cath kidston, ikea & my mom

A couple of years ago my mom had the opportunity to spend a month in England, Scotland and Ireland with her sister.  They signed up for a group tour... since they spent a lot of time on planes and buses she wanted to have a small "needle project" to work on.  Fortunately for me, she had the perfect quilt pattern that included three images that I loved... she used colors that I picked out.  Fun greens and raspberry red/pinks.

When she got home she gave me these three pieces that she had worked on.  I framed them up with frames I  from Ikea.  I love the Ribba series of frames from Ikea... simple and they come in black or white as well as a multitude of sizes.  However, at the time the largest piece didn't fit well any any frames that would fit where I wanted the pieces to hang... so I used a frame that I already had, a long skinny one meant to hold three small photos.  I was never quite happy with it since it cut off part of the stitchery as you can see here.

This is where the piece had been, above my "medicine cabinet" chalkboard in a corner of my kitchen (and yes, please ignore the dead tulips... oops!).  Off to the right you can see the other two pieces... and yes, I should have take a "before" picture before I actually started this little makeover!

Hmmm, perhaps I should straighten these a bit when I throw out those tulips!

A bit closer look of these two... I love the little pitcher of strawberry lemonade.  The quilt pattern is from Crabapple Hill Studio and is called Berry Picking Party.

Recently Ikea added another size of frames to their Ribba series and I realized it would be a much better fit for the space AND for the actual piece of stitchery .. and for a mere $14.99 how could I go wrong?  I knew I wanted to change it up just a little bit but wasn't quite sure how... after a couple of weeks of thinking about it I realized I had the perfect scrap of Cath Kidston fabric (left over from my kitchen window topper).  I dug it out of my hoarded stacks of unfinished projects fabric stash and sure enough, it was EXACTLY the size I needed...

With a bit of spray glue, the fabric and the mat that came with the frame, well my idea was to cover that mat with fabric!  And in a fun twist I realized that my mom had stopped at a Cath Kidston store in London, how appropriate to marry these two together (and I was the lucky recipient of some birthday goodies that year).

I also realized that I needed to come up with something to cover up this little random scale that was in the upper right hand corner of the piece.... I think it was a little "test spot".  Before it was tucked under with the old skinny frame but with this mat and frame it would be visible... hmmm.  What to do?

For the first step I cut out the center of the fabric, no use wasting this small piece of Cath Kidston fabric!

Then I took the mat, fabric and spray glue outside, just like the directions say, and sprayed the mat and carefully laid out the fabric smoothing any wrinkles as I went.   The spray glue allowed me to pull the fabric back up when I had a wrinkle... although I don't think you'd get a second chance with paper!

Back inside to take care of wrapping the fabric around the mat.  First I mitered the inner corners...

And then started gluing the inside edges down with a quick drying glue that is good for paper and fabric.  I trimmed the outside corners and did the same all around the outside edge.  It was  bit messy since the glue came through the fabric.  The backside of the mat isn't the prettiest but that won't be seen when it's finished any how.

And here is the final piece!  I found two doilies to add over that random little scale... I layered a pink and red one over a yellow star doily.  The yellow doily was from the thrift store but the pink and red one I actually picked up a couple of years ago in a set from Ikea!  Perfect use for both of them and I think the whole thing has a bit of a Cath Kidston "feel" to it!  As you can see, it's actually a pretty large piece and frame.

A close up of the stitching and fabric...

I like these little jam jars... just like the real thing!

And here it is in it's spot.  The larger size is much better scale with the chalkboard and none of the stitchery is covered up now.

I really like that the fabric adds a little bit of a pop to the piece without making it too bold like a colored mat or frame might have.

All three... so happy together.  I like this so much I may just have to use fabric on a few other mats around the house....

But first I'm off to work on that list on my chalkboard... gardening is never done.

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