Stitching the Easy Bargello Landscape – Part II

Updated December 23, 202.2.

Now that you have picked your threads and drawn the lines on your canvas, it’s time to start stitching your landscape.

This is Bargello so all the stitches will be straight stitches going over more than three threads. Because we chose not to draw the lines parallel, it’s rare that two threads will share a step. Although two stitches might be even at one end, they rarely, if ever, will be even at the other end.

If you click on the picture above, you’ll get a full-size picture that shows what I mean.

A Bargello stitch is made by coming out of the canvas at one end of the stitch, going to the mark on the canvas where that color ends, and bringing your needle back into the canvas. That’s it — you’ve made a Bargello Stitch.

To get the “thick” look of these stitches and to ensure the best coverage for your threads when stitching Bargello, always take the longest route from the end of one stitch to the beginning of another. When a line is moving up a slope, stitch from top to bottom. When the line is moving down, go from bottom to top.

Do not begin by stitching the bottom areas, the triangles. Begin stitching with the first zig-zag row that goes all the way across. For my landscape, this was the darkest green. Continue, stitching each zig-zag line until you get to the sky.

At this point, go back and stitch the triangle areas at the bottom. You should make these stitches in the same kind of random-width zig-zag used so far, unless you are making a field of flowers.

If you are making flowers, stitch your flowers, using many colors of thread, as Tent Stitches, scattered densely throughout the area After you are happy with the number of flowers, go through with your green thread and make several Diagonal Gobelin Stitches over two threads. Make a very few more over three threads. Fill in the rest with Basketweave or Continental. This is called Irregular Continental. Combined with the flowers, this stitch will give your fields a texture that is in keeping with the mountains (just plain old Tent won’t do this).

Your final decision is about the sky. You can stitch it in more rows of random zig-zags. I really liked the way the lovely Planet Earth Silk I used for the snow had such a nice thick and shiny look. Another high stitch, i.e. more Bargello, would not highlight this.

Instead, I decided to use a more flat stitch, so the contrast would be preserved. Nothing is better than Pattern Darning for creating a flat-stitched look.

The sky will be stitched in the simple darning pattern above.

Simple, but effective, this project makes a great landscape.