Originally Posted by
coffeebreak
Looks great. Any tips or suggestions you care to share? I am wanting a water theme..ocean waves specifically. I have 9 fabrics, but can't find a pattern that tells how many strips to cut of each size nor can I find one that tells how much to buy and cut for a twin size quilt. I hate to buy a book online cause I can't see much and if I spend $25 for the book and it doesn't have what I want...it is money wasted. I looked at JOannes, but they dont' have one about Bargello. I have watched Eleanor Burns QIAD and she says for a queen you need 24 fat quarters, but doesn't say if it is 24 diff fabrics, or 2 each of 12 diff fabs. Also doesn't say if the quilt is made a one unit...or multiple units, and if multiple...how do you end the one and start the other? I started withteh Around the World quilt and that is made in 2 halves sewn together in the middle, but I want the ocean waves to be all together flowing. Much like yours...
Every bargello is different, and the number of strips etc is going to depend on your pattern. But let me try to give you a rough estimate. As you said - strips will vary from 1.5 to 3.5 inches wide. Let's assume an average of 2". If your quilt is going to be 60x80 (wild guess at the size of a twin) and your pattern is wide, rather than tall, that would be 40 60" strips, cut at 2.5" each (approximately). That's about 3/4 yards of each of 9 fabrics.
For designing a bargello/figuring out strip widths - it is all about the curve you want. See diagram - if each - is 1", here's an example of a curve you could draw:
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(The dots are there because this board won't let me put spaces at the front of lines) Notice the narrow strips make steep, and the wider strips make shallow curves. So what I drew is 3", 2", 1", 1", 2", 3", 3" strips. The vertical stripes are usually all the same width, I think. Mine were, anyway.
So to assemble, you strip piece in the order you want your colours to go (make a 40" wide piece, composed of stripes of each of your 9 fabrics, each one 2" wide (cut 2.5")). Then cut the strips the various widths you want, and offset each strip one from the one before it, to get the slope. If you diagram it out, you could assemble in parts and still make it look like it was a single piece.
This is really hard to explain - I hope you can find a book that is helpful, because I don't know if I'm being a lot of help here.
Editted to add: Feel free to PM me, if I help further.