Bargello Needlepoint

Located in a prestigious area of Wilmington, Delaware, The Jolly Needlewoman is a quaint needlepoint shop with colonial American charm. The shop looks like a home that was converted into a store; but when you enter it there are small intimate rooms with canvases, needlepoint accessories, and threads and fibers [...]

It has been said that there’s a little of the designer in everyone who stitches needlepoint or embroidery. Most stitchers like to use needlepoint to put their personal stamp on gifts, accessories and home décor items. The more needlepoint items you make, the more you may choose to design your own. If you’ve reached this point, here are two things to keep in mind [...]

Another name for Bargello needlepoint is “the long stitch” because of its simplicity and coverage over multiple canvas threads. This FREE Bargello needlepoint pattern by Su Mwamba of TangleCrafts showcases the long stitch extremely well. It’s called Bobbin Along and looks like a box of thread or bobbin spools [...]

Cut and snip…cut and snip; that’s the way it goes when stitching Bargello needlepoint. To avoid thread lint and fluff and to keep from making cutting mistakes, you need a quality pair of embroidery scissors with very fine points on both blades for trimming your Bargello needlepoint [...]

Bargello needlepoint is very therapeutic. Several years ago while recovering from major surgery, I took a weekly class on how to make hand-painted needlepoint designs come to life. Each participant selected a unique canvas, threads and embellishments. I chose a “cute camel” designed on 14-mesh needlepoint canvas (I think it was painted by Liz of Tapestry Tent; but I’m not sure) with a gorgeous Middle Eastern color scheme of dark blue, red, gold, brown, and green [...]

Looking for a custom hand-painted canvas from a photograph or an original idea? Two The Point Needlearts in Overland Park, Kansas is the shop for you! They can provide you with designers who paint custom monograms, initials, your favorite sports team, college or even high school. If none of these is your cup of tea, just let them know what you’d like to have painted and you will be connected with someone who can provide the service. I bet that if you have a picture of your house or favorite pet, they could have it hand-painted on needlepoint canvas [...]

Because I love collecting gadgets, from time to time I come across ones that not only fit their intended purpose, but can be used to make the life of a Bargello needlepointer easy and stress-free. These Mini Flexible Pinch Bowls are such gadgets [...]

This article is from my French friend and fellow Bargello needlepoint stitcher, Odile Berget. Odile writes that she discovered a Bargello fabric in a very small museum in La Chapelle des Marais – France (South of Brittany). This village is in a Natural Park of a marsh region with thatched houses and saltern places [...]

This FREE needlepoint design by Laura J. Perin was originally designed for Blackwork, a form of counted-thread embroidery that is usually stitched with black thread on evenweave ground fabric. Since the pattern for this design comes with a template drawing which [...]

One of the best gifts I’ve ever received from my husband was a scissors sharpener. He knows that I love gadgets and figured that I would appreciate being able to sharpen my own embroidery scissors instead of getting them done professionally. He was right! Over the years I’ve invested in a dozen or more pairs of embroidery and sewing scissors and have taken particular care with keeping them sharp. You can imagine that it gets quite expensive. Here was his solution…Fiskars Scissors Sharpener.

I always use some form of magnification when stitching Bargello needlepoint. One of my favorite tools is this magnifying lamp because of the ease with which you can turn, bend and adjust as needed for stitching. It’s great for those bargello projects stitched on congress cloth or fine linen and the circular bulb lasts a long time.

When I lived in Connecticut, my local needlepoint shop was Next Station Needlepoint. It gets its name from the busy New Canaan to New York City commuter train station around the corner [...]

Christmas ornaments can be finished in a variety of ways using plain to ornate backing fabrics that enhance the stitched designs. Fabric backing should match your stitched needlepoint ornaments. You can use almost any light to medium weight fabric with a light stretch in order to get smooth coverage and a professional finish. Heavy weight drapery and upholstery fabric should be avoided because they make final assembly difficult and bulky [...]