Into the Borderlands: Decorative Borders to Stitch

Colorful needlepoint border design

Borders are attractive by themselves, but that is not their only potential use. They can be used to construct frames, or they can be repeated multiple times to make an all-over design. One of the things that interests me so much about borders is that reversing them sometimes surprises me. For example, I planned to use the design above for the top of a wall hanging and then turn the pattern upside-down to complete the bottom edge.  When I reversed the design, however, I discovered that not only would it serve the purpose I intended for it, but it was also an interesting design in its own right, with an entirely different "feel" than its mirror image. Either one can easily stand alone. You will see the reversed design at the end of this post.

You may not feel ready to take on such a large project right away, so let's start with something simple and see how it can be changed a step or two at a time to work in a number of needlework techniques.  We will start with this simple cross-stitch pattern, which can be repeated over and over to make a border that is as long as you wish.

Simple cross-stitch butterfly, repeated for a border

Obviously, the same pattern can be done in counted cross-stitch on fabrics like checked gingham, monks' cloth, Aida, etc., or as blackwork.  The only modification I would  make is to switch from black to another color of floss.

Same cross-stitch butterfly border in red

I liked this one so much that I decided to make the body of the butterfly slimmer and enlarge the top and bottom wings. I also liked the empty squares on the original design, thinking that they could be left open or filled with a stitch like a French Knot or a bullion knot.   I finally decided to fill them with spots of other colors. The result for me was this multicolored butterfly. This version of the pattern was done in upright Gobelin on canvas with backstitching for the outline and antennae and French knots for the eyes. It could just as easily have been done in counted cross-stitch or needlepoint.

Simplified butterfly design in needle weaving

Once I started to think about canvas, I had to experiment with it some more. I modified the butterfly a bit, making it somewhat smaller for more repeats, and added vertical columns of stitches between the butterflies. This was done with acrylic yarn on # 7 plastic canvas  in a technique called needle-weaving, which consists of in-and-out horizontal stitches worked either left-to-right or right-to-left — or both alternately. I did not put in antennae on this motif. The colors were limited to red and blue.

Butterfly design, modified again, in Gobelin stitch

I had been looking for a motif to use on the hatband of a red hat for a dear friend who belongs to the Red Hat Society. With minor changes, I thought a modified version of the design above would do nicely. I put in simple antennae. I chose a dark purple for the bodies, a lighter purple for the lower wings, and a dark lavender for the upper wings. The design was eventually made on a stiff canvas with the butterflies done in upright Gobelin stitch and the white background done in tent stitch. You can see for yourself how many different techniques the little butterfly design has suited — and perhaps add a few more ideas of your own to the list.

Simple blackwork border design

I'm careful to keep patterns of my border designs  (in both black-and-white and color), not only for reference, but also because I often can change them into all-over

Simple blackwork border design, stacked

designs by simply stacking them with very little space between them or by joining them together.  For example, this simple border design becomes an interesting all-over pattern.

Flower motif repeated vertically, horizontally, & a fancy corner

Or I may need to design a corner block or modify a horizontal design to a vertical one, so that the motif can be used as a square or rectangular frame for something.



Here are a few new designs shown as blackwork. They can easily be done in colors.  If you play with them to make borders, frames,  or all-over designs, modify them in any way you like.

Three new blackwork borders

Some of you may be ready for a more challenging project.  For example, you may want to use a border design for many more repeats to produce an all-over design. Here is one I have done for a pillow top, tentatively entitled "Persian Pillow".  I made a single, repeatable design with the initial row and repeated it 15 times, each row in a different color.  Then I repeated the whole block until I had covered the pillow, filling in the corners at the top with stitches in the appropriate colors in reverse order. Here is the original block:

"Persian Pillow" pillow top

And the pillow top.

Now, here are some things YOU can do:

• Make up a simple border design on graph paper and try it out as blackwork or counted cross-stitch.
• Choose one of the simple blackwork line patterns that we have given you and do it in color.
• Choose a single line pattern and "stack" it four or five times to make an all-over pattern.
• Take a horizontal pattern and use it as a vertical one to make a corner deign, modifying it as needed.
• Use a simple line design to make a pattern for a small embroidered frame.

Border design from top of post, flipped

See, YOU can be a designer, too!!

 This post by Annake's Garden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.