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Storing instead of framing completed pictures?

Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 1:30 pm
by pamelam
Just wondered if anyone else delays framing completed pictures. When I first started to cross stitch many years ago, I would frame the piece right after I was done making it. Through the years I've just made the pictures and then put them away in a stack in a bag in my closet. I have one picture that I made for my son when he was seven years old, and he is now twenty-two. I promised myself that starting this year I would get frames for all my old pictures and display them. Is anyone else as bad as this? :D

Re: Storing instead of framing completed pictures?

Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 1:34 pm
by Angel
I very rarely frame my stitching. It's just sooooo expensive!

Re: Storing instead of framing completed pictures?

Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 1:37 pm
by Nachstenliebe
My husband does most of my framing..it's definitely not perfect but I think he does well.. My last big project is just hanging on the wall in our living room with push pins to "remind" him it needs a permanent home... isn't working .. but I refuse to let that project lie around.. on the wall with pushpins is a step up from that I guess lol
Faith

Re: Storing instead of framing completed pictures?

Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 1:40 pm
by Lisa
i buy the frame and mount and do them myself. but i think i will get my haed framed professionally cuz its quite special to me

Re: Storing instead of framing completed pictures?

Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 3:05 pm
by K1nS
I have loads of finished projects that I haven't framed. I keep thinking about getting them done but I just forget! :shock: It is expensive too so that always plays a big part

Re: Storing instead of framing completed pictures?

Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 3:07 pm
by Granny
I have always got it tended to immediately after finishing, either framed professionally in my younger years or by myself in later years. I have also incorporated it with my quilting and made wall hangings as that is the quickest and cheaper alternative. I find as gifts people are quite thrilled with the wall hanging way. They generally know that if I had framed it the item would have fallen out of price range as a gift for them. This way they have some cross stitching to display.

Re: Storing instead of framing completed pictures?

Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 3:29 pm
by ellay
I have some framed but more recently they just lay in a drawer. There's maybe twenty of them. I keep thinking I will make some into cushions, but I'm scared to make a mess of them, so I do nothing.

Re: Storing instead of framing completed pictures?

Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 4:12 pm
by Rose
When I do a project it always has a reason to be stitched usually as a gift I only have a couple of stitched things in my own house so I always finish off the project as soon as it is finished. (except for the angels as they do have to wait for the final angel to be stitched but as soon as that is done then they will be quilted so.....) I just could not bear to have them in a drawer after all the work I have put into them. That being said I don't always frame then some are made into pillows or were made as toels or some other way of finishing.

Re: Storing instead of framing completed pictures?

Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 4:48 pm
by MaggieM1750
I frame the vast majority of my stitching projects.. as most of them are for gifts. And most of what I have done will fit into a standard sized frame so all I have customized is the matting. With all the time I spend on them, I want them to be seen, displayed somehow.
But I do have one, from 2001 that has yet to be framed. Its in my gallery.. A round design with a dad and 2 kids pulling a christmas tree they had just cut.. I haven't framed it yet because after I stitched it, I realized that I needed to modify the design.. I need to add another adult and another child into the image. I quit stitching after that and just recently started up again.
I still have the chart, but do not have any of the green threads for the tree. I think I will just rip out the whole tree add the people and stitch the tree again. It's quite a bit to :anotherfrog: so I have just been thinking about how best to do it.

I might turn this one into a pillow, or perhaps "frame" it with fabric and turn it into a wall hanging of some sort. I'll figure that out during all the time I will spend :anotherfrog: and restitching.

Re: Storing instead of framing completed pictures?

Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 8:53 pm
by ~threadbear~
The pieces I have framed have been done very inexpensively in frames from charity shops or ones on sale. This one, for instance, was framed for the princely sum of £4.99!
Image

The pieces I haven't got round to doing anything with, just lay in a drawer together. :oops:

Re: Storing instead of framing completed pictures?

Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 10:00 pm
by Ceitidh
Haven't framed anything recently - credit crunch is hitting very hard and I'd rather spend money on something to stitch than getting it on the wall at the moment.

