Originally Posted by
Tothill
Your quilt is beautiful.
When I make a quilt for myself, I do not give any thought at all to what other people may think.
I am curious about your quilt. I have never done a Bargello, but I thought they were done using strip piecing? It appears you have cut individual pieces.
No, they are strip pieced, but in some of the designs, the strips are then sort of subdivided to create the design. This pattern has 40 segments, each with 39 small pieces.
I started with 20 different shades of purple, and cut seven two inch strips of ten of the fabrics, and four two inch strips of the other ten. Those are sewn together from dark to light, making a eleven "strip sets." Each strip set is cut into various widths....from one inch to 2 1/2 inches. Then those are arranged in various orders, sometimes only using part of one sub-strip. Then those are sew together.
Well, my explanation has to be totally making no sense, but what is on my design wall is not 600 separate pieces that will be sewn together, but probably 200 pieces...most of which have already been sewn together. My next step was to sew all of the pieces together, making ...at this stage, which is the middle half of the quilt...20 strips that then need to be sewn together. Then I will create the next 20 strips and sew ten on each side of the center I have created.
It is not as hard as it sounds. After I had made my first Bargello, Surf Song by Eileen Wright, I knew I was hooked. Figuring it out was challenging, but her instructions were good. And a Bargello always makes me look like I am a better quilter than I am.
I think this is my 15th Bargello. Like I said, I am hooked.
Dina