I've Been Framed!

Although I have not yet framed any of my quilts behind glass (or plexiglass) for my own home, I do love it when friends and clients frame my work.

 For one thing - a la Sally Fields, it makes me say, "You like me/it, You like me/it!!" (Note boundary confusion between my personal value and my quilts' value. Possible new blog/psychotherapy topic.)

Plus, I love coming across one of my framed quilts in their house - it's startling, just like coming across one of your own quilts in a quilt show - and gives you several useful moments of seeing a familiar piece through  new eyes. It's also interesting to see the choices that they, or their framer, made to enhance the piece.

This was a small 40th birthday piece I made for my dear friend Heather, who is a multitalented mother, writer, organizer, gardener, landscape and interior designer, soccer mom, and much much more.

It's full of in-jokes, which fortunately we don't have time to discuss here. (Actually, I've forgotten some of them. Why 'Free Parking'? Heather?)

The framer put it against a beautiful royal blue silk mat, a color I never would have predicted. (He or she must have picked it up from the darker fireworks).

It was then placed into a thick rectangular plexiglass frame. Photographing this outside is a total waste of pixels.

Speaking of photography, I didn't take a really good picture of it before presenting it, so I recently asked Heather if I could borrow it back to snap some shots. It took quite a while to unscrew the screws holding the lid on, in order to get a decent picture. This frame is made to last!

There are many other ways to frame a quilt, and I even have a book on the subject, which I've read, but never actually tried.  My friend Petra took one of my small pieces (which I billed as a potholder), and 'framed it' by purchasing a slightly larger mounted canvas, painting the canvas with globules of complementary colors a la Jackson Pollock, then stitching the quilt to the center of the canvas, with a couple of inches of the painted canvas showing all the way around. That came out very well too.

Some quilters say that framing pieces allows them to price them higher (which is to say, price them at a fair level that respects the amount of work, time, and talent that actually went into making the piece). People are more likely to see a framed piece of fiber art as a fine art investment, rather than as, say, as a potholder.

Do you frame your quilts? Why? And how? (More ideas welcomed!)

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