| Cathy's New Bargello Images Page |
Last updated/links verified 14 January 2004 |
|
|
Visitors Since 9 June 1999 |
Cathy Decker's Bargello Needlework Page | Email Cathy Decker |
 |
1/14/04
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 7/3 below. I have done a few new bookmarks, which I will add here. The reason I'm not getting bargello finished is that I'm working on a longstitch tapestry instead.
This 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.
This book mark 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."
7/3/03
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 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. 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.
This is a old image of four of my pillows on a chair. Anyone obsessed with
bargello acquires lots of heaps like this.
| New Bargello Images | |
 | |
 |
|
| 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.
The book marks, below, are all done on ready- made 18-count Charles Craft Aida Cloth. These were all stiched with Caron Collection handpainted threads. I used 1-ply of the pima cotton Watercolors. | |
 | |
|
This is a pattern called "Spanish Tiles," a variation on various pinwheel/flower/diamond multiple four-way patterns. Each "tile" (or pinwheel or diamond, whatever) is the center of a four-way pattern that blurs into the next four-way section of the canvas. This is a hard one and not a good idea for a first pattern to try. I used variagated pearl cotton, which unfortunately this scan doesn't reveal too well. The pinks blur into maroons and greens--all rose bush shades. This is also on the Four-way Pattersn page. | |
 | |
| This is a very simple line pattern put on a small bookmark. I used variagated thread in increasingly darker shades of green to add more interest to the very simple pattern. I was thinking of trying to add little apple shapes in red, to suggest fruit or flowers, but decided part of the power of this is its extreme simplicity. Unfortunately on the scan, the shimmer and brightness of the pearl cotton is dimmed. This is also on the Line Patterns Page. | |
 | |
| This is a detail of the center of one of my newest bargello pillows. It was done on Aida cloth with Caron Collection threads, both Watercolors and some Waterlilies. The Waterlilies drove me mad, so I got the same colors in Watercolors. The only thing that stayed the same was the bands of green--I varied the other lines of the pattern as my mood changed. The result is probably not as powerful as it would have been if I had a single artistic vision to which I had stuck. The pillow is squarish and backed in green velvet. I had it professionally blocked and backed in a "double box welt." It cost a small fortune to back (eighty to ninety dollars), but if you take the time to sew on a frame and use very expensive cloth and threads, what else is new--you aren't going to mess it up by trying to block it and back it yourself. This is also on the Florentine Patterns Page. |
 |