Vintage Bargello

I should really change this to the "Bargello Blog", since that's what I seem to post about most often. But look what I found at my fave Salvation Army today! For $1.25!!!

It's a "four-way" Bargello design, which I've been wanting to try. It's in great condition, with no funky smells and totally clean. There were a few pulled stitches which I repaired in 5 minutes, and it needed a new pillow form because the old one was completely flat. I can't believe how great the colors are, it fits in perfectly with all the ones I've made so far.

I also picked up this cute little pot. No marks but it looks sorta Scandinavian and I love grey pottery in general. All in all a great thrifting trip and not bad for $5 total!

New Bargello

I've been doing so much crafting for work that I haven't had a second to do anything for myself! It's good though, I'm happy as a clam coming up with new craft ideas every day. Anyway, here's the latest needlepoint pillow I finished a couple weeks ago. I bought several old books on bargello recently and this design is from one of them. I liked the result of leaving the top and bottom white, I think it keeps it more modern. Soon the house is going to be filled with these pillows, but they are so satisfying to work that I can't stop!

trying this again...

I tried to host this blog over on Wordpress, 'cause they had the name "Craftnik" available and I didn't have to add the "online" to the address. But I dunno, something funky was going on over there, or maybe it was me, or maybe the problem was that I use Safari, or a mac...anyway I came back to Blogger which is less customizable but waaay easier to deal with.

So here I am, and I'm ready to start posting all the cool stuff I've been working on. It's been a flurry of activity here at the Craftnik HQ, I've been crazy busy getting the book proposal put together. Who knows if anything will come of it, but it has certainly kept me busy during my current spell of unemployment. And I've felt so creative lately, which I am learning to accept in whatever form it takes these days.

So here's one of the latest projects, Bargello Pillows!



I'm seriously obsessed with this form of needlepoint, "Bargello". It's been around since the 17th century apparently, but I had never really paid any attention to it until I saw these gorgeous pillows at Jonathan Adler. Then I found an AMAZING cache of old but pristine Persian wool at a local craft store (more on that later) and I finally tried doing a Bargello pattern. And then another...and now another...



it's seriously addictive, I'm telling you. It does use a lot of yarn, though, so I'm quickly running through my supplies. Looks like I'll have to head over to the craft store and dig through their stock again soon!