Melitastitches4fun's Blog

I was worried about asking a framer to handle this, and so I contacted Meghan from my ANG Main Line Stitchers chapter, who is a professional framer and now also a teacher. She gave me great guidance discussing lacing and pinning to foam board.

This shadow box frame was perfect at 11″ x 8.5″ and grey to pick up the color of the stones. Once it arrived (from Amazon in 2 days), I only had one option. There was no way to fit a second foam board in the frame or another layer of anything because the back is a foam board with a soft white felt back attached to the back. So, I attached the needlepoint to the foam board with small nails every 1/4″ piercing Congress Cloth threads as much as possible around each inner edge. I used three white pearl push pins they sent to hold it in place after I centered it. I was tempted to leave one in place near the large stone so it wouldn’t sag from the weight of the stone but I think the weight of the stone is dispersed across enough of the Congress Cloth that it won’t be an issue.

Then, I cut the Congress Cloth at the outer edge, which is about 2-3 threads from the nails. The pressure of the fasteners on each side is applying pressure as well.

The shadow box came with tempered glass which does have some glare depending on the lighting. Meghan did suggest that I could get a framer to order museum glass to fit this frame. But, where I have it hanging, there is no glare and I even got a decent photo.

Thanks, Meghan. I am thrilled with how it turned out!