Bargello; Erica; 104; Erica: Bargello

This is by Jenna. This beautiful stitching was done in Florence in the 16th century and it's a soft shading canvas with wool. The reason I'm wearing monocles is because of the rather extraordinary story that I grew up about it. There were five chairs who worked in that stitch in the bargello prison in Florence and it was so hot that the prisoners were taught to do this work while they were incarcerated in the jail. However it's rather an impossible story because they were only there when they were just about to be condemned to death. So the last final Oz would hardly have been spent doing such a peaceful sort of stitching. But it's terribly popular and really quite a fascinating kind of work. It's quick and effective and colorful. He has a blue cushion. Which is rather a different style. He has a yellow one which is done instead of straight rows across it's done like a kaleidoscope. Working

around all four sides and bringing everything together into a white star in the center. Of everything is geometric. This time this post has done in stripes which really makes rather a nice different look. Each of the palaces shaded from dark to light but this work was done by the New England sadness because he has a chip that was found in Weathersfield Connecticut and it was done in 1740. It's done in beautiful shades of blue and red with a soft brown background and the colors have hardly faded at all but just as the early settlers adored doing it today. Everybody is so busy stitching. I made myself a pair of boots. In flame stitch with reds and purples and a belt which looks completely different but it's still done in the same kind of stitching.

Straight up and down stitches each one overlapping the other one off with a. If you see this piece done on a number 10 canvass that means it's done with 10 threads to the inch. This is the same way that all the other pieces that I've just shown you were done and all the colors are graded just like this. The real. Very basic way to stop working is to make the main line go right across the middle that gives you a skeleton to work from so that it's relatively simple to follow it with all your beautiful gradations of color. And that's where you use your own originality and put your own design into it. But the first way to begin almost any piece of needlepoint canvas

anything at all is to take your eye off the canvas and crease it into fall making it scented. In the middle you see I crease the slide and then you can see or can you wear this mesh with welded. But anyway I can see it and I can stand my pencil right through the middle like this. Makes a marvelous noise as you draw it across the canvas. I think my crease was there but if you're not certain just found it again crease it. Open it up and draw the pencil across and then you have your central point. Then when you start your design you're bound to be balanced on either side so it won't fall off one side and have a lot of black canvas on the other. Now I've already done that to this piece. And I must explain to you that I've just told you that the number 10 canvas

was what all the other pieces were worked on. But this I'm going to do on a rag canvas which is coarse and both and very effective and most people will tell you can't possibly do by Jell-O on rug canvas because the right threads. Really might show between the woe afterwards and leave a white little ridge which would be ugly but it's not as you use a thick enough wool to cover it. You're perfectly safe and you can really experiment with marvelous designs now. I put the knot over here and I'm bringing the thread up in the middle. Then the thread that lies at the back will be locked in by my stitching as I cover the canvas and then I can cut the nut off. Come up and come out one two three four five six stitches. Then come Hoff way between. Three threads

away from the bottom and go up six again so each stitch is going to overlap the other. Half way and the stitches are just side by side. You needn't do six threads but you must have an even number four or eight so that each one overlaps and can be done half way. As I'm doing here now instead of going on up. Step by step I'm going to make two stitches side by side and. Three in a block. After a little while you get so used to doing it that you hardly have to come in to fill. If you just guess it. But if I can find my sis's I'll cut the nuts off and you'll see that just disappears and the thread is firmly held by the stitching over the top. Now I'm going to do four stitches and we're really getting

the design is beginning to show. You see how fast it grows. It's like eating peanuts you can't stop once you begin. The kettle will boil the children will murder each other but never mind. We must finish jello. Here we go. No I'm doing a block of three stitches and I'm beginning to decrease the number so that the pattern will take shape. Now two and back to one and so on. Because I'm working on this embroidery frame I can leave the threads hanging and start again on the other side so that I can get the pattern balanced because it's a good idea not to go too far in one direction until you have the other side worked. Then you can track your stitches across like this.

You see without having to come out and do just trace across from the other line. I'm very bad as a wrist magick actually and I do find sometimes I've got down to this koan and made a terrible mistake half at the top and there's nothing for it but to take the whole thing out. Look at that I wasn't watching I was looking at you instead. So you can slip it out quite easily by going back in the same hole with your needle. But if you have to take out a whole lot it's best to stretch the needle and just be patient and start all over again because there's no cheating in this work. You can't conceal your mistakes. Here we come to four threads. This skeleton that I'm making is going to be worked over the whole Countess before I fill in any of my colors and it's not much good trying to have a

conversation while you're doing it because you probably will make a mistake. So concentrate on this outline because then when you get to the filling in part it's plain sailing. You just follow your outlines. Hit the finished piece. At least it's half finished. And you see I've just outlined the whole skeleton first then went a round with light green dock a green brown dock a brown to black and finally filled in the tongue of this Jack in the pulpit design with very brilliant green so that it vibrates with the other greens that have more yellow. So this is the part you couldn't really enjoy because you just have to follow what went before all you see on this piece. I'm

using two threads a very fine rug will help I think I've made a mistake. No I haven't come up exactly in the same hoes of the previous row. The idea is to completely cover the canvas. That's why I'm using two threads a fine a rug and it seems to work out very nicely. But do be sure that they're not twisted sometimes as it lives down the threads may twist over one another. So stroke them. Gently with your needle just separate them and make them lie down flat. No I think I'm ready to take my next color and you can end off in the same way. Just bring us bread up. Leave it hanging on the top and the stitches that you do as you work down this line will

cover the spread and held it firmly in place. Now I'm going to start again. I think I'll start up here at the point and work done. There's a great big shaggy dog. And keep stitching away keeping this thread's very very close together. Oh yeah I'm getting into trouble with my not but I've already covered it so I can cast it safely. And your design is beginning to grow. You can do so many lovely things with this. For instance supposing I had taken all kinds of

shades of blue very closely shaded and then instead of green in here I had put Daka very dark red. So the whole thing would look then like twisted ribbons and give almost an up effect. It gives you a three dimensional quality which is really very exciting. You see I decided when I was going to do this piece that I'd make it into a throw pillow that you could just put on the floor and then I looked at the antique piano bench in our living room and decided it would make sense then attractive covering for it so even though it's so contemporary in feeling it does look very attractive on an antique piece of furniture. If I can get it on here you'll see.

With the shaggy pieces hanging down it may be a little difficult to naturalize But here is a finished piece. If I cover up this and you will see how very effective it can be the black really brings out the colors and sharpens them and accentuates them and then of course if you were going to do something like the boat again you would exactly in the same way keeping the stitches in ridges which in this main line through the center and then doing exactly what I did before with the stripes of color you know Mang and then you could fill in the whole thing. Done that but I hurt the bell so I've got to go. Too many stitches and too little too soon.