Jenclair at Bayou Quilts and Dolls

This exquisite piece is the one I was telling you about in yesterday's post by Jenclair at Bayou Quilts.

It's amazing how different lighting and times of the day can affect the 2 photos I took of it when it arrived.  I've never heard of or seen encrusted embroidery before I saw it on Jenclair's site.  They are so intricate and fascinating.  But what I love the most is it seems they are done in a free form manner.  Each one that Jenclair does is unique and it seems she works very intuitively with no pattern.  

Thank you again Jenclair for this lovely gift.   

When it arrived in the mail I was inspired to make a background to showcase it on.  I'm also currently enrolled in Jude Hill's online Cloth to Cloth Quilt Weaving class, so I thought I'd weave a small quilt with some of my favorite old linens.  The red stripped fabric is from my Aunt's dishtowels that she embroidered on as a young woman.  The cotton hankie was my mother's that my grandmother embroidered the dainty flowers on.  The loosely woven fabric were from linen place mats that belonged to my husband's mother, and the back piece that the whole piece is stitched onto is my husband's old shirt.  Jude refers to these kinds of fabrics as story cloths. 

Last night I came across a pressed leaf from this last fall that my daughter picked and gave to me and it seems the perfect piece to put behind the encrusted piece.  I think I might brush some polymer medium over it to help preserve and strengthen it so I can stitch thru it.

So Jenclair, I hope you like how I'm going to frame out your gift.  I'm thinking a shadow box in a natural wood trim to hang the whole work in.  :)