The final stage on my Threats quilt, blocking. Dipping the monster into a cool water bath was a complete leap of faith on my part. It really needed it, the surface was gray with handling including a number of blood spots where needles added my DNA to the piece. I really didn't know what would happen to the stitching after the threads and fabric got wet together. I have had nasty surprises in the past so each time I do it I do it with a feeling of casting my fate to the wind. Most times I am pleased with the slightly more puckered results.
The piece is done on an old linen tablecloth. The circular format challenged every bit of my design skills to figure out how it could hang. I wanted to maintain the original scalloped edge so I hand-finished the edges and added a separate structure to the back to hold it on the wall. This pic shows the assemblage on the back. Inside is a handmade hula hoop made to fit the outer circumference of the piece (it can be dissassembled to fit neatly into a shipping carton if necessary). I used a PEX 3/8" pipe from Lowes with brass fittings for the connections. The envelope that holds the hoop has a zipper for easy access to the hoop and is handstitched along the edge. Took me 4 tries at getting the hoop to work before I came to this solution at 4 am one morning this week. The studio is littered with corpses of former trials. I am longing to get back to creating - engineering is not my favorite sport.