A Valentine for Judy

Last year about this time, a friend asked if I would stitch a valentine design for her.  Here is how the piece looked when I got through with the cross-stitch.

The designer of the pattern is Isobel Argante of The Primitive Hare.  (You really need to take a look at her blog to see the gorgeous patterns that she designs.)

Okay so I finished the stitching......now I had to finish it into a "postcard".  There was a lot of time involved in cross-stitching the piece and that made me a little nervous about the finishing process.  What if I messed up?  So I did what I usually do when it comes to finishing a project.....I procrastinated.  The cross-stitch was finished in October and just last week I finally got my nerve up to finish the project.  I prepared myself by reviewing a few websites dedicated to finishing techniques.  

My first step was to cut out the front and back of the stitched "postcard".  

Each of the pieces have a backstitched border.  The backsides of the above pieces were matched up with wrong sides facing each other.  I aligned the backstitches from the two pieces and connected them using a whip stitch.  Not sure what a whip stitch is?  I slipped my needle upward, under the backstitch on the bottom piece, then under the backstitch on the top piece....."whipping" them together.  After whip stitching two sides, I inserted a piece of mounting board covered with thin batting on each side of the mounting board.  Then I continued whip stitching around the two remaining sides.  

After all four sides had been whip stitched, the project was finally done!  I breathed a sign of relief.  

And yes, I do have photos of the finished Valentine Postcard.

Pattern:  Small Valentines by The Primitive Hare

Fabric:  30 count linen

Thread:  DMC