At long last.....

I am so pleased to have something to show you. This was the Tug O' War bargello stitched earlier this year and designed by the late Jean Hilton. I wanted to do something with it other than hang it on the wall, and several readers suggested I make it into a serving tray. Wonderful solution! After trying unsuccessfully for several weeks to find a ready made tray that would be suitable in color and size, I eventually took it to a local framer and had a custom tray made. This was also suggested by a reader.

The most challenging thing about the whole process was finding the handles. Having no luck here in the Denver area locating this type of hardware, I turned to the Internet and in the end needed to send away to this company located in WY that had an extensive selection of beautiful hardware for various needs. I was very pleased with the level of service and quality of the products which were made in England.

The framing included using plate glass to prevent accidental breakage and then being sealed in silicone to avoid damage from any leakage should the tray actually be used. Because of the smallish size, my intent for the tray was for decorative purposes only but now it can be safely used.

Another project I am very proud of has been framed and already sitting in place on the sofa table at my daughter's home. Deco Cat was stitched and intended to be made into a large decorative pillow at first. I had purchased all the fabric and trim and set out to turn it into a whimsical creation. After cutting everything out I began sewing and soon realized that this was not going to work out the way I wanted it to. The problem is that the cat design is so large and in order to accommodate two or three mitred fabric borders and fabric covered cord, the pillow would have had to be HUGE to balance with the stitched design. I was so disappointed but managed to take it apart without damaging the canvas and skulked down-trodden to the framers. The framer transformed deco cat into a wonderful work of art (This piece was a Mystery Class by Ruth Schmuff and I wanted it framed like hers!)

Oh, I almost forgot, meet Tahoe the inspiration for my version of deco cat, enjoying a relaxing afternoon with my daughter reading magazines and sharing the sofa.

Thank you for visiting the blog today, I've missed posting and look forward to resuming normalcy as life has been anything but normal lately. I have several new projects to share with you including getting started on a canvas from my Mindy's Needlepoint Factory visit.

Bargello on My Mind

Thank you all so much for your kind words of support; I am very appreciative you took the time to comment, it helped a great deal. As you all knew it would happen, the sun is shining again and things are getting back to normal. YAY!

I went back home on Sunday only to return to town on Monday night thanks to a predicted 12 additional inches of snow in the forecast and waaaaay below normal temperatures looming. I realized I would be stuck for several days if I didn't leave. Anyway this time I brought some stitching with me. I grabbed a bargello project that's been in the hopper for several months (years more likely) and have been stitching as if I were on vacation or something. Stopping only to come up for air and food.

I admired, okay coveted, this booklet of incredible bargello designs created by Jean Hilton, for a long while and found it (miraculously) for sale at one of my needlework chapter's tag sales. Score! I had seen the cover piece, "Down the Garden Path", finished once and had my sights set on doing it. Long ago I pulled threads for it only to later raid the "kit" a number of times leaving me short on what I needed. Most everything in the booklet is stitched in perle coton #3 and round metallics on 18 count canvas (lots of color choices on 18 ct).

I did, however, have almost everything kitted for another interesting design, "Tug O' War" which, because of Jean's thread and canvas color choices, seems to have a southwest flavor. I did some creative substituting (why else keep a stash closet half the size of a small bedroom), mounted the canvas and just began stitching. That was on Tuesday and here is where I am today. To me, there's not a lot to demonstrate here and maybe not even a lot of interesting chatter but let's not let that stop me.

While there are a number of wonderful books around on the topic of bargello, written by artists far more knowledgeable than I, for me it's pretty much establishing a pattern of long and short stitches, repeating it in graduating shades of color and voila an incredible piece of stitched art emerges.  The real talent lies in those professionals that design patterns and experiment with color variations; I just follow their lead.

Not so fast, it sounds a lot easier than it is, actually. Just when you think your only requirement is to methodically stitch along daydreaming, you suddenly realize, wait that doesn't match up. What's wrong now??? Miscount...typically. But for me it's usually I didn't study the pattern closely enough, if at all, and there was a subtle pattern adjustment that went unnoticed...until it was too late. Such is the case here, see the central part of the design? well it has a break in the colors. Oh sure it looks easy to spy now, but if you're cruising along bargello-style, you miss it and I did. Oh well, in the words of Porgy and Bess, "Wintertime and the ripping is easy."

As it turns out it is a good thing I have this positive feeling about ripping out because in my substitution of threads I crossed the line. Thinking it was the color that only counted in bargello I totally ignored that the texture of the threads counts every bit as much. In the full photo (notice the light blue and light peach next to it) of my unfinished piece you can see that instead of using perle coton (because I didn't have that color on hand) I chose to use a stranded silk. Huh? Well the colors were right but now that I see this nearing completion, frankly those silks stand out like sore thumbs. Perle coton has a delightful sheen and it's twist reflects texture adding to the overall beauty of the design. It's actually perfect for bargello, no laying of threads although you do have to make sure you keep dropping your threaded needle to prevent any extra twisting. So soon I'll be off to my LNS for the appropriate colors of perle. Clearly I should have actually read all of those aforementioned books on bargello instead of just looking at the pictures!

I think I would like to have this piece finished into a portfolio of sorts to carry larger pieces of my needlework projects. The finished design size is approximately 9.5"x10.5". As always, thank you for taking the time to visit today, I wish you hours of joy-filled stitching and am looking forward to next time!