Stimulated by all the great ideas and comments you guys have posted, I kept trying border ideas out. Above you see my attempt to mix colors in the Staggered Slanting Stitches at the bottom of the canvas and add a red corner treatment. That is pretty but just not right for this design. Robin King came to the rescue with an idea. Below you see the Photoshopped image she sent me.
Robin (who you know because of her teaching at Amy Bunger's shop in Memphis and her stitch guides, Amy newsletters and the behind the scenes work on Amy's CD series) told me to consider using Van Dyke Stitch (the coral red stitches in the image) and Double Brick With Bar Stitch (the black ones) as a complex border. Robin thought that two rows of Van Dyke Stitches sandwiching the Double Brick With Bar Stitch between them would make a great border. So I tried it!
In the first photograph you can see the Double Brick With Bar Stitch in two threads: I used my lovely overdyed Watercolours in shades of coral first, but it seemed too strong a border that detracted from O'jishi himself. I switched threads to a Kreinik metallic (#5550) in size 16 braid that is a chocolate milk color, tied down with the same silver/brown metallic I used in the background. That seemed too bland.
What you don't see in the photo because I accidentally cut it off is the Van Dyke stitch, done in my coral red silk. It was too heavy and dominated the canvas. I couldn't use one row of it, much less two!
For your information, here is Van Dyke stitch (except called Braided Knitting, many stitches have multiple names) diagrammed so you can imagine it in red.
http://www.needlepoint.org/StitchOfTheMonth/2002/Apr.php
To see where I went from here, you'll have to wait until tomorrow as I'm running out of time. Let me just say that Robin King is the Queen of the Needlepoint Universe in CH this week....
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
