The idea for this border came from a quilt. It’s very easy to do and easy to vary to fit your design. Make as many rows as you want. Make them as wide as you want. Make them in the colors you want.
Pretty much anything goes and it will look great!
When you make it for a quilt, you would take strips of your fabric cut to equal width and cut them to different random lengths. You sew them to each other to make your border.
In needlepoint you do essentially the same thing but with threads. You make a line of Diagonal Gobelins of the width you’d like a single row (the model goes over three threads). Stop at a random point and finish off the end. Pick another thread from your selection at random and repeat the process.
You’ll get the best look if no adjacent blocks are the same length and if no two blocks in your rows have the same starting and ending points.
Because there’s lots going on in this border, I like to keep it simple. Don’t change the direction of the stitch. Try to use threads that are similar in texture and that don’t attract attention to themselves.
For your sampler, go through your stash and find different shades of your main color (The model uses stranded silk.). Put them into a paper bag so the threads you pick will be random.
Starting three threads down from the previous border, stitch three rows of Diagonal Gobelins over three threads, below, in different lengths using the threads you picked.
I also used this as one of the borders in Winter Stars (available from Napa Needlepoint).
Come back next week for a new border!
About Janet M Perry
Janet Perry is the Internet's leading authority on needlepoint. She designs, teaches and writes, getting raves from her fans for her innovative techniques, extensive knowledge and generous teaching style. A leading writer of stitch guides, she blogs here and lives on an island in the northeast corner of the SF Bay with her family
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