x7lillies

I saw a pattern like this in a friend's quilting magazine. It was called paint by numbers, but the pattern was for a much smaller quilt, like a moderately-sized wall hanging. After reading up on bargellos, I knew I didn't want to try one of the twist and turn ones for my first attempt, so I adapted the paint by numbers quilt to be large.

If anyone wants to try, it's very simple. You need 29 strips of fabric for one row (they can be all different or you can repeat some). The strips are 3" wide plus seam allowance (I use a 3/8" seam on my large quilts since they'll be pulled and used a lot - that made my strips 3.75" wide). Stitch them all together lengthwise, and then stitch the ends together to make a hoop of fabric. Collapse the fabric hoop in half, then cut strips perpendicular to the seams you just made. This quilt needs 21 rows cut at 3" (plus seam allowance) and 16 rows cut at 1.5" (plus seam allowance). Now you end up with many many fabric "belts". To start, choose a color from one of the 3" belts and rip the seam next to it. Rip one seam over on the next fabric belt, and sew them right sides together. Next, rip the seam one after the previous rip (you're making the colors move over one spot every time). Of course you should be pressing the seams since the beginning, and continue when you're putting it together. Continue until you have 7 rows of 3" x 3" squares. Then switch to the skinny fabric belts, but continue the seam ripping progression. Do 8 rows of the 1.5" x 3" squares. Now go back to the fat belts, and do 7 more rows, then 8 of the skinny, and finally 7 last rows of the fat belts. If you add a 3" (plus seam allowance) border, you'll have a 90" x 90" quilt!

Make sure you're matching all the block edges when you're sewing the strips together. If you start getting off by little bits, you'll end up with uneven columns and you'll loose the bargello effect