Framing the Easy Way

Every so often you make a quilt that just screams for a frame.   Yes, you could put a sleeve on it, but you know in your heart that it would look better framed.

SO….a few weeks ago I came across a tutorial for how to frame your quilt.  I would LOVE to give credit to the author but I honestly cannot remember where I saw it.  Did I read it?   Did I watch it?  Did someone tell me about it???    ARGH….I just cant remember.  (Note:  last night I dreamed that I lost my car and couldn’t remember where I had left it.  When I woke, I was dreaming that I was walking down a very busy street, pushing the panic button on my key and hoping that I would find my car).    GREAT….I am forgetful in my dreams….not a good sign!!!

OK….on with the tutorial.   Here are the steps used to frame a small quilt……

 

The first step is to center the quilt on the BACK of the matting.   I did this by first gridding the back……

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and then placing the quilt, FACE SIDE DOWN on the mat……

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Draw around the outside of the quilt……

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Now, take an awl and punch a hole just inside the drawn outline (about 1/4 of an inch inside the line).   Place one punch at each corner and then one every 2 inches…..

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Turn the mat over and place your quilt over the punched holes.

Take a needle and thread and, coming from the back, draw the needle up thru one of the holes  (start with a hole NEXT TO the corner)……

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Catch a small bit of the backing fabric on the needle……

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And return the needle back thru the same hole……_5092391

If you leave the corner for last, it makes the final stitch easier to make since you can fold back the quilt.

As added protection, I ran a piece of masking tape over the stitching line…..

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And, voila……here is the framed piece.

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I really like that this method doesn’t interfere with the integrity of the quilt and that I could easily change my mind and remove it from the mat, put on a sleeve and hang it as a quilt.

As my final step, I place masking tape over the edges of the glass and am planning to us this to try some mono printing in the future!!!!

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What I SHOULD have been doing yesterday!!!

Actually the title is not entirely correct…..I spent yesterday organizing my stash (see last post), when I should have been doing tax returns!!

However, at the end of the day, I spent about 30 minutes doing something that I have wanted to do for about a year. I took three of my needle felting pieces that I made over a year ago and framed them and got them ready to put into our Guild Show Boutique.

Until now I have HATED framing pieces because I didn’t feel that they had a professional appearance, especially on the back …but that has now changed.

I did some research and found a tool that allows you to put the brads in the back of the frame to hold the piece in properly. The tool is a Picture Frame Fitting Tool and is made by Logan products.

It works great and I think that it makes my pieces look a lot better.

Now for the pieces….here are the three that I framed this evening and I am happy with how they look…that is a first!!!