Saturday, November 17, 2007

So good together

Dear Shayne,

Ever had one of those projects that just spirals out of control, slowly at first, then faster and faster till you're thinking, "Gosh, I shouldn't have spent so much time on this..." but at that point, you've got to push forward because there's less time until you're finished than there has been since you started?

Or is that just me?

Sigh. I bought a neat hand-printed wood type letterpress poster for Bill several months ago. I planned to frame it in time to give it to him for our anniversary in July, but failed. It's a weird size, so I was either going to have it custom framed or frame it myself. I like to do my own framing, sooo... I went with that plan. And stalled out for a bit.

Finally, I ordered a frame here (great source for cheap make-your-own frames, by the way) and I went to the framer across the street from our house for some nice non-glare glass. Halfway there, right? Yeah, right. Let the spiral begin.

I was originally going to cut a mat for it, but (insert faster spiraling here) I didn't really have any mat board that would look good with it. So I was all set to go buy mat board but... I've really been trying to use what I have.

So I thought, "Well, what could I use to border this print?" (Unfortunately, the frame I bought required a mat for the print to fit... buying a new, smaller frame did occur to me at this point, but no! Use what you have! Use it!) I thought of using some pretty paper, but the only paper I had that was 24" long (the height of the frame) didn't really go.

Then I thought... perhaps I could piece some paper together? For a patchwork-y kind of background? As soon as I thought of patchwork, I thought of fabric (of which I have a ton). Yes! Patchwork fabric background!

Shayne, it was here that I should have stopped myself. Alas, I did not. Instead, I cut out a bunch of fabric pieces and sewed them together. (Seriously. Sewed.) Then I ironed them onto fusible interfacing, then mounted the poster on top of all of this and, at last, I finally have a framed print for Bill:

So good together
Whew!

love,
kelly

PS -- I bought that print here, but it looks like they're all sold out now.

2 comments:

Shayne said...

But it looks so awesome!!! Totally worth all the trouble. Was Bill thrilled? Did he know about this all along or did you manage to keep it a surprise until it was done?

kelly said...

Bill likes it -- he's distracted today working on plumbing stuff, so he'll enjoy it more once he's done with that. He knew I was working on something, but didn't know what.

Thanks for the compliment... I can't believe how long that took!