Last night I finished the “bones” or frame of the Prairie Life Sampler border.
Almost always, I will go all the way around with the bones or frame of the border, then go back and add flowers and other motifs. Even though I count and re-count, and check everything multiple times, I’m always very happy when I put that last stitch in and everything meets up.
On this one, I started near the top left. I stitched the outline of a flower just to get the placement for the other part of the border, then I stitched the top part, then came down the right as far as I could without having to roll the piece. Then I came down the left side, rolled the piece, did more on the left side, did more on the right side, rolled, did more on the right side, moved back over to the left side, and kept doing that til I got down to the bottom section.
One of the things I do to help with getting the border to line up, besides counting and double checking everything, is I keep a needle threaded with thin sewing thread – either Bottom Line or Masterpiece from Superior Threads. I will put a sloppy knot in the end, find a “landmark” on the right side of the border and run that thin basting thread across the piece, making sure to keep it straight (lined up with a linen thread) and make sure I come out where it’s supposed to come out on the left side. Example: Say I start the basting thread at the bottom of a straight line of 11 stitches (before the diagonal area begins again), then I run the basting thread across, and on this chart, I should come out at the bottom of the 11 stitch section. Sometimes the left and right borders are not mirror images or not exactly the same so I will start at one of the horizontal numbered lines (30 which means it’s 30 stitches from the top) and run it across and it should hit at the spot in the design that’s at the 30 mark on the left side of the chart. Then, I just clip the knot and pull the thread right on out, with the needle still threaded and will keep using that same needle and thread to run my basting lines to check as I’m working down.
It’s a bit hard to see and I would have used a colored thread if I had thought about taking a photo but I try to use a light colored thread so there’s no chance of it leaving fuzz on the linen after the thread is pulled out.
My plans for today: Stitch a couple of flowers along the top border and get at least a few of the trees in the top portion of the piece stitched.