Bargello: Simple and Simply Beautiful!!!

This picture is from Liz Morrow's blog, and she's announcing that she has the patterns for sale - I'm getting in line to purchase them for myself! She says "for beginners" - but I would love to do them, and play with changing colors for different effects and looks.

Do go see them. (Click here) Sometimes, simplicity is the most effective - and these would be a pleasure to stitch. You could use simple fibers, or go nuts with really jazzy ones. Classic ornaments for any decor!!

The Four Faces of Bargello

Pattern, Color, Texture, and Focus: It occurred to me as I was working out these 4-way novelty pieces, that there are things we didn't have long ago when bargello was popular that really add a new dimension to the needlework.
Color we had in the beautiful Persian wools we used, but we had to rely on that and pattern alone for the surface interest - no variation in texture at all.

Variations in pattern only, and changes of color, held our attention, until Dorothy Kaestner's four-way Bargello began introducing conventionalized floral motifs, providing a focus.

Now, with the fun novelty threads available, the new dimension of surface texture may be considered. The yellow egg looks rather like swirled lemon icing, as I used several different shades of yellow in different fibers - from matte of the cotton floss to the very shiny YLI Ribbon Floss. In just turning it a bit, the light strkes these different surfaces in a most interesting way. The basketweave around the flower is the same thread (YLI Ribbon Floss) as the bargello at the top of the egg, but the light is broken up by basketweave, so that the long bargello stitches are light and shiny, and the center of the egg is darker with more texture. The beads on both eggs are like a bit of sugar sprinkles.

I get a bit obsessive playing with a new idea - and decided to make a round ornament the same diameter as the widest part of the egg, intending to use yet different colors later for new things. (and maybe different motifs in the centers)

Incidentally, the pink and green "spun sugar" egg is now available as an e-pattern on my web page.

Bargello as Art

I enjoyed bargello in the 70's, as it was popular then - but never really got "hooked" on it, as I was a painted canvas designer, and my stitching preferences were there also, with representational components rather than abstract. I did study and admire the old classic books by Elsa Williams and Dorothy Kaestner (4-way), and was fascinated with the patterns and color changes involved. Several years ago, I dug out those old books, but only to do a few small ornaments - most of which I have presented on "Freebies, etc."

It was when I received my advance copy of Needlepoint Now and saw Liz Morrow's gorgeous work on the cover that I went in search of her blog, (Jan Fitzpatrick of Thread Medley helped me with this) and found the most astonishingly beautiful bargello one can imagine! She literally uses this medium as an art form, and "paints" with her needle and thread what look like landscapes, as well as the traditional abstract patterns - and even these are different from the "norm."
These works could be classified, I think, as "Art Bargello."!! The stitch is in its true form, but with pattern and color arranged to evoke the feeling of the landscape where she lives and vacations.


Anyway, to see these things for yourself, go visit Lizart and see them in a lovely slide show she has presented, along with instructions how to enlarge each for closer study and enjoyment. There are other posts there also of her stitching, which is really quite beautiful and well done - I'm spending a lot of time there myself!! It's always a treat to find something really gorgeous that I've not seen before.

A Tutorial for Cotton Thread (the Bargello Egg)

During the 1970's, we worked Bargello usually on 14 mesh canvas with a full three-ply strand of Persian wool, and enjoyed making large items fast - like chair seats and bench covers. It was enjoyable too, in that it was "painting" on bare white canvas, and was very simple to do once the initial pattern was set up.

Now, with 18 mesh canvas availalbe, and lots of pretty novelty threads, it's quite entertaining to make smaller pieces that get no "wear" - like ornaments. I have, for several years, off and on played with these things, mostly interested in combining different surface textures for effect in the threads. I was looking at this egg this morning, and realized I had used nothing more than cotton threads - three different kinds - and a few synthetics.

I chose to use the cotton mainly because I like the effects, such as the ropy twist of the #3 Perle cotton used in upright stitches, with the floss making nice, smooth, flat stitches where I wanted color, but no texture.

The background for the flower is worked in basketweave with #5 perle cotton. I didn't want to use silk here, as silk, being an animal fiber, would have been slightly ivory, and would have appeared dirty against all that white Ribbon Floss. Cotton is white as it grows, and the animal fibers never bleach to total white. Also, I like, again, the texure of the slight "ropy" twist of the perle cotton on this piece - although I rarely use it for basketweave, preferring the look of floss.. You can see the effects in the close-up, as well as the pretty white Kreinik #032 ribbon.

