INDIO DYED SILK NOIL PROJECT

The problem child....which I blogged about here and again here has sat long enough...... indecision had overcome me.  ENUFF.....let's move it along...

 I advocate beading and embroidering in a Q-Snap frame....anyone who has ever taken a workshop from me knows I'm rigid on this subject.  Working in a frame (rectangle or square) is preferred over a round hoop since you can secure the piece into the frame 'on-grain'.  

Sometimes the frame isn't as wide (or long as you need)....if so, simply make a muslin sleeve, with a 2" extender flap. (Think a tiny mini skirt with an elastic waist band w/o the elastic). Run one of the PVC pipe pieces through the opening and reassemble the frame.

Now you can pin the edge of your piece onto to the muslin extension...providing  the extra width/length required to secure it into the frame.

 It's especially important to stabilize limp/thin fabrics for handwork.  This indigo dyed silk noil is not tightly woven, so there's very little body to it. Distortion is guaranteed to happen during the embroidery or beading process if it weren't properly stabilized. 

Here are a few more details of the hand work I've added.....

Size  14.5 x 16.5 (yet to me, it appears more square than what it measures) 

So....here's been my dilemma......what finishing method would best suit this design?  I've considered facing it or mounting it on a canvas covered frame.  The later is where I'm leaning....and of course if I owned such a thing, I'd probably have done it already.  But, living in the boonies will require nearly a 2 hour round trip to get to an AC Moore store and I'm not sure I can even find a ready made one in the appropriate size. The other negative about mounting it is the added difficulity of storing/hanging in some exhibit spaces/and bringing it along when I teach....not to mention the extra cost of shipping if it's sold through my blog shop.

(I'm talking out loud to myself here, aren't I??)

I like the piece...in fact I like it a lot but there's something a little off balance about it...which is another reason for my stalling.

So today.....I loaded the photo into my photo program and did some cropping......and decided I liked this much better.  It's a simple remedy really....requiring about 1.5 inches trimmed from the right side.  The bigger issue will be making sure all the embroidery threads are super secured before I wack that side off.  

So....whatcha think???  Love the original size or the trimmed version???