Mini Mystery Monday for October, pt. 2

For the second part of your mystery piece, we're moving to the outer border and getting that stitched and in place.  Here's the graph to use this week:

Again, it's a partial graph of the whole design, but you should be able to use it to stitch the whole border.

Here's an up-close look at the basic border elements:

Notice that your "dimpled" squares change direction on each quadrant of the design, so be sure to make those directional changes as you stitch.  Each of the corners has a nice elongated cross stitch (over 10 x 1 canvas threads) that is tied down with three small straight stitches.  Use your metallic thread to work this element, and add a bit of bling to the corner areas:

I thought it would be good to get the borders out of the way this week, so you can have fun next Monday filling in the jazzy central motifs that really make this little design POP!  And by the way.... as you're working this border pattern, consider how easy this would be to use as a finishing border around other ornaments, or small pieces (that are on the diagonal, or on point).  When I finished stitching my border, I really liked how it looked -- it's fast and easy, yet fun to look at -- and I am going to remember to use it again as a way to finish smaller geometric pieces.

So for now, have fun working your borders, and I'll see you next time, okay?