very often i apply the body of a piece to a larger than necessary backing. to stabilize it for embroidery and also for the first round of quilting. the body of sadness was hand pieced and then appliqued as a whole to a slubby piece of light weight linen. (a striped fabric was caught between these 2 layers and shows through the sheer center panel as a shadow) . in most cases i will trim the excess away or use it as a base for further framing. i wanted to keep this one small and under control but i decided to try something new after i asked myself what if (?) i just folded the excess under to form a clean edge and a backing all at once.
i turned each side under leaving just a bit for a tiny frame/ binding effect. i cut away the excess and mitered the corners. of course i did all this before i asked myself if there was enough fabric to cover the whole back. there wasn't. so i added a patch of linen on the back to cover the gap and wrote the story on it in blue. . i added ties to the corners of the center panel which are knotted on the back to mark the points where it meets the whisper's path on the front. i liked this binding method which reminds me of origami or wrapping cloths or just simply a cloth that hugs itself. i do that sometimes. this one is complete and now measures just over 9" square.
i have pulled out a healing cloth from long ago, a gift that never got to be given. parts of this were published in artful blogging magazine last year but it still continues. although i felt i needed to keep sadness small and contained, i've decided the healing needs to be larger.
just a note. i have added a stream from my facebook fan page in the right sidebar, right beneath recent comments... not to ask for fans but to provide a view to my etsy preview album which i started today after a few requests from folks frustrated by my constantly empty shop. all the shop talk is over there. no more talk of it here. my etsy posts are still lunar but i will reserve an item or sell direct through paypal... feel free to have a conversation through email. why facebook? because lots of folks like it and are hanging out there.
