Late Is Still Done: Finishing at Home and Giving It Away
Okay. Your hanging's on the wall, fringe is trimmed, crooked bits are either fixed or left alone because that'll do. So now what.
This lesson isn't really about a knot. It's about the last stretch, the part where the project either gets finished or sits on the table for six weeks looking at you.
If you're still not done
Some of you are behind, and that's fine. A weekend project has a way of turning into a six-week project the second life gets in the way. Kid gets sick, you get busy, the dowel sits on the kitchen table getting shoved to one end so people can eat dinner.
Here's what I'd do. Set it back up somewhere you'll actually see it, not a closet. Give yourself one more sitting, maybe an hour, and finish the section you left. Don't restart anything. Don't decide the whole middle needs redoing because you've had time to get precious about it. Finish what's there.
I over-planned a hanging once for Brad's wife, wanted it over the crib before the baby came. Used three different cords, which took me twice as long as it should have because I kept second-guessing which one went where. Baby came early. Hanging wasn't done. I finished it about two weeks late and it's over that crib right now. Nobody remembers it was late. Late is still done.
Taking it off the workspace
Once you're actually finished, get it off whatever you were tying it on, whether that's a dowel clamped to a table or a hook on the wall you used as a stand. Give the whole thing a look from a few feet back. Not to fix anything, we already did that last lesson. Just to see it as a finished thing instead of a project.
If you notice cord ends poking out anywhere, a tail from a knot that didn't get tucked, trim it close with sharp scissors, not the dull kitchen ones. A ragged trim looks worse than a slightly longer end, so take your time on this part even though you're itching to be done.
Hanging it for real
You already added your hanging cord a couple lessons back. Find where it's actually going to live, whether that's your own wall or someone else's, and hang it there before you decide it's finished-finished. Cord stretches a little under its own weight over the first week or two, especially cotton, so don't panic if the fringe looks a hair longer a month from now than it did the day you hung it. That's normal. Nothing to fix.
Nail into a stud if you can find one. If you can't, a proper drywall anchor rated for the weight, not just a picture hook, because a full-size hanging with a heavy dowel is more weight than people expect. I've seen one come down because someone used the same little hook they'd use for a frame.
Giving it away
Here's the part I never really planned on but it's turned out to be the best part of this whole thing. A wall hanging is something you can make for somebody who's going through it. It doesn't spoil like a casserole. It doesn't need refrigerating or returning a dish. You just make it, and then it's theirs.
I made one a while back for a neighbor kid heading off to a college apartment, nothing fancy, natural cord with one accent color because that's about as far as my eye for color goes. Six weeks later I asked him how the dorm was going, just making conversation, and he looked kind of surprised I even remembered giving it to him. Course I remembered. You don't forget the ones you gave away.
If you're giving yours to someone, you don't need to explain the mistakes. They won't see the crooked row you noticed in lesson six. They'll see a wall hanging somebody made for them, and that's the whole thing right there.
A word on the dry air
If you're storing it a while before giving it, or the recipient's moving it between houses, know that our air out here is dry enough that cotton cord can feel stiffer after time in a closet than it did fresh off the dowel. A quick shake out and a light comb through the fringe brings it right back. Nothing wrong with it, just the climate doing what it does.
Before next time
Get it on a wall somewhere, yours or someone else's, before the week's out. A finished hanging that's still sitting in a tub is just a project pretending it's done.