| Cathy's New Bargello Images Page |
Last updated /Links last verified 14 December 2012 |
Cathy Decker's Bargello Needlework Page |
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| New Bargello Images | |
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12/14/12 I started this in 2010 or 2011--I just finished it in December 2012. The cat clawed at it, and I had to do some repairs along the way. The center rose is from a bargello pattern while the rose in the corner is a longstitch version traced partially from a online photograph of a rose. The center square background is a simple diamond grid. The outer frame is an interlocking circle pattern, and the inner frame is a simple rippled line pattern. The frame inside the center square is another simple line pattern, one I created to be vaguely Florentine. This is worked in green rayon, Caron Collection threads, some Persian wool, and a very fine, thin wool dyed in multicolors. I wish I could get it professionally blocked. However, it's not badly out of wack, as I did it on a frame. |
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| Above is a picture of the bargello sampler I did in 2009. I framed it behind glass before taking pictures, so there are glare issues. This was so much fun. In the center is a bargello cat that I did to look like my cat Tommie, who passed in June 2010. This is all worked in Persian wool. I created the font for my name and the date myself, backing it with diamond flowers and plain diamonds, surrounded by a woven ribbon pattern with diamond centers. This features so many patterns. Behind the cat is a basketweave pattern. There are two huge interlocking borders with color variations in the backgrounds and centers. At the top corners are two twisted ribbon patterns, one loose and one tight. Interlocking circles are along the top left side, and a classic Florentine line repeat is done as a border on the right side of the top edge. There are seven basket or shell outlines filled in with Irises and a variety of background patterns, each done in a different Persian wool color family. Four pomograntes on the left are filled in different ways; the center right is ususally called hearts and diamonds while the center left is usually called circles and diamonds. The circle and diamond pomogrante looks like an owl head. Two plaid patterns are visisble, one with two flowers on it--although my husband says the flowers look like bats. There is quilt pattern in the upper left and a classic medallion pattern in the lower right. I designed the Macintosh-style rose located above the four pomograntes. In the top center is a classic pinacle or pine tree pattern with a 3D-rectangle edge above it. The pinwheel pattern in the top central right area is done to also have a 3D effect. Doing a sampler is so much fun because the many shifts in patterns and colors keeps the stitcher from getting bored. | |
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12/14/12 A simple four-way Bargello piece, done in several Persian yarn color families. This is a larger-size canvas, so it was a quick, fun sew. |
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12/14/12 Four-Way Pattern that I matted and framed in a square frame I had because I haven't found a new needlepoint shop to get this made into a pillow. I used a quilt star pattern that had been adopted for bargello, but I varied the sides to create a baby-block 3D effect. The outer part didn't come out well as I messed up the sides by putting the alternate colors on a corner instead of opposite each other. I hung this as diamond shape on my home office wall, rather than a square, so the outside colors being corner-oriented isn't as annoying. This was done in a combination of cotton Caron Collection thread and Persian wool yarn. |
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12/14/12 This is a four-way Bargello with a baby-block center in rust surrounded by a diamond border that comes right off of the baby blocks. There are two frames of diamonds and three frames of braids around the center. The colors are navy, rust, and yellows. This was worked in a combination of cotton Caron Collection thread and Persian wool yarn. I started with the outer braid--you can even tell what corner as that is the only perfect corner. |
 | 12/14/12 The image on the left is of the last pillow I had professionally blocked and made. It's a four-way rather simple bargello in classic blue Persian wools. I worked on this watching the Tour de France several summers ago. For the pillow I chose a box style with navy moire fabric and a trim of white lace that I bought at a fabric store. The pillow is huge, too big actually to be of much use. I intended to use it on my bed as a sort of pillow headboard (as I just have a mattress). However, it was impractical due to the cat sometimes liking to settle on my pillows. As a result, it just gets moved around and not used. |
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12/14/12 The image on the left is of a pillow I did in Persian wool color families. The central ovals and diamonds are colors in the plum family. The smaller ovals and diamonds are in wood rose colors in the oval and teals in the diamonds. The frame is gray, one of the plums, and one of the teals. It's not a mitered frame. The cat has also screwed up the pillow in at least two places. I can probably work on those and get them to look better. I had this pillow professionally blocked and made into a large double box pillow in a light purple velvet. |
