When Lolly Werner said she wanted to needlepoint a large "pouff" (or ottoman) for her bathroom we were really challanged to design something that would look good in the round and viewed from above.
She wanted fish, so after some research we decided to do a tropical motif that included not only fish, but a variety of sea life. The painted canvas ( on the Custom Design page of our website) would make a marine biologist cringe, as we used fish, shells, and plants from a variety of oceans. However, the goal was to make it colorful and interesting so we included anything that looked good.

Lolly stitched the fish and sea life in basketweave (and got to use a lot of her fiber stash!), and then was left with a huge expanse of background. Since this was such a large piece (30" in diameter), more basketweave would have been boring , but she needed to use a stitch that would also be durable.

To solve the problem we divided the canvas into quadrants and found a four-way Bargello pattern that simulated waves. The result looked perfect and she finished in record time.

Eric, the upholsterer, then built the ottoman using Lolly's choices of fabric and beaded trim. She loved the way this turned out, and we think it's absolutely smashing!!!