best, worked in three very distinct shades of blue.

The grotesque heads of animals, and the flowers and branches which break
the running pattern, and are a Chinese speciality, distinguish this
design from the more conventional patterns of the present day.

We recommend these two pretty patterns, to our readers notice, as
likewise adaptable by transposition, to centres, or by repetition, to
broad stripes. With very little trouble they can be converted, into a
variety of subjects, such as it is often difficult to find ready made,
and exactly suited to the purpose in hand.

BORDER IN GREEK STITCH WITH A FOOTING, COMPOSED OF BRANCHES (fig.
336).--This design can be worked in Greek, Slavonic, Montenegrin, or
plaited Algerian stitch. Our illustration worked in Greek stitch, shows
how one stitch encroaches upon another, and how the thread is carried
from one isolated stitch, to another.

[Illustration: FIG. 336. BORDER IN GREEK STITCH WITH A FOOTING, COMPOSED
OF BRANCHES.]

It will be found to be an improvement if the stitches are so made as to
follow the direction of the lines. The central subject may be repeated
two or three times, according to the width of border required. The
edging is the same throughout. The use of the 'Penelope mirror' for
repeating patterns is described in the concluding chapter of the book.

TABLE-COVER IN GOBELIN AND STROKE STITCH (figs. 337, 338, 339,
340).--This tasteful little table-cover provides excellent practice in
working two sided, square stitch. The square represented in fig. 339,
forms the middle of the cloth. The Gobelin stitches, set very closely,
unite and form a star in the centre of the principal subject. They begin
in the corners, in red and continue in green, violet and blue,
successively; the little branches in stroke stitch, on each side of the
Gobelin stitches, correspond with them in colour, and the small figures,
that form the border of the square, may be worked, indiscriminately, in
any of the colours used for the Gobelin stitches of the centre. Four
branches run inwards from the corners of the square, and four more
advance to meet, and pass them, from the inner angles of the wide
border. Four figures, copied from the outside border, fig. 339, and
worked in yellow, and the little star, fig. 337, besides the little
subjects, borrowed from the outside border, fig. 338, are strewn lightly
over the foundation, interspersed between the branches. In fig. 340,
nevertheless, wh