Wallachian border (fig. [333]).—A piece of Wallachian needlework, executed on rough linen, and uncommon, both in colour and design, suggested the charming embroidery, here represented. In place of the somewhat violent colours, which indicate an undeveloped taste, we have substituted softer and more refined ones. All the stroke stitches of the middle stripe and of the two border stripes, top and bottom, as well as the darker portions of the small dice, subdivided into eight, in the bottom border, and of the small diagonal squares in the top border, worked in Gobelin stitch, are in red, colour 346. The setting of upright stroke stitches round the large centre figures, as well as the straight lines that divide these same figures into four, are worked in yellow, colour 680.
The squares and the half-squares are worked in colour 326, green 319, and gold thread; colour 326 is indicated in the illustration by the darkest shade, green 319, by the medium shade, and the gold thread by the lightest shade.
The stitches in the right bottom quarter and top left one, incline upwards from left to right, in the two other quarters they incline the contrary way. The Spanish half-stitch as shown in fig. [309], can only be done over 4 and 2 threads and worked one way, not to and fro.
The general effect is very much heightened by the introduction of one or two rows of stitches, worked in gold thread, into the straight lines on either side of the stripes; all the light parts of the design moreover, should be worked in gold thread.
Borders in several shades of one colour (figs. [334] and [335]). In some beautifully embroidered Chinese hangings, that latterly came under our notice, the principal subject was the figure of a mandarin, in a very richly decorated dress. The pretty pattern, given in fig. [334], was copied from the collar and cuffs of this dress. We should advise working it in several shades of pink or red, or in a single one of the colours indicated above.
