Its About Time... Framing!

Back in December of 2003 I finished Peacock Tapestry by Teresa Wentzler. Its one of those pieces, that's truly a labour of love because its such a pain in the ass to stitch! It has a million blends, quarter stitches, and lots of confetti! I was determined to stitch it for my new (at the time) house. So I did.

I had a good idea it would cost me two arms and a leg to have it stitched... so it sat in my bag of finished un-finished projects. And it sat, and it sat. Until this year! Christin was a real sweetie and as an early Christmas present she had PT stretched for me at our LNS. Then again, it sat and it sat. Waiting for me go get some molding and frame it.

Saturday we both had to go out to my supplier to get some stuff framed up before Christmas (actually my stuff were for people at work, not anything I had made). Christin had a couple of Christmas pressies. While I was there I finally picked out something for PT. I had decided that the piece was ornate enough that it really didn't need mats or a fancy frame. Most of the PT's that I've seen framed over the years have been "over done" with a million mats and ornate gold frames. I knew I wanted a simple line in a nice dark wood. The first corner sample I pulled off of the wall was what I came home with.

Today I put the frame together... it did give me a little grief... actually I had a bit of a hissy fit... put everything away and went and took a shower. But its done now and it looks fantastic hanging above my bed! I am so happy I went simple!


Peacock Tapestry is a perfect example of how expensive custom framing can be. A couple of years ago I took it to a framing shop and had them put together an estimate for me to get this framed... I was looking at about $450.00 to get my poor PT framed. What did this weekend's framing adventure cost me??? Well the stretching was a gift.. and even if I had paid for it, the stretching was only $60.00. The 9ft length of molding that I bought... that cost $20.25! So in total to frame my PT that cost $80.25! It leads me to ask why the markup is so high if you go to a professional custom framer?

I haven't really had time to stitch this weekend, but I will shortly...