It's Done! Just in time for the UnFinished Object Blog Hop!

I trimmed the last beading thread Sunday afternoon and there was much rejoicing!  Thanks to two back-to-back UnFinished Objects Challenges, one of my oldest UFOs is finally complete.  I started work on this collar back in 2012 - and picked it up now and then through the years.  The collar just kept growing, without ever nearing completion.  It reminded me of an explanation one of my early teachers used about approaching infinity numerically - that you could get closer and closer to infinity, but by it's very nature, you could never actually reach infinity by counting. 

Thank goodness that wasn't truly the case here, as the picture shows!  And thank you to everyone who helped make this possible by agreeing to participate in another blog hop.  This blog hop up was just the push I needed.  Without you, it likely remained an UFO another five years!  I'm hoping those of you who joined int found the challenge useful, too. 

Curious about what everyone else worked on?  I know I am!  Here's the complete list of participants to see their progress:

Karen Williams, Baublicious

Francie Broadie,  FAB

Christine Van Dyke Altmiller, One Kiss Creations

Therese, Therese's Treasures

Kim Dworak, CianciBlue

Liz Hart, Treetop Life

Liz En, Bead Contagion

Amy Severino, Amy Beads

Cynthia Machata, Antiquity Travelers

Hope Smitherman, Crafty Hope

Christi Carter, Sweetpea Path

Bobbie Rafferty, Beadsong Jewelry

Margo Lynn Hablutzel, My World and It's Full of Books

And here are a few additional photos of my Starry Night Collar. 

where I was on Friday as I tested the collar against my template

The shawl-like shape was different from any other necklace or collar I've made, and presented some unique challenges in getting everything to lay properly when worn.  The final connection I needed to make was at the back, just behind my right shoulder.  I couldn't get the shape right working flat, and I didn't have any handy person waiting around to be my model.  (I could have likely talked my husband into doing it, but he's simply not the right size!)  I ended up doing a little beading, then adding a thread guide, and put it on and had him snap a picture, so I could at least see how the connection should look.  It let me see the shape I was working with. 

my thread guides show just how far off I would have been - I thought they'd be straight

Shortly thereafter, I did manage to find a friend willing to stop by and let me do a final fitting on them before doing the last few lines of stitching.

Laid out 'flat' (or flatish) to see the whole collar

Because it's designed to drape over the shoulders, it doesn't lay completely flat when the clasp is fastened.  You can see it buckling over on the right hand side if the photo. 

Several people had asked to see the collar on a human.  Unfortunately, I once again had no one but myself as a model.  This was the best collar selfie I managed to take:

It's really hard when you're both the model and the photographer!

One more photo with a black background.

And there you have it!  Truth is, I don't quite believe it's really done!