a mini border how-to brought to you by...

naptime! Which hardly ever happens anymore. Luckily I can still count on Adam crashing (usually in a puddle of fits and tears) at least once a week and today was my lucky day. As promised I'm going to share how I made this petite little border for a custom piece.

I love the way it turned out and it was super easy too. Did I invent this stitch? - I'm sure I did not. Who did invent it? I'm sure I don't know - probably an 8 year old girl working on her first sampler in a farmhouse in Kansas 200 years ago. That's just my best guess. It's probably in a book or online somewhere but I know I felt like I was so clever when I did it because I had never seen it before. Still, I don't take credit for it.

Anyway.

You just start out with a blanket stitch. You need to make them tall and short alternately. These are quarter inch and half inch. I penciled in my lines because I'm an embroidery nerd.

Next just weave a different colored floss through your stitches. Over under over under style.

Then do it again with a different color but alternate the cross threads (where you went over with the first color go under with the second and so on).

It works best if your last woven line of floss tucks under the short stitches instead of laying on top of them - it just keeps everything tidy that way.

Finally, add a french knot over each short stitch and that's it!

What I love about this border is that is looks just as good along curves as it does in a straight line. I think this will be turning up again soon. I am sorry to say that I have a photo of another version I did in monochrome colors with thinner floss but for some reason blogger keeps wanting to turn it sideways when I upload it. Why? I don't know. Blogger can be fussy like that don't you think? I'll try to tuck it in in edits another day when perhaps blogger is feeling more cooperative. Until then - try this stitch - you'll love it!