A Tale of Three Finishes

I managed to finish 3 projects by working in the evenings over the last week. I got to each finish in a slightly different way.

First, I framed my Pine Tree and Acorns sampler. Every day of my holiday break I stared at the unfinished sampler and wished it was finished. However, I had no inspirations on how to finish it. Wall-hanging, no. Pillow, not really. Nothing else. Finally, I thought that if I had a frame I could be done. I've never had any luck finding square frames. I ended up going to Nordic Needle and ordering one. The problem was color. Black didn't look right. Neither did green. Neither did barn red. I figured I'd have to paint over whichever frame I got (I've done that before) so I picked red because I figured it would cover the easiest. The frame arrived a few days ago and guess what? It's more brown then red and the perfect color! So last night I laced again and again and I think I finally have it centered and straight. Yay! Finish number #1.

Next is a woven wall-hanging which is a UFO from a retreat in early October.

It's not my usual project but it was interesting. At first, I had other items to finish so it just hung around. It could easily have sat forever but I was determined to not leave anything unfinished. So, I finished the weaving. I had the leftover copper wire and wanted to practice making spirals so that was the next step. A few more weeks passed as I got up the nerve to make the attempt (by the way, I signed up for a basic wire class in a few weekends). Finally, it was embellished but I didn't know how to hang it. I was originally thinking doing something with the wire but I used it all. So, it sat while I waited for inspiration. Not came. Finally, I decided to just be done and made a crochet chain out out of leftover yarn and attached it with beads.

Now it's hanging on the wall and I'm happy to say it's Finish #2.

The final finish was very easy. It was obvious from the beginning on how it would finish - a bias binding of the striped fabric. The only question was did I have enough of the fabric. I did. So, I made the binding and sewed it on.

The last few evenings were spend hand sewing it to the back. Yes, it's the hexagons from last weeks ago. They are now a hexagonal table topper and Finish #3.

What's next? I have lots of stuff started including a small hardanger that I had to get while I was shopping at Nordic Needle.

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Erica's Stitches

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