CCQ Challenge post 4 of 4--First Finish 2nd Quarter Finish-A-Long (FAL) 2018

Musical notes added

When we left off from the last post, I was down to the embellishing, sleeve and label for the project. Remember those notes that I embroidered in post number 3? I got those out and played around a bit placing them.

In my original layout, I used 14 notes. When I embroidered them, I decided to double the amount plus a few extra. I embroidered 32 and guess what??? I used every one!

Notice that there are lots of notes at the top the piece. I wanted the notes to represent a piece of sheet music and that the notes were falling off the page and on to the figure.

The notes are  three dimensional. I hand stitched each stem of the note to the background. I used a polyester thread that blended with the metallic thread that I initially used to stitch the notes. It took me three one-hour sessions to accomplish this task. Stitching through all that denim by hand was tough. My fingers ached and I needed to take a lot of breaks.

Adding the bling

The next step was more fun. . .adding bling. After all, the inspiration for this piece was the song "Diamond Girl." With a title like that, some bling had to be involved! I used three different sizes of crystals. I even put a small crystal on each pocket. The crystals sure reflect the light which you can't see in the photo. You get to take my word for it!

Next, it was time to stitch the label and the sleeve to the back. I had prepared both some time ago. For the sleeve, I needed to clean finish or hem one edge once I had determined the actual width. I have found that once I am ready for the sleeve, I tend to loose momentum if I need to construct a sleeve at that point of the project.  Constructing the sleeve, when I've made the back allows me to coordinate it with the project.

Late last year, I began adding the hours as well as the cost of the project to the label. Once I finish the entire project, I add the hours spent on the project to the label.  Sometime, someone (maybe me!) might want to know how long something took!

Label

Finished back of project

I include the size of the project because if I want to enter it in a show, the size is needed and who wants to get the tape measure out to capture that information? (Not me!!!)

Although, I stopped putting the date on the label, I do include that information in a code. I once heard a speaker say that putting the actual date on a project, could make the artist appear "dated" if all their work was years in the past. Since then, I've put my completed dates in a code.

This label has been hanging around in my stash for more years than I can remember so using it for this project  was terrific!

I sure pushed myself to get to the next part which was to add her hair. Part of me was excited to see how much her hair added to the theme of the wall hanging and part of me had trepidation about how I was actually going to attach it. I wondered how it would hold up to being rolled or folded for storage.

Attaching her hair wasn't awful. The hair is on a wire and I tacked the wire to her head at various points to fill in the space on her head. I LOVE how much the "big" hair added to the overall theme of the piece. She does look like a gal from the 70s! I also like how she has some "attitude" and that I was able to make it appear that she is looking over her shoulder. I would like to add something that hangs from her pockets so that people will realize that the pockets are for real!

Finished wall hanging

This was goal number one on my 2nd Quarter Finish-A-Long list. It is the first project that I have finished this quarter! I used a yard of fabric from my stash which brings my total to a net loss of 7 yards. (I did buy two yards of fabric at the stash bazaar guild sale last week.  So I now have used a net of 7 yards of fabric from my stash and 43 yards more to go to meet my goal of using 50 yards from my stash in 2018!) I spent $32 and 86 hours to complete her.

If you missed the previous posts, I've placed the links below.
Post 1
Post 2
Post 3

I also need to update my training for the month of April since I forgot to do it in the last post. I taught 22 students in Basic Life Support CPR (YTD 95.) YTD, I've taught a total of 185 people!