Using the stranded floss is quite easy, although I have seen people struggle with it a bit, as the little plies want to come loose in the stitching. I solved this one many years ago, in annoyance, by simply making a slip knot up against the eye of the needle - and it doesn't go anywhere. I use a lot of cotton floss, as it lookes almost like silk and is much less expensive.

Anyway, to use floss this way, simply remove the little tags and open out the entire skein (be sure to remove all cats from the room first). Then put the two ends together, and fold the skein two more times. You will have a "string" about 38" long. Cut the loops at each end. If you are going to do basketweave on 18 mesh canvas, simply remove 2 plies, double this, (to make 4) and put the loop through the eye of your tapestry needle.

This might seem a bit long, but the cotton is sturdy, and doesn't fray and wear like wool or silk does. If you are doing basketweave on 13 mesh - or Bargello upright stitches on 18 mesh, you would remove 3 plies, double them, and thread the needle. (then you can put the remaining 3 plies together for the next "needle full") Pull the slip knot tightly up against the eye, and it will give you no difficulty going through the canvas. You will find that every little ply stays absolutely even and flat as you stitch - delightful!!

I'm using more and more cotton floss as I have made a point of trying to use what's in my stash, and have used up much of the silk. For the sake of economy, I am loving reverting to simple DMC or Anchor stranded cotton for these little ornaments. For larger, traditional and elegant pieces - I would, of course, return to using silk for both beauty, and for durability with wear.

The Subject is Bargello!!

One of the "percs" of writing a regular feature for Needlepoint Now is that I get advance copies - and what a delightful surprise, as this one arrived very very early. The day is freezing and gloomy again in Austin, so finding it in my mail box lit up my day! The cover is the most beautiful bargello I've seen in a long time - and the projects inside are, as well.

If you don't subscribe, and you love bargello, be sure to reserve a copy at your LNS for this issue - which should be "out" early in January.

and speaking of ------ I have a deadline now, so must get busy. I have a lot to live up to!!

The Bargello Finished!

I posted pictures of this on the other blog yesterday before it was finished - along with the instructions. Just a few more hours today completed the work, as it took very little time due to the long stitches.

This is a 4-way Bargello ornament, so was worked as a square with the corners cut off to make an octagon. However, as it was lying on my table, I realized that by turning it 45 degrees, it looked entirely different - great for an ornament with a tassel on the bottom!

The design is only 4" high and wide, so works up quickly - a good project for two easy afternoons or maybe while riding in a car to a holiday destination.

Beautiful Bargello in Metallics!

As promised - a look at Inge Wooley's bargello ornaments, which I have had filed away in a box for about two years, intending to get them out and see if I could dissect and re-do them just for fun. Two of them appear to be prepared for making a top for one of her zippered moire' jewel cases. Anyway, her work, as always, astonishes me. When I met her, she was knitting gorgeous Aran sweaters for the Neiman Marcus downtown Trophy Room - but within a year of that meeting, she was buying my Imari canvases for her shop - and we soon started Creative Needle together for production and marketing of these things. I got lucky, as I tell people - as she has maintained the quality of the canvas design and preparation for 37 years. We still get together from time to time, and totally enjoy time spent brainstorming and exchanging ideas, etc. I think we have both slowed down a bit, but as she says, "What else would we be doing?"



The first set of ornaments is two that were done in the "4-way" style, and are quite striking done in metallics in Christmas colors. The second set shows just the regular "straight across" style with the little motifs across the center. Great fun - and probably the first I will start with to see if I can figure out what she did (lots of counting here).


The third set is, again, the Florentine style done in the 4-way format, which means it turns at the 45 degree angles and changes directions. Dorothy Kaestner did a wonderful and fascinating book on this subject in the 70's. Finishing the show and tell with one more of each style - the one on the right being a simple, traditional style design. Hopefully I can finish my present tasks and get to the fun part - trying to figure out what she did, so I can stitch them in different fibers for a different effect! These, incidentally, were stitched before either of us discovered the Kreinik metallic ribbon - wonderful stuff, as it lies completely flat and covers well as upright stitches - much prettier than the braid.

