"Kayla" Quilt - Final Version

The quilt I made for my friend Sheena managed to return to me after I gave it to her as a gift when leaving my last job in December '05 because she wanted me to figure out how to hang it. Originally it was to be framed, but when we went together to a frame shop the man came up with a combination of matts and frames that ended up with a $350 price tag. No thank you...but a simple sleeve on the back didn't seem right and she wasn't too keen on putting it onto a plexiglass backing, but didn't really tell me what the budget parameters were, nor any preferences of what style would coordinate with her home (the piece was originally envisioned hanging in her office at the workplace). Too many possibilities, not enough information to make easy choices and there was too much going on with looking for a new job to deal with this unexpected puzzle.

While in itself it was an intersting design challenge, it was also frustrating because I did not want to undo any of the work on the finished piece and disliked the idea of attaching something else to it on the outside (back) of all the finished edges. I purchased two different styles of ribbon and another time some strips of beading that reminded me of children's wooden blocks and seemed like a playful addition, but again wondered how to attach it and hide it without doing a lot of extra work.

In the end, I sewed the beads onto the bottom and the ribbon loops on top, with a clean stitch edging, found a wooden bar at home to give her as a starting point so she can see how it would look hanging that way and took her out to lunch on Tuesday to give her the adjusted gift. These additions were conceived to open up the design if it was to hang on the wall by itself and to add some length to the original square format, so a standard size rectangular frame could be used if she decided to frame it after all. What a relief! She loves it! I'm glad she's happy and very glad to have that weight of expectation off my shoulders. Here's the finished quilt of little "Kayla"

Sorry. 4 attempts and Blogger still doesn't capture the photo's. Will try again a bit later.