also get this same look by using one of the many scrapbooking papers available...or you could even use pieces of fabric..)

But it still needed something..... so I added yet another piece of darker purple mat board, which provided extra dimension, plus the additional accent of color (it also echoes the dark purple lining of the kimono and draws the eye up and down, attaching the two separate pieces of wallpaper). Here's what the bottom half of the piece looks like up-close:


It had never occurred to me to collage the background of a stitchery piece, but as you can see in this model, it works well with the piece and even adds some additional interest to the finishing. (And, in case you're wondering....I glued the papers with spray adhesive, then hot glued the laced model on top of everything.)

So, I hope this gets you thinking about different ways to finish your stitched pieces, and trying other combinations besides regular matting....

P.S.: For those of you who might ask, this design is called KIMONO WITH FANS and can be found in my KIMONO COLLECTION at my website.