Two borders (For the Love of Nature) and now Thy Love Divine . . it’s so, so nice when the borders meet up.
When I started this project, I started in the top left corner and went across the top and then partially down the right side. Then I started filling in. I don’t remember having a lot of trouble with those leaves but when I went back and did the left side and then last night finishing the right side, I ripped our more than what stayed in. I never did get the “flow” of those leaves. Even after making over two dozen of them, and knowing in my head the stitch pattern, I still made mistakes. I wouldn’t notice the mistake til I was stitching the next vine and it was either too close to the purple border or two close to the previous leaves. That was so much ripping out and so much wasting silk floss!
By the time I got to the bottom border, I decided just to make the humps and go back and make the leaves. I wish I would have done that in the beginning . . but I didn’t. I think I’ll be able to fill in the leaves without making so many mistakes now.
When I got to the hump under the V, I knew my stitched were all lined up and should meet at the bottom left corner. That is such a relief. This is my #2 WIPGO project. I need to put 20 hours into it and I’ve done 10 hours so Monday and Tuesday I’ll work on getting those last 10 hours in. I will finish the leaves and go back and add the orange flowers to finish up the border. That will probably take more than 10 hours but finishing the border will be my goal and, I can work more than 10 hours.
I have this project on the WIPGO board one more time. If I get the borders finished this week, all I have left to do is the rice stitch. I think this will definitely be a finish for 2022.
Elle says
I love that you and Jo are so brave as to do the borders first. I’m a top left to right working down or middle to top then bottom cross stitcher. And I do the frame as I go.
This is a great piece and I love the bright colors.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
I think doing the borders first is for wimps. I’m so afraid the border won’t match up and once it does, I can always add or leave spaces or even leave out a row if needed to make the center fit the borders. If the center gets off, it’s hard to make borders match up, especially if they have a lot of intricate stitching in them.
EDIT: I’m not calling anyone a wimp but myself. I’m so afraid of my borders not meeting up. I would worry the entire time I’m stitching that my borders were going to be off. Doing them first, I know at least that much is right.
Jeanne Bishop says
I notice that both you and Jo do your borders first. I don’t understand why. If you did the inside first, wouldn’t the borders meet automatically? I did cross stitch many years ago and I’ve never done a sampler and I’m just trying to understand the process.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
But, on the other hand, why not do the borders first? 🙂
It’s so easy to make a mistake (for me) whether I’m doing the borders first or doing the interior first. If I do the borders and I know they meet up, then I can work around everything else. If there’s a border with lots of design, it has to be stitched exactly right or it isn’t going to meet up, no matter what you do first.
Say I stitched the interior first and I left an extra space somewhere along the way. The borders aren’t going to meet up. Sometimes borders are harder to finagle and have them look right than it would be to leave one row out of a house in the middle of the piece.
There’s no right or wrong way. If you’re happy with the way you do them, then you do them that way. As far as I know, there are no rules and once the stitching is done, it isn’t going to matter which way you did it.
For me, it may be subconscious but I know how I am and when I get the whole inside done, I doubt I’d be real excited about stitching the borders so getting them done first is probably best for me.
For the record, when I quilted, most of my quilts had 6 or more borders and I always made my borders first, even the pieced borders.
Cindy F says
Yay for matched borders!! We all have our ways….lol I keep starting in the middle as I was taught (old habits are hard to break), although with the Sunday stitch I did start at one corner but I didn’t go all the way around for the border. For me, the excitement of the chart is usually not in the border and I can’t thinking about doing just the border. If I start in the middle I can start seeing things come alive and work on the border in pieces and it doesn’t become so monotonous to me. But….in the end it doesn’t matter, it’s what makes us happy! 🙂