Finally finished! This took ages to do, in fact it turned into a bit of an epic.

I wrote about this a while back, perhaps you will recall that it was a bit of a ‘filler’ project which I picked up here and there to work on when I was feeling ‘discombobulated’. Well wouldn’t you know it, a dreadful thing happened… the patron who had requested this piece and who had agreed to be patient, became impatient. There is no hurrying me, hand needlework is hand needlework. Hurry up and wait and all that. So what do you think this person did? A sneaky conversation about how the piece would be finished (framed or not?) and THEN, they paid me. In advance. And handsomely (but more on that later).

Horrors! Having accepted the filthy lucre (I do have to eat, after all) I was in no position to dither, so I stitched. And mightily did I stitch! For long hours. It took FOREVER to do all that dense filling stitch.

I didn’t actually take a lot of pictures during the marathon but here are a few from the finishing process:

This is the blocking: liberally spritzed with water and being stretched on a board to get rid of wrinkles (hmm, I wonder if I could market that as some faddy beauty thing…)

And a good twenty four hours later, about to be released from said board so I can mount it. I don’t much care for needlework framed behind glass, I think it looks a bit twee personally and somehow takes away from the very tactile nature of fabric art, but that is just my own taste.
In any case we had agreed, at my insistence!, to give it more of a tapestry hanging look.

So I mounted it upon a piece of art board using lots of linen hinging tape from my framing supplies. Yes, I can cut my own mats should framing be required!

Next I sewed a backing onto it and a little label too. I don’t usually put labels onto things but this is not a church piece so it got one.
Perhaps it will be admired!
Perhaps others will want a similar piece! Perhaps I will get another paying commission!!

I’m not sure about the dowel or cord, we will see. They may get changed but for now this is the finished piece.

Here is an endnote, I worked out the hours I put into this piece and divided it out by how much I was paid. Hmm, am I a craftswoman or an artist? A bit of both? What is a skill worth? What I was paid equaled the cost of materials and $20 an hour. Perhaps I will train as a plumber instead! 🙂

Thanks for reading.