Argyle Quilt – Queen

Quilters didn’t create the Bargello motif; it was first found in needlepoint embroidery, on the upholstered chairs from the Bargello palace in Florence, Italy, dating from the 17th century. With this origin, the pattern has variously been called the Bargello stitch and the Florentine stitch. It’s even called the Hungarian point, since there is evidence that Hungarian royalty, including Queen Maria Theresa, also practiced this art.

Traditionally, Bargello Quilt’s embroidery is sewn with wool thread on canvas, using mathematical patterns of stepped vertical stitches. Quilters adapted these patterns, sewing together long strips of material and cutting them crosswise to make lines of blocks, then offsetting the rows to each other. Cutting narrow strips and setting them in steep stair-steps creates the fiery, sharp points on the Bargello Flame quilts; cutting wide strips and placing them in gradual stair-steps produces the flowing waves of the Surf Song quilts.

By now, the Bargello Quilts pattern has morphed into many different variations–the criss-crossing weave of the Mystic Night pattern, the flowing hearts of the Love Within pattern, the interlocking diamonds of the Argyle pattern, and the joined hearts of the Linking Hearts pattern.