Blackwork Sampler update

So I've reached the end of the left side, and as I suspected, I had to rip the entire bottom edging stitch out, as it was 2 stitches too short. I have started putting the border on that line, and will re-edge both top and bottom of the border when that's done, then take a picture before I start the next step. Don't ask me what it is, I only know I'm going to be doing it in red. I'm thinking of some fill work, but I don't know. Maybe a line of butterflies all the way around, and fill the butterfly pattern in. I'm also thinking of putting my name in the middle, in single line work, but I'll have to find a nice letter pattern. I still have ALOT of linen to fill this thing up. It's acutally pretty crazy what I've tried to start. I always do this. *sigh*

My First Blackwork Project - Sampler

This is my first blackwork ever. I'm making a sampler on 28 count Monaco fabric.

I have masking taped the long edged to prevent fray and basted the top of the fabric to my scroll bars.

I am using DMC cotton embroidery floss. I thought that since this was going to be such a large project and since it is also a learning project, I didn't want to spend the money on expensive linen and silk thread. I'm saving that for a coif later.

I started by measuring out a margin. My thought here is to frame it when it's done, which also means I don't have to do everything in Holbein stitch. So far, this is all back stitch work.

Once I got the margin measured out, I put in a border stitch, all the way around. This was a mistake that I didn't realize I made until I completed the top row of the key pattern, and my border stitch was 1 stitch too far to the right. This created a "hole" in my key pattern in that corner. I can't just pull out that border, since the floss has already marked up the fabric, and it would leave that line there, and I don't have room for another key repetition to cover the line without throwing the whole symmetry and margins off.

So I have a hole in the top right corner.

I'm currently going down the sides, and I'm now dreading the ends of the lines. Depending on how far I'm off, I might be able to pull out the bottom margin stitch and put the key pattern on the old line. We'll see when I get there.