Challenge Ornament: Lacing

The next step in finishing the Challenge Ornament is to assemble the back of the ornament the same way the front was done. My back side is the felt backing fabric, the quilt batting and then the finishing foam. First I checked to make sure the finishing foam (with quilt batting stuck to the sticky side) was the same size as the front section of the ornament. You eventually are going to have to sew the two together, so you want them as close to the same size as possible. You may need to make the finishing foam a tad smaller if the backing fabric you will wrap it with is very thick, but my felt didn't seem to add substantially to the size of the back.

I clipped the corners of the felt just like I'd clipped the corners of my piece of needlepoint, wrapped it over the finishing foam so that the quilt batting was inside, between the finishing foam and the felt, and pinned it in place. Then I laced the corners. My final step was to lace the top to bottom and sides to each other. This lacing technique (seen in the back half of the ornament above--I've not done it for the front half yet) pulls the sides gently together and makes little "pillows" of the ornament back and front. Many framed pieces are laced over foam core (which is a rigid but light styrafoam-type material) before it is put in a frame. That's one reason why designers leave such huge margins around their painted canvas designs--so finishers can lace a piece.

You would think at this point that the only thing remaining would be to sew the front of the ornament to the back, but actually this is the time when you need to decide whether to trim the edges of your ornament with braid, cover it with beads, make a tassel (or not), whether to use charms or large beads, what color thread to sew the front to the back with, etc. These are the final touches and what really makes the ornament special.

I decided to use black silk to sew the back to the front of the ornament as I used black canvas for my version of the Challenge Ornament, but I haven't decided whether to finish the edges with braid (made from my leftover threads) or with beads (gold and silver ones are laid out above as is a string of Facets, the Kreinik thread that minics beads) and whether to make a tassel or use a large bead to dangle from the bottom of my ornament. This all depends on personal taste and whether you want a flashy or more subdued ornament.

I'll think about it while I lace my ornament front and start putting the two halves together.

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow