Odds and Ends

One of our wonderful long-time customers arrived at the gallery the other day with a triumph, and an out of the ordinary request. As a busy mom, she rarely had any time for herself, and that's why it took her two years to finish her cross-stitch project, but she had manages to get it done!

A celebration of course ensued, and, after the dust had settled, her thoughts turned to how it would be presented. She had a favorite striped fabric that would make a dramatic border for her bird-atop-a-basket-of peaches cross-stitch, which looked like so:

The fabric looked like this:

After consultation, we chose a nice wood-grained flat lodge style frame. Would it be possible to use her fabric as a mat, but have the stripes go in opposite directions on the top/bottom and side/side borders? That was definitely out of the ordinary, but we were happy to make it happen. The mat would have to be cut into chevrons in each corner, and the sides would need to be individually wrapped, making sure the lines of the fabric stayed straight.

Ron took great care to not only make sure the lines in the fabric stayed straight, but also that the pattern was the same in all four corners, definitely out of the ordinary, but executed flawlessly. When our customer saw how great it came out, she had to grab a hanky!

The finished project looked like this:

Our client put a lot of love, time, effort, and energy into this cross-stitch, and so it was only fitting that it received a corresponding level of skill and talent to execute her vision, one with archival glass, matting, backing, and fitting, to produce an heirloom that would last a lifetime. That's why we say, "At Esprit Decor, we make memories."