Need Bargello help.
 

I am planning on making a Bargello quilt , but am having trouble picking fabrics. Do you think this fabric will work? It has multiple colors and I thought about adding solids or small prints with it in those colors. Or is it better to stay away from larger prints?
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I think it is too big of a print because usually bargello is based on shades of a color. If you look thru needlepoint, you will see where the design of Bargello came from. Very pretty print.

I have a few of these fabric prints, in different colors. I love them and am trying to find a quilt pattern to use them. Do you have any ideas for a pattern?

One hint I read for choosing fabric colors is to use the print as your inspiration piece, but you don't have to use the print itself within your quilt. You would have the colors you like for a bargello and leave out the print. If your print has the color dots in the selvage you can go use those. I like the colors in your print. Very soft and pretty. Just wanted to add that I have not made a bargello quilt, so no personal experience with the designing of one.

Couldn't you use the print to pick your colors, then border the Bargello with it?

Do you have any of Eileen Wright's books? She gives really good advice for picking out fabric for a Bargello. She does say to include one fabric you might think didn't belong, calls it a zinger. With the rest of your fabric selections going from light to dark, you could probably get away with this fabric.

Many of her patterns suggest 20 fabrics ....ten from one color group and ten from another, but each color group going from light to dark. You could sort of select two of those colors and then throw this fabric in as a zinger?

Let me see if I can find pictures of two of mine where I included a fabric that had a bigger print than I really thought I should use. In each case, it gave an interesting slant. These are sort of from a pattern called Serenity...though I changed them up a bit when I made them. (These two are not from Eileen Wright's books, though my favorite from her books is called Surf Song.)

Here is a free copy of the Serenity Bargello pattern:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7N...tyZlMyUXc/view

Here are two of my quilts, each with a zinger...though I only used one color family so my zinger isn't too different. Okay....I found three instead of two....:) But I like Bargello quilts. (I have made 12).

I hope some of this may give you some ideas about what you might want to do with your beautiful fabric!

Dina

I'd make a Trip Around the World with it. Each row a different color. I think it would look great.

I thought bargellos were made with solid looking colours in order to see the waves.

Your fabric would be a lovely inspiration for choosing colors for your quilt. However, I don't think this fabric would work because the colors in the strips would change and the 'stair stepping' in the rows would be broken and you would lose your pattern. That is truly a beautiful fabric. How about using it for binding and backing?

I had some bold, large prints and used them to make a shimmer quilt. I fussy cut them so I could move from one predominant color in the print across to another predominant color in the print.

It was one of the most time consuming quilts that I made, but I really enjoyed the process.