Borders in the Knot Garden

A corner of the Parterre design showing the early stitching of a pattern callled "squared daisies"

There’s still a great deal of to-ing and fro-ing on the Knot Garden/ Parterre. There’s a lot of border elements to do, and I’m quite certain that I’m going to have to find a way of making sense of a middle section on the short sides: the “Princess Stitch” border I’ve chosen for the outside border is symmetrical around a stitch, and the circular border in the centre is centred around a thread, so something may well look a bit too “off” to be fudged, if I’m not careful!

This pattern is called “Squared Daisies” in my copy of Jo Ippolito Christensen’s book on needlepoint. It looked like a very big pattern in the book, full of interest and personality, but while it has personality , it looks a bit small here, and I’m having Doubts about it.

The same Squared Daisies pattern, twice the size

So, in the spirit of exploration and investigation that I usually apply to needlecrafts, I found another corner and tried again, twice the size.

Yikes, that’s big. And Yikes, again, for the number of threads going through the central hole.

But I think I might rather like it.

Squared Daisies Stitch worked in two shades of burgundy

In fact, I’ve carried on, and decided I do rather like it. I’m varying the colours to maintain the variation shown in the original inspiration, and now I’m thinking that – again in the spirit of variation – I will also finish the smaller stitch size version.

The other two corners can be the same stitches but in the other order, so that the similar corners are set diagonally to one another. And the only trouble with that is that these stitches are remarkably trying to do, and after a day wrestling with goldwork or Amarna, all I want to do is curl up with a good book!

7 Comments

  1. Sue Jones says:

    I like your squared dasies, in both sizes. (A little fudging at the end rarely shows as much as the stitcher thinks it does.) The currently empty diamonds could either be petit point, or something with overlapping stitches. Make some experiments on squared paper and see what jumps out at you.

  2. Lin says:

    I too like both sizes and I can see it needs lots of concentration to get those centres looking neat!

  3. Carolyn Foley says:

    Or maybe you could just stitch something less challenging and enjoy the process?

  4. ‘Square Daisies’ is a beautiful stitch, and I prefer the larger design.
    As the garden is seen from above (by a camera equipped drone?) the Square Daisies really look like bushes. I wonder what you will plant in between them.

  5. Alex Hall says:

    Both sizes are lovely. Looking forward to seeing what you plant inbetween them!

  6. Meredithe says:

    Ooh yes, I do like the bigger version!

  7. Jillayne says:

    I also like the larger scale for those corners – I think it’s more interesting, not the usual. I can imagine how “Dreams of Amarna” would be so immersive that a little simple, recreational stitching would be pleasant in the evenings, something easy to pick up and put down as and when.