Bargello needlepoint’s popularity in mid-century America

…Basic bargello is stitching in a series of graduating hues, one color at a time, in a pattern of peaks and valleys, the width of a canvas. The next row uses a lighter of darker hue than the first, following the same pattern as the first color. Then a third, fourth, etc. hue. Some times the peaks and valleys are straight across (not very interesting) and some times the peaks and valleys are exaggerated (much more interesting). The yarn being used goes over more than one thread and is always linear, rather than stitching intersecting threads like in needlepoint.

Explanation of Bargello from a page of Elsa William' seminal 1967 book

Typing it out makes me realize that that must be the definition of bargello: linear stitches over more than one thread. In needlework on canvas (there are lots of different techniques) one never refers to the holes of the canvas, only the threads because the point of the stitching is to cover threads of the canvas. The holes are for the needle to go into. So when one sees a graph, the squares represent the threads – always.

I’ve only been able to find one of my completed pieces in the attic, which is a mass of boxes and other “stuff.” The one I found is flowers made in a pattern. I’ll send you a picture. There are a couple of small things that were never made up. The one I particularly wanted to find is a four-way bargello that looks like a kaleidoscope. No luck. It will turn up.The attachments (hope it’s not too many to send all at once!) show some of the things I did just because they were fun to do, with no idea of finishing them.

This is NOT bargello, Ashley says

The peach colored little “thing” is a sampler of stitches, not bargello but I called it that so all the files would be together and easy to find… I did a big sampler pillow in cream. It was beautiful but I don’t know what happened to it! If you have any questions I’d be happy to try to answer them. I haven’t done this kind of needlework in ages but I sure loved it as well as crewel embroidery.

Ashley

Pam, I am not an expert and lots of time has drifted away since doing all this canvas needlework but here goes… The stitch is sometimes also called the Florentine Stitch which technically is only the “peaks and valleys.” The highest interest in bargello was in the 1970s. I found it hard to use in any room but a formal room with the subtle colors there. I did stitch one for my mother-in-law in orange, yellow and white, in the flower pattern I send yesterday. It was perfect in a bedroom of theirs. When we divided things after their deaths, I left it for a yard sale. If I’d only known there would be new interest so soon…

I taught all kinds of needlework for several years through the Community College here so I was constantly doing something. I did a bargello tote-bag class once. Teaching, I had to keep up with all the new things because students stayed with me for so long. The colors were so garish (think: groovy, psychedelic, yellow/orange, flower children, etc.) but everyone loved them at the time. The bargello was the new “had-to-do” thing is the only way to explain it.

I always tell my girls that the worse something looks to us now (usually referring the clothes or hair in photos), the more in fashion it was at the time! Diagonal straight stitches over several threads are called Byzantine Stitch and there are many more, some of which got put under the bargello umbrella even though they aren’t really bargello. The books in my lap are dated:

• 1967, Elsa Williams, Bargello: Florentine Canvas Work. She was a leader in the craze for all needlework at that time.
• 1971, Barbara Snook, The craft of Florentine embroidery (The Scribner library. Emblem editions)
• 1972, Fischer and Lasker, Bargello Magic: How to Design Your Own
• 1974, Nancy Hall and Jean Riley, Bargello Borders
• And a couple of comprehensive books on needlework:
• Rose Wilder Lane, Woman’s Day Book of American Needlework with Slipcase Book of Patterns and Instructions for American Needlework (Two Volume Set)
  1st published in 1961 before the bargello craze.
• And Georgiana Brown Harbeson, American Needlework the History of Decorative Stitchery and Embroidery From the Late 16th to the 20th Century
  1st published in 1938

The Victorians were big into needlework of all kinds. They often used the bargello peaks and valleys stitched using with beads and basic needlepoint stitches together in the same work.
One’s imagination is often the only limiting factor to creativity. Thrift shops and yard sales would be a wonderful place to haunt to find the hot “new” item for ebay!

Ashley