Bargello and Beads and Stuff

I'm not quite down to the Jurassic level in the UFO's box, but I did find these today from the far distant past - probably about five years ago. I was speaking (by e-mail, of course) with Inge Wooley today of Creative Needle, and was reminded of the gorgeous bargello ornaments she was doing at about the same time - our minds still seem to work on a parallel even after all these years. I will dig those out tomorrow and show them. Anyway, this was, I think, about the time I discovered the world of colored metallic braids that Kreinik has - as all I had used before was the gold and silver. It was a whole new world. I was also re-discovering Bargello, and trying to remember how I did it 30 years ago. With this one, I just dug white threads out of the stash - several different kinds - and used them with different stitches for textural effect. It was an easy matter of just marking the horizontal and vertical centers of the circle, and starting in the center, as good bargello is when it's symmetric. (Those gorgeous old Elsa Williams flame stitch/Florentine patterns were different).

The next one is simply four motifs interlocked - a simple thing to do - and then the metallic braid Raised Spider Webs in the centers. The white backgrounds are stitched with my beading technique of stitching basketweave on the warp only, then filling in with beads on the weft. They look beaded solid!! The red and green stitches are made with Rainbow Gallery Frosty Rays.

If you click to enlarge both ornaments, you will notice that I make a row of tent stitch always all the way around the ornament - it makes it look neater, it finishes better, and is just more attractive. The red and green one also has two rows of basketweave around the outer edge so as not to lose any of the bargello stitching in the finishing. On the round one, the outline was stitched first, so that the bargello doesn't look ragged around the perimeter.

More Buried Treasure

Cleaning up a bit and going through boxes yesterday, I found more! This is an ornament that was done when I had started exploring bargello again several years ago - and also making ornaments with threads in my stash. This one began as just a simple sketch of a shape - and then laying the canvas over the inked drawing. After stitch counting with the drawing pen on one side, I duplicated it on the other to make the entire outline symmetric. Notice also that the outline is worked with tent stitch to eliminate messy places where the upright and other textured areas end.



I did mark the vertical centers, top and bottom, of the ornament on canvas as a point of departure for the design stitching - then just kind of "took off" stitching. The bottom part is worked with Rainbow Gallery Flair, which I really enjoy for this sort of thing. These are easy to create, as you might just mark bands across the shape and see what you can come up with as far as color and stitches. With beautiful fibers, it's not hard to make something wonderful and colorful. Actually, there isn't much bargello on this one - I got diverted!

This poor thing has been put away for a very long time - dates back to some of my first experiments with beads. It's a bit lumpy, etc. I think I probably abandoned it when I realized I should have marked the center top and bottom, and made the diagonal stitches go in different directions - making a 45 degree angle "V". If I can find the beads I was using, I may go ahead and finish it, as it is colorful!!! Again, I used the Flair for the checkerboard effect - and, of course, Kreinik metallic gold.

Bargello and 4-way Florentine

Looking back at things I stitched several years ago always seems to be a process of "evolutions," as one thing tends to lead to another - or in this case, recall things we did almost 40 years ago, before we had the wonderful novelty fibers for needlepoint - the shiny, sparkly, bright colored stuff. Starting with a small project for a friend who wanted something inexpensive to hand out as promotional "freebies" for her new shop, the ornament with the small heart in the center ( done in Caron Watercolours overdyed cotton and solid DMC perle cotton) led me to return to investigating the 4-way Bargello I used to enjoy. The Bargello was one of the first things I learned in the early 70's, in which a color pattern was stitched onto bare, white canvas - enchanting, as it was almost literally "painting with a needle." These small ornaments are stitched onto canvas with only a few marks for guidance, as I am lazy and don't like counting, and won't stitch from charts. Very very simple to do - and also inexpensive, as they don't involve painted canvases. ( I know several women who made these ornaments two-sided.) The blue and white one is mine, and the multi-color rendition was stitched by Janet Perry of Napa Needlepoint - wonderful and unusual colors she used on her version - and I am delighted to see someone use her own creativity and color choices on the designs. The threads I used were mostly things already in my stash - and if they weren't, it was a fine excuse to go shopping for more. As this work progressed, I added beads to a few, of course - and there were even some with silk ribbon flowers in the center. The white areas of the red one as well as the blue, could have been done also in bargello, but I like the look of basketweave incorporating glittering seed beads - the Sundance color 250H, which are clear crystal hexagonal beads for extra sparkle and iridescence.