Background patterns on Ocean Waves

If you guessed that I actually finished Judy Souliotis’s Ocean Waves a few weeks ago, you’d be right. Several of the stitchers local to me have seen it already.

Since I’ve already moved on to other projects in “real time,” I’m unfortunately not going to describe this project enough to do it justice, but I’ll stretch it out for a couple posts. It was a big challenge, and I have to try to give all of you at least a flavor of what was involved!

Before I dig into the next area of the project though, let me take a step back and respond to some of the comments from the last post about the couched border.

• Thanks to all for the lovely compliments!
• Sandi informed us that the technique I used to turn the corner is called underside couching. Thanks, Sandi! I’m going to update that post with the correct terminology.
• Thanks also to Sandi and Sara Leigh for pointing out that 2010’s ANG Stitch of the Month project used this technique. If you want to try it out, visit ANG’s website!
• Elmsley Rose asked about a good source for couched borders. I’m sorry to say I don’t know of one. If any of you do have a book or website to recommend, please leave a comment.
• Sandi also asked what threads were used on the border. The laid threads are two strands of size 5 Japanese metallic in silver, gold, and red gold. Kreinik distributes the silver and gold Japanese metallic in multiple sizes. The black couching thread is a #4 Kreinik braid. And yes, Sandi, the entire project is in metallics, aside from the silk couching thread used to couch the center waves.

Anyway, on to the next section of the project. Inside the border are a variety of non-reversible blackwork patterns. It turns out I took a photo of the completion of the first pattern…

…but then I didn’t take another until all of the rest of the patterns were in place and the couched dividing bands between the patterns were put in!

All of the blackwork patterns are in various sizes and colors of Kreinik braid, and the dividing bands are each several rows of Japanese metallic, couched with the black Kreinik braid again.

On to the center – but that’s another post!