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12/14/12 Four-way Bargello Pillow professionally blocked by the now out-of-business Enchanted Unicorn embroidery shop in Redlands, CA. I chose a double box style pillow of red velvet and had it edged with a gold, red, and green trim that I bought on Ebay. The pillow is four-way mitered one with a center box of a four-point gradiated blue star over simple frames. Most of the pillow is made with pearl cotton, usually not a good bargello yarn as it does not expand like wool over time to make sure the canvas is covered completely. Most of the pearl cotton is from the Caron Collection and variagated. Other is standard pearl cotton I picked up at Micheal's. However, I also used three yarns of dyed rayon I got in Lawrence, Kansas, on a trip. One is white, one green, and one a unique gold-pink variagated mix. The center frames are reds and the gold-pink rayon. Then I used the pomegrante pattern, filled in so that each half is a twisted ribbon. The four center pomegrants were all supposed to be filled in with the gold-pink rayon, but I screwed up on one and filled it with the green frames. The corner pomegrantes were left with open centers and done in matching color ribbons, either red-pink or gold-cream. At the base of each pomegrante is a blue diamond. Sadly my cat has done some damage over the years, but I've managed to fix most of the pulled out stitches. Note on this pillow from 3 July 2003: I worked what I call "my masterpiece" in 32-count cloth (32 stitches per inch). The pillow took well over a year because I worked it watching two different seasons of college football. I was upset when some of the rayon threads got messed up when the pillow was blocked. I bought a curved needle to try to repair the threads, but I haven't got around to it yet. Actually, now that I'm more "distant" from the pillow, I don't even notice the problem. I'd recommend avoiding rayon however. It looks lovely and has a great shine, but it pulls and doesn't have any staying power. If you want your work to last and keep looking good, the high quality cotton and wools seem to be the best. |
| 12/14/12 I think I started this pillow before 2002 or shortly after. I used chenielle yarn in a dark purple and in a variagated peach/rose/purple mix. I used ribbon in peach and gold in the corner diamonds. The other yarns are mostly peaches and purples of traditional Persian wool. In the border, I also used a rose tapestry wool. I had the pillow professionally blocked and backed with purple velvet. It looks a bit rough now--some of the canvas shows through, and the longstitch is not certainly not perfect. This was a variation of a Margaret Boyles pattern that she did in browns and aquas. |
14 January 2004: It's been a unproductive fall and winter for me bargello-wise. I still haven't added pictures of my "new" pillow described in the entry from 7/03. I have done a few new bookmarks. The reason I'm not getting bargello finished is that I'm working on a longstitch tapestry instead. | |
12/14/12: This is the longstitch tapestry mentioned above. It took seven years to finish, working on and off on it. It is based on the sense of sight tapestry, from the famous medieval series of tapestries featuring the Virgin and the Unicorn. This is worked mostly in Persian wool, although a few sections use some tapestry wool. The creases in the velvet resulted from upright storage of the finished piece for a year or two before my husband made the rod shown above from an exotic wood. | |
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14 January 2004: The bookmark above is a really simple patten of diamond shapes. In the very center I started working the old classic building blocks, but I found the down threads of the sides of the boxes seemed too long and looked likely to pull. As a result, I decided to just play with diamonds and simple borders between layers of diamonds. | |
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14 January 2004: This bookmark resulted from trying to follow a pattern and not succeeding well. There are a lot of weird differences between the top and bottom patterns as well as between the top and bottom parts of the side with the larger diamond. The use of the changing threads adds to the confusion. I think the pattern problems really don't matter because the whole thing is so confusing, it "works." | |
 12/14/12 Florentine Line Bargello Pillow |
12/14/12 Four-Way Pillow in the Carnation Pattern with a Florentine Stitch Border Details and Discussion below |
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| 3 July 2003: The two images above are partial scans
of a pillow I did a while ago. You get a hint of the total effect. It's
a four-way bargello of a carnation motif, with a simple line repeat of the
outer frame of the four carnations filling the center square. I had the
pillow made in the box style with black velvet. The border is a Hungarian
point or Florentine stitch border. The threads are variagated, my new obsession.
Well, when I wrote this page, I didn't guess that I wouldn't be updating it for a period of three years. However, I've had a weird and busy three years--moving, fulltime job, computer crashes, lost internet access, being offline for months at a time. I also sort of stalled in my bargello. I don't have a digital camera anymore, and rather pathetically all my husband's cameras are so complex I have difficulty figuring them out. We don't have any cameras for the mechanically challenged. I have a new scanner (still being set up), so there is hope for new images soon.
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