CREATIVE NEEDLEPOINT BORDERS

How to enhance needlepoint pieces with decorative borders. Wall's examples feature figure designs (trees, flowers) as well as geometric shapes, repeating patterns, and some especially attractive pulled-thread variations. Unlike most writers in this field, she recommends the use of a frame (to prevent ""mooning"" of the canvas) and also endorses embellishments such as beads or gold thread. In addition to the actual designs, she includes crucial advice on fitting borders to precise stitch counts, mitering, and mounting, and demonstrates how to simulate a fabric pattern on canvas. The diagrams of Barbara Eyre (who collaborated with Wall and others on Needlepoint: Design Your Own) are excellent, although ""Tenny's Herringbone,"" worked in eight colors, requires a good eye and a sense of the absurd. Adornment with an edge on the usual tent-stitch, contrasting-color trim.