Mystery Border Revealed!

Have you heard about the Shining Needle Society? Have you joined yet? A stitching friend told me to check it out and after I saw all the luscious designs they were offering, I joined too. It's a society of stitchers (it's free to join) that enjoy talking about their stitching obsession. And best of all, they offer special cyber classes by wonderful designers who will certainly inspire you to great creative heights!

One of those designers is Gay Ann Rogers. I got a look at her recent cyber class, MYSTERY IN A CORNER, and was totally smitten. I had to stitch this project and was as excited as anybody to see where this project was going. The really fun part was deciding on the colors of your project. Everyone was encouraged to try their own combinations - in fact, that was one of the primary missions of the project. There was plenty of discussion (and I'm sure a lot of angst) about what colors to choose...

But I was in one of my springtime green-and-purple moods, and chose to work the MYSTERY in this color combination:


This is the completed project. Isn't it a stunning geometric design? And Gay Ann even gave us stitchers several stitch options so that we could mix and match our own side elements and motifs.... The idea being that we could create our own unique design in the process.

Well, after I finished stitching this MYSTERY, I left it on its stretcher bars and hung it on my office wall, where I've been staring at it for many weeks. To my border-obsessed eye, I realized I REALLY, REALLY wanted to put a border around this design, but wasn't sure what KIND of border it should have. I spent a lot of time staring at this piece, trying to visualize what kind of border it should have.

And here's what I finally came up with:


Instead of having triple mats cut in unusual (and extremely expensive) shapes, I decided to stitch my mat lines (remember those simple Dutch pieces I showed you earlier?) - similar to quilting lines - and by so doing, echo the rather Art Deco (or maybe opulent Edwardian) look of this piece. Using radiating lines around any geometric design is a good trick to remember, if you want to finish it off in an unusual way.

The thin radiating lines are done with a fine metallic thread. The green border is really just parts of the main design that I enjoyed stitching and thought I would repeat along the outside. I've never done a telescoping border (where it varies width) so that was a fun learning experience for me.

Does this border go to far? Is it too ornate? Maybe... Maybe not. I just wasn't happy putting a simple border on a visually complex piece such as this, so I opted to try a much more intricate border. But, ultimately, my border-obsessed eye is now satisfied. My version of the MYSTERY IN A CORNER is finished. I'm happy. (And that means I can start something new! Woo Hoo!)