I am trying to follow the Bargello instructions and am so confused even with help from others. I am having a hard time making myself understood. I have never chain quilted. Is she telling me to sew the strips together at the ends only or sew down the strips lengthwise? See, I can't even get thru the first steps!

Ok, that's so frustrating, and one reason I've not started one yet myself.
But we have the best advisors on here, and someone will help!
You'll be going great pretty soon. Don't give up, help is on the way very soon!

Post some pictures to get it going.
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There is a tutorial in the virtual section that is really good. If you are just starting with your long strips, you just sew them the length of the strips. You are sewing the sections that you will later cut into smaller strips. When she says chain piecing all she is saying is that instead of sewing one and cutting it and starting again with the same one--you continue with the next two, and so on. Then when you are ready, cut these and continue sewing these in the order of your colors. I hope this makes sense, I am very visual and I want to pick it up and show you. Check out the tutorial though it is really good.

I guess the two and the next two is what is confusing. Why wouldn't you sew them together one after the other?

You probably have up to 20 fabrics. Sew strip 1 to strip 2. Sew strip 3 to strip 4 etc until you have all your strips in pairs.
Then sew 1&2 to 3&4 and 5&6 to 7&8 etc. until you have all your pair in groups of four. Continue until you have the strip sets done. Now you are ready to sub cut into strips of different widths.

Ganny, you can do this.
I would suggest keeping all the questions in the Bargello post you are working from. If you get to a point that you want me to keep my thoughts to myself you may tell me and I promise I will take no offense. I promise. :thumbup:
If Barb is not signed on when you have a question someone else who has made the pattern may be and they will be able to offer a suggestion.
On Edit:
You were also getting good information while I was typing my update.

I may be dense (obviously!) but what is the difference of just going 1, 2, 3, 4, etc?

Read through this page http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-41828-12.htm

I did go 1,2,3,4, making my quilt from the Swish pattern.
It worked out fine for me. To me, the important part was rotating the end I started seaming from.
Let us pretend you have put a sticky note on the top and bottom of each of your strips. The sticky note says 'Top'. The other sticky note says 'bottom'.
Sew strip 1 (top sticky note) to strip 2 (top sticky note).
Flip the quilt top, start seaming strip 3 (bottom sticky note) to strip 2 (bottom sticky note).
Flip the quilt top, start seaming strip 3 (top sticky note) to strip 4 (top sticky note). See where I am going with this?
If you start seaming at the top on each and everyone of your strip seams you will get (waves?) I will look it up and update again. (I can't find what I am looking for.)

The Bargello post is where I am getting so confused. This is bring me to tears because it makes me look so stupid. I think I will give it up. Can't make myself understood with my questions. Thanks anyway. No more questions, I promise.

I think maybe it is supposed to be faster, but do it the way you find easier to understand and then the next time you can try it a different way. You can do a 1, 2, 3, 4 if you want to.

Please do not say you are dense. We just haven't found the way to explain better.
Your goal at this point is just to sew all of your strips into strip sets. There is always more than one way to do things.

Thanks :cry:

We are your cheerleaders! We are here for you. Your questions are helping 100's of people learn. They are reading the posts thinking "I wondered about that!".
Just like your question of why to sew 1 to 2, 3 to 4, and then have to come back and sew 2 to 3 and 4 to 5. I thought the same thing you did. I sewed mine 1,2,3,4,5,6, etc. I had read that I needed to start seaming at opposite ends as I finished seaming each row together. So I did do that and everything worked out fine.

May I make a suggestion. Since you have not made one before, maybe try making the pattern from Quiltville:

http://www.quiltville.com/scrapbargello.shtml

It's not as intricate but I think once you do one, you will understand how to do the complicated ones. I participated in a block swap once using this pattern. I had to read through the instructions a couple of times then do one and then the light bulb came on!

I know exactly how you feel. Sometimes it takes several explanations before something clicks in the brain.

Hee hee, can't help as I have not done a Bargello quilt only needlepoint pillows and samplers and that would definitely not work here.

You will get some great help here. Find someone with a bargello pic for their avatar and PM them. Or go to SEARCH and type in bargello and you will get oodles of info. Good luck.

Some find it easier to handle the strips by sewing them into pairs, then the pairs into 4's, etc.

One reason behind this is to keep the sewn strips from becoming bowed. But there are ways to avoide this :wink:

PRESS, do not iron the strip's seams, press each area once, and never move your iron back and forth across them.

When you sew the strips together, alternate which end you start from. If you start sewing from the same end each time, the strip sets may start bowing.



The purpose of sewing the strips all together first, is to make a big "sheet of fabric"
Then you cut these sheets up into the correct sized strips to form your design.
Then when you cut out your strips from this, it is easy to cut them one inch or more. You will be cutting across the strips, so each cut will include each of the strips that you have sewn together.

You can cut the individual fabrics into small pieces and sew them end to end, but sometimes these pieces would end up being one inch wide and hard to handle. So someone came up with the idea of "strip piecing" them, to make the process go easier.

I was getting confused from your questions. Actually I think you do a piece of fabric out of the strips and cut apart and move them up and down tobe sewn back together. That's how I did my Christmas wall hangings in bargello.

Well, thanks everyone for your help. I think I am a little less confused once I got the answer to my one basic question. I am now making progress, I think. Thanks all.

I don't feel so bad I get confused on this too that's why I haven't started one.

I'm a picture person step by step to follow.

I think this video helps.


http://www.quilterstv.com/channel/video/264?item=4

I couldn't get it to play. Don't know much about that either!

Do you have a friend where you could go and watch this video? I was pleasantly surprised because I wasn't a real fan of the book. She has some really good tips that I appreciated.

The first bargello that I made I had to match seams. I really like the idea of 1/2 squares on top and bottom of every other strip. That would be oh so much faster. That was a duh moment for me.

I have a question though...When she says 15 or 18 stitches to an inch, would that be between 1.5 and 2 on some of the machines?

I just finished my first bargello wall hanging and was very surprised at how easy it really was, so don't give up Linda. I read the tute that was posted the other day on here and to be honest, it was very confusing to me. It would be way too easy to get them mixed up and then you'd have a huge mess! I had watched some videos and was still not sure what they were trying to say. Seems like there are several different ways to approach it. I finally found a pattern at e-patternscentral.com with directions that I could understand. I bought it for $4.99 and downloaded it instantly. Since I had never done one before I thought I'd just do part of it and see how it turned out. Here's a snap before I added the border and binding.

granny go on www.quilterstv.com and look for a lady named Billy she shows a how to make a simple bargello hope this help you granny

This is the same as the link that Lisa_wanna_b_quilter provided. It is a really good video, but Granny couldn't get it to play on her computer.

That was amazing! I could watch her all day and still be entranced!!!!! Loved it. Once I clicked on the link I didn't do anything else. I just waited for it to load and play. It took a little bit of time and I have dsl so if someone has dial up it may take longer but it is awesome!

Wow. That is really pretty. I am currently sewing panels together. I will see after that how it goes. Thanks. I will keep your info.