Monday, April 2, 2012

Embellishing the border


When all the slanted gobelin stitches and basketweave were worked on the border, I added the final touch: a series of diamond ray stitches on top of the basketweave. When worked in four plies of DMC floss #906, these stitches look--to me, anyway--like little water plants.

It was for this stitch that I readjusted the size of the border--diamond rays are worked over four threads, both from top to bottom and from side to side. When I reached the corners, I added two more stitches on either side of the centerray stitch to better fill in the area.

With that much accomplished, I moved to the center, working a Nobuko stitch with five plies of DMC floss #825. Had I painted the center background first, I could easily have used four plies of floss--possibly three plies. At that point, however, I was undecided about the stitch for the background--I was considering adding some metallic thread. I've since nixed that notion, since the metallic would detract from the fish itself. So a solid background it will be!

1 comment:

Needle Nicely said...

That ray stitch provides an elegant touch to the border. Great idea!