Bargello needpoint pillows were this week’s big learning for me. If you don’t have the time to look for vintage, and you have a little dough re mi to play with, head straight for all the mid-mod Bargello needlepoint pillows available from Jonathan Adler. These pillows are bold punctuation marks to pull all of the colors in your room together. Adler has lots of oranges, teals and blues in this line, and a few “colors of the rainbow” designs. Unfortunately — no orange and danish modern mint for Rebecca… nor any orange and avocado for the fans of this classic 60/70s color combination. One tip: Vintage or new, be sure not to go all “square” look for rectangles like this, too, to add variety.
Bargello needlepoint pillows — perfect for mid-century interior designs 
Bargello needlepoint pillows on ebay 
Now that the snow has hit and thousands of us won’t be getting out of our pajamas anytime soon- can I suggest folks try bargello and needlepoint as a winter project? Lots of new and vintage kits available on ebay. It is very easy AND you can still see the TV screen through the canvas while you work on your project!
I find it best to masking-tape the edges of the canvas and thumbtack or staplegun it to a frame. It cuts down on mis-shaping the canvas and gives you something solid to hold onto. It is easy, relaxing and you get a great feeling of actually having DONE something after absorbing 4 episodes of “Law and Order”. Simple instructions are included with each piece, plus the wool and the needle. I think the Elsa Williams series are best-just remember not to pull too tightly.
A 3×5 hooked rug got me through the winter of 1999.
Braiding a wool rug might be another good project-lots of tips and instructions online.
One more thing…if any of you “kids” out there have any interest in these projects: I suggest you do them NOW.
In a very few years- you will not be able to SEE anything.
Really.
hmmmm, i think I’m sticking to the thrift stores and estate sales on that one.
MF, I have never ever said this blog was just about inexpensive stuff!
Mary-Frances-
I got an unopened kit of that Bargello Flame for 5 bucks at an estate sale a few months ago….Grandma’s tended to plan retirement, I guess.
The time to make it up will cost me nothing…and keep me off RetroRenovation…It’s a Win-Win, and I’ll have SAVED $140!
When will I learn not to jump on these chapters first off? Better to sum up at the end….
You can easily change the color of any of these kits, and achieve an avacado/orange scheme. There are many brands…but I use Elsa Williams TAPESTRY wool. They are pretty cheap, either on E-bay or sometimes you can still find a needlepoint store left over from the 1970′s. Buy about 5 or 6 skeins.
For anyone here in Western Mass, I go to The Creative Needle in Amherst. There is also one in Ludlow.
I love bargello, and those blue ones of his are gorgeous, but those prices are crazy, but nice to look at thanks Pam!
I would rather have vintage anyhow, good thing huh, hehe. I have found quite a few cute midcentury pillows on ebay and etsy, just takes time though to find what you want.
Yes, bargello would not be hard to do at all, I’ve done needlepoint, crochet and embroidery and that looks pretty easy, would be relaxing too, and a vintage kit would be fun! Good idea Gavin. The only thing is getting the time to do it, or making yourself do it, I still have to make the vintage 50′s tree skirt kit I got several months ago, oh well guess it’ll be ready next Christmas.
Wow, bargello memories are lighting the corners of my crafty 70s childhood mind… My mom did a lot of needlework and taught me how to stitch things like sunglass cases and tissue box covers – I never had enough patience for a full pillow. But your posts, Pam, have inspired me to give pillows another shot (cause I want some for my new pad). Two bargello books just purchased on amazon are on their way and I forsee quite a few winter evenings in front of the TV as Gavin suggests. Now I need to line up a pillow sewer!
“Bargello memories”… I like that, Troy. And “Crafty 70s” too. The young’uns on this site have no idea how crafty we old folks were. I was a girl scout. Doing crafts was arguably THE defining aspect of my childhood. I have to do a whole post on this sometime.
sand art… stone art… macrame… pot-holders… god’s eyes… basket weaving… tie dye… latch hook rugs… glued yarn art… PBN… decoupage… string art… shrinky dinks… lanyard braiding… terrariums… clothes-pin christmas tree ornaments… origami… shrunken apple heads… now I’m scaring even myself.
tole painting…
oh my, here we go. embroidery. that spinny thing where you dropped in paint to make abstract art. spirographics. creepy crawlers.
papier mache…
spin-art! good one, Pam!
sewing barbie clothes. knitting barbie clothes. and to build on papier mache: pinatas.
Beading looms, Whimsy Dip, a liquid plastic you’d dip twisted pieces of wire in to make flowers. Mod Podge. The Ronco Bottle Cutter and the Rhinestone and Stud Setter. wood burning kits, “antiquing kits”. Cutting metal cans into sharp strips and curling them into little chairs. Geez..it’s amazing I still have all my fingers. Oh and don’t forget crocheting granny squares for groovy vests.
oh my goodness – whimsy dip. i had that! i loved that. wood burning kits, too — the smell! i recognize pretty much EVERYTHING everyone has mentioned so far. Keep it comin’ this is so fun!
Am I dating myself by mentioning wreaths made from stapled IBM cards and sprayed gold?
Fun-Flowers/Creep-y Crawlers, a Univac and a dozen other crafty toys which could easily burn the house down or at the least harm a sibling?
batik…chains made out of folded gum wrappers
Hey kids…”Let’s make candles”…and ruin Ma’s cookware.
The playroom was a Danger Zone.
Leathercraft, Christmas trees made from folded readers digests,, “stained” glass with lead in a tube, layering colored sand in a jar, glass wax snowflakes on the windows. Paper tole, potholder looms and loops….
i recall a candle-making kit, candles of brown and orange in the shape of owls. this was a messy one…
stuff made out of milk cartons, egg cartons and how could we forget: popsicle sticks!
that reminded me of filling a milk carton with crushed ice with a wick in the center, filling it with hot wax, and when you take it out it was a lacy holey candle. The dough made from salt, flour and water and then you baked it, and the other clay made from white glue and white bread. I bet Jonathon Adler is stealing all these ideas. We’ll be seeing whimsy dip flowers for sale on his website soon. Anyone make a bleach bottle pig?
I now just came back to the blog from dinner, where I drank two glasses of wine. Bleach bottle pig! Jonathan Adler stealing all these ideas! BB, that is the funniest comment EVER!
Spool knitting and “stained glass” from waxed paper and crayon shavings (melted with an iron)!
Tissue paper “paintings” made by layering the tissue paper with fabric softener. I have a story about this one, also, that I will tell some time. Also from the 5th grade.
Oh! Oh! I got one! Hook rugs and Shrinky Dinks! And I had a kool car molding kit, where you plug it in and drop an ingot (in navy blue, harvest gold, green and orange of course) into a cup. You ran the race car mold thru the thing and the gears would dump the plastic into the mold….VIOLA! Instant race car LOL and I’ve still got it. My son uses it now!
Ah the crafty 70′s, boy do I miss that we loved doing all those things!
Remember those funky leather bracelets you would stamp a flower or something and your name in then color it and it snapped close? Ha my Hubby still has his. And all the cute holiday stuff my Mom made, oh wish I had them now.
Jewelry made from “gems” polished in a rock tumbler and held together with those cheap gold-colored prongs. This is a fun conversation! Pam, you should do another one sometime on “scents” of the 60s and 70s if you haven’t already (Love’s Baby Soft, Charlie, Enjoli…).