More progress on the corner borders

Looking at possibilities for infilling the large squared daisies; diagonal Rhodes stitch, and a pattern made with upright cross stitches.

I wondered, once I’d done the large squared daisies and recovered from the experience of the one which kept going wrong, whether I should use Diagonal Rhodes Stitch again, or do something else, so here I was experimenting with a sort of fill pattern using upright cross stitch.

Two sizes of Rhodes Stitch infilling the squared daisies

And no, both the thread (too pale) and the stitch pattern (somehow too incoherent, which is an odd thing for such a regimented stitch to look). Rhodes Stitch it is, then.

Ah, but what size of Rhodes Stitch?

The larger one, I decided in the end. This isn’t to be a cushion for leaning on, and although the “boss” created by the larger Rhodes Stitch had very long floats, it created a really lovely contrast with all those stitches going down in the middle of the Squared Daisies.

Large Squared Daisies infilled with large Rhodes Stitch

As you see here.

Now it’s done, I really like the look of this pairing. I think Jo Ippolito Christenson backstitches between her stitches, which I’m not going to do. I think this is a good enough recollection of the inspiration as it is, while staying true to itself as a piece of canvaswork.

7 Comments

  1. Lin says:

    Yes, it does work really well.

  2. I agree, the void between the Squared Daisies needed to be filled and the Rhodes Stitch looks great beside the SDs with their centre hole.

  3. Sue Jones says:

    A neat, tidy block. Both stitches have similar visual weight, so contrasting the peaks of the Rhodes stitch with radiation of the daisies provides interest without allowing either to dominate too much.

  4. Jillayne says:

    Love what you chose – it fills in the space well, nestled in between the daisies.

  5. Love the pairing!

  6. Caroyn Foley says:

    It works very well.

  7. Alex Hall says:

    It’s lovely. The bigger stitches give it a rather opulent look and feel.