The 4 Seasons Cross Stitch Done & Framed

The 4 Seasons are finished and I thought I would show how I mounted  the piece.  I used a piece of foamcore board cut to size (15" x 15") and centered the fabric.  Then I used silk pins to hold it in place, working from the center out, opposite sides first to keep it centered.

I stuck the pins into the foamcore about halfway and about an inch apart.

Then I went back around adding more pins about 1/4" apart, then once again in the center of those spaces.  Always checking the alignment of the weave against the edge of the board.  When done all the pins got pushed all the way in.  I had bought a box of 450 pins and had about 1/3 of them left over.

I could have stopped there and just folded & taped the excess fabric but decided to lace it as an extra measure.  I used doubled pieces of quilting thread, corner to opposite corner first.  Taking 3 stitches for each lace end.  When I ran out of thread, I used an overhand knot to connect the new thread to the old and kept going.

Lacing all one way.

Then the other way.  Pieces like this really should be laced and not pinned but I had read that the pinning worked so nicely with little chance of rusting pins so I thought I would try it.  If I had not used pins that stay in the board, I would have sewn a stronger twill tape to the edges and then laced.  

Not perfect but it's hard with linen.

And here she is framed in my Goodwill $3 frame that was a perfect fit.  No glass as there was no room for it.  A little orange oil polish and the frame looks like new!

The back got a dust cover and sawtooth hanger.  Now all I need is a place to hang it!