Would love to get my hall decorated and make it into my cross stitch gallery one day though! :lol:

Re: Storing instead of framing completed pictures?

Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 10:01 pm
by kimkat_tkl
I have to say most of mine are rolled up in a bag as it is just too expensive to get them professionally framed and I also don't have the wall space to hang them all at the moment (I'd love to get the 10 Country Threads designs I've completed all framed but then I'd have nowhere to put them all!). I have had a couple that I've given away framed and I'll be getting a few more done this year as my mum has started to do her own framing.

Re: Storing instead of framing completed pictures?

Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 10:25 pm
by Slinky
The projects I have done as gifts I have had framed. I get the point made earlier that that makes them expensive but I don't undertake a stitched gift lightly and figure that framing is worth the expense.

Some of my own projects I have had framed, but certainly not all of them!! Sometimes I'll stitch a design just because it's pretty, and not necessarily because I want to display it around my house. I've got a drawer set aside for finished unframed designs.

Re: Storing instead of framing completed pictures?

Posted: Thu Jan 28, 2010 3:45 am
by nikecam
i just use cheap "big box" store frames. they run from 3-15 dollars. i buy the precut mats from a local art store and those are usually just a few dollars. it's definitely not professional but we aren't hanging them in the taj mahal either. i'm just happy they are done.

while i'm waiting to frame something, i keep it rolled up in a cardboard tube from paper towel, aluminum foil, toilet paper, etc.

Re: Storing instead of framing completed pictures?

Posted: Thu Jan 28, 2010 10:11 am
by Catwoman
I have always had mine framed expensive as it is. I have yet to take my courage in both hands and try framing anything myself. Mind you, if framing gets any more expensive then I shall HAVE to give it a go!

Re: Storing instead of framing completed pictures?

Posted: Thu Jan 28, 2010 1:19 pm
by pamelam
~threadbear~ wrote:The pieces I have framed have been done very inexpensively in frames from charity shops or ones on sale. This one, for instance, was framed for the princely sum of £4.99!
Image

The pieces I haven't got round to doing anything with, just lay in a drawer together. :oops:

Threadbear,
That's a beautiful picture you did of the white owls. When I finish my current project, I plan on doing "Northwind Owl"
Image
My daughter loves white owls and would like me to do this for her.
Pam

Re: Storing instead of framing completed pictures?

Posted: Thu Jan 28, 2010 1:38 pm
by ali-cat
I have about 9 or 10 framed projects hanging in our house at the moment and probably have a dozen or so more lying in a box upstairs Although I framed everything myself I did have to have the frames made because of their awkward sizes. I really will have to look out for 'standard' size charts in future so I can buy a 'standard' size frame, at a fraction of the cost!

Re: Storing instead of framing completed pictures?

Posted: Thu Jan 28, 2010 2:03 pm
by Jilly
I have enough unframed, stored pictures to cover our king-size bed :( I really must do something with them :doh: :doh: :doh:

Re: Storing instead of framing completed pictures?

Posted: Thu Jan 28, 2010 2:20 pm
by Mabel Figworthy
Most of my projects are small and either go into cards, or are finished as coasters/bookmarks/ornaments, or framed in special doll's house items. I used to do slightly bigger projects, but I could never afford to have them framed, so I'd get one of those clip photoframes without a frame (does that make sense? I mean just glass) and then get a mount/mat cut for a few euros, and that would have to do.
I'm hoping to mount a few pieces in things like boxes, tea trays and fire screens, but it's very expensive :-( so not sure if it will ever happen.

Re: Storing instead of framing completed pictures?

Posted: Wed Feb 03, 2010 6:50 am
by karen4bells
Jilly wrote:I have enough unframed, stored pictures to cover our king-size bed :( I really must do something with them :doh: :doh: :doh:
:D :D That sounds very familiar. I have framed a number of my finished projects and given some as gifts but have a good number of them unframed and stored away :oops: