I have been working on a round bargello quilt since last March. I used a template and borders to make it queen + bed size. I moved the furniture and laid it out on my living room floor layering it into the quilt sandwich yesterday. I used tons of quliters safety pins to put it together. My thought is to hand quilt the round center....and machine quilt the rest. Has anyone done this and do you have any tips?

I'm still very new to quilting and this was a overly ambitious project..although I've learned a lot from it. I don't want to end up with wrinkles on the back . Any thoughts, suggestions, etc. would be appreciated.

Happy New Year to you all.

brenda,
i would sure love to see a picture of your quilt. sounds amazing.
i am not the best one to give quilting advice but when you were describing how you want to quilt it i was picturing the process. seems like you might want to check the back fairly often and plan to repin as needed to avoid wrinkles.
others are much more experienced with the quilting part than i. i'm sure you will get some good advice here.

Combining hand and machine quilting? Sure, I do it all the time. Boring, straight ditch stitching gets machined, and then I get to the fun stuff once the quilt is stable. I'm sure there are some who would do it opposite. Whatever works!

Sounds pretty!

Sure! Just try to keep the overall density that same - if you quilt closely in one area, do the same over the rest of it. Quilting causes a quilt to shrink up - the more you quilt, the more it puckers. This is not a problem unless you quilt heavily in one area and not so much in another.

Thanks for the advice. Now that I'm this far, I'm "waiting for inspiration" on how I want/need to hand quilt the round center. My husband has offered to build a frame for my quilt hoop to make it a little easier to handle....this thing is big.

I'm wondering if I should try to baste it with stitches so that it is more stable when I move the pins around???? I really am a newby........

I'll try to post a picture in the near future. (I don't know how to do it so will have to go back in the archives to get directions.)

Thanks.... It was a pretty crazy thing for a brand new quilter to start...I had no idea what I was getting into. I'm really proud of the way it looks. I will do my best to figure out how to post a picture.

Actually, we'd like to see a picture now AND when it is quilted :D :D :D

A round bargello? I'm drooling! I've done several bargellos but haven't tried a round one before.

I mix hand and machine quilting all the time. However, I think before I would ever consider hand quilting a bargello, it would first have to be a quilt I plan to keep as an heirloom quilt. If you are like me and your pieces are all between a quarter inch and two and a half inches, I would suggest you machine quilt it and save yourself a lot of frustration and sore fingers. If you have make a bargello with the larger pieces, you may have more seams than a normal quilt but it should still be possible to hand quilt it. That said, my best advice is to go with what you will be happy with.

I'm with the other ladies. I can't wait to see a picture!!
~Tiffany

Just a thought here, but if you are going to hand quilt, I think I would save myself the weight of the safety pins and thread baste. If you are using a lap hoop and the quilt is really big, those pins add a lot of weight.

If you are new to hand quilting, make sure your quilt isn't tight as a drum in your hoop. You need enough give so that you can rock your needle without breaking or bending it. I usually push the center down with my hand before the outer hoop goes on to make sure that its flexible.

I taught myself to hand quilt and that was one tip I wish someone gave me right off. I bent and broke so many needles that it wasn't funny.

Good luck, Helen

I'm with thread basting, too - when using a frame, safety pins seem to get in the way.

I hate basting. I think that is the one part of quilting that just bogs me down. I'm good with making the top, with quilting, and even love doing bindings, but sandwhiching and basting - blech! One thing I will do occasionally is use the water soluble thread to thread baste. It's wonderful in that you don't have to worry about removing it as you are quilting since it disappears when you block your quilt after the quilting process. It is a tad pricey, which is why I don't do it with all my projects. Still, it is very helpful, especially if you are working on a deadline and need to finish up quick.
~Tiffany

Have you tried the spray basting? I bought a can of it to try, but as yet haven't tried it. I know one quilter who uses it and swears by it.

M

i use spray basting on practically everything. i sometimes add a bit of pin basting to that, but i probably don't need to.

i'm with tiffany. i have tops that have been done for more than a year but are gathering dust because i can only motivate myself once in a while to do the sandwich/baste part. when i'm in the mood, it do everything that's been waiting before i lose the urge again. LOL

Yes, I tried the spray basting on a smaller quilt and it worked well....I did it in the clubhouse in our community rec room. The next time I used it I used it in my living room. I had sticky spray residue everywhere...on the kitchen floor, the blinds, cabinets, etc. I'm not anxious to repeat the clean-up.

Since we live in FL in the winter, I actually thought about scrubbing the patio and trying to lay it out, out there. Then I decided that would not be real comfortable crawling around on the cement....with age comes wisdom...sometimes. :lol:

I'm new at everything quilting but do truly enjoy handquilting. Thanks for the tips.

I think I will try some thread basting to stablize it ...you are right this thing weighs a ton. I must have hundreds of pins in it.

You are right about the handquilting...it will be a challenge because of the small pieces..... BUT this one is going to be mine and hopefully a family heirloom after I'm gone. I am not in a rush ...it will be my reward to work on it after I get other things accomplished. My kitty Annie is very excited about "helping" me with it.

I'll work on figuring out how to post a picture. You all are so helpful and are getting me really motivated.

THANKS A BUNCH!!!!!

Hi M. Yes, I do spray baste. I find it is wonderful for smaller projects but takes a bit of work with the larger king-sized quilts. I do find that my fabric, especially from the back, will shift on me if the piece is too large and I am hand quilting. I ususally spray baste and then add some pins to make sure nothing shifts when I'm machine quilting. For the larger hand quilted tops I put them off until assailed by guilt (or I need to get it finished for a deadline) and then I hand baste it.
~Tiffany

I am an avid quilt spray user. I like using cheap flannel backed tablecloths as my "drop cloth". When they get too sticky I toss and get a new one--often find them for a dollar or two. Just have the tablecloth a few inches larger than the piece you are working on. The other thing I've learned with practice is that it does not take as much spray as one might think. I spray lightly and if it needs another squirt to stick well, then just do the small area that didn't stick as well as I wanted it to.

Hand quilting with sewn basting goes alot smoother for me. When it's pin basted you have to be so careful placing the hoop that you don't stretch or rip the fabric where the pins are. Moving the pins as you quilt might shift the quilt sandwich enough to get wrinkles in the backing wouldn't it?

I lap quilt and don't use a hoop so the pins aren't such an issue for me. I know when I have used a frame the pins are a problem and that's when thread basting is important. It is still my least favorite part of the entire quilting process! :P
~Tiffany

Brenda's Round Bargell Quilt - queen+ size

Here is a picture of my Round Bargello Quilt...with pins in all their glory.

The border doesn't show up very well but is like an ice cream cone shape with the center colors in random order.

I haven't started the thread basting yet.

Wow! Brenda that is spectacular! I have made a few bargellos and am ready to branch out into the more difficult and unusual ones. Where did you get the pattern for your quilt? I agree with Loretta, I can't stop looking at it. And your borders showed up well enough for me to drool over the picture. :lol:
~Tiffany

Thanks, it was worth all the work & rework and a few tears of frustration along the way.

The pattern is in Quilts Without Corners by Cheryl Phillips. It has a number of lovely and unique round quilt patterns in it. I purchased a 9 degree wedge ruler that I found it on the internet at a reasonable price.

Thanks for the compliments. It's faaaaaar from perfect but I'm learning that it doesn't have to be.

Thanks Brenda! I've added the book to my list. I've heard of the book but never seen it and always wondered what the quilts inside looked like. I'm very impressed with yours and am eager now to see the book in person!

Sadly, I demand perfection from myself when quilting and 'good enough' normally isn't something I allow myself. That's not to say I'm the perfect quilter. Bwa ha ha hahahahah! No, far from it. I just can't seem to subscribe to the theory that many quilters have, which is if you can't see it from ten feet away and walking past it, then it doesn't matter. I cringe when I hear that and at the same time I am glad for people out there who are so relaxed and comfortable with themselves and their work that they 'don't stress it.' I have many friends who feel this way and they help balance me. Still, I will pick out mistakes every time I make one. For me, progress is that I have made a rule for myself. If I pick it out three times and it still doesn't work, 90% of the time I will stop and either leave it as it is or toss it into the scrap pile and move on.
~Tiffany

Your quilt is just beautiful. I love bargello's but haven't worked up the nerve to tackle one yet. They really appeal to my left and right brains both :D ! I love the geometry involved and the creativity. Can't wait to see it quilted!

BJ, don't let the look of the bargello intimidate you. It really is an easy pattern. Oh, not the round one she made, but the normal ones with only the straight lines are quite simple really. Mostly it is simply sewing strips of fabric together, cutting them into strips, sew these strips together with one offset from the other...what is tedious can be all the sewing and pinning. I'm a pinner! I think you'll really enjoy this technique. :D
~Tiffany

Brenda,
Your quilt is beautiful! I agree with the others who recommend basting versus pins. Two reasons:
1. You have to keep removing or moving the pins to fit in the frame.
2. I have better luck with the layers staying put with basting.
There is a short free video on Sharon Schamber's website that gives an unusual method for basting. I haven't used it yet but I'm going to on the quilt I have under construction now ( that would be one of the quilts I have in progress right now!) Wishing you wonderful quilting!
The address is:

http://sharonschambernetwork.com/media/free/index.html#

I'm a newbie also but had been told that I had to thread baste to hand quilt and that I had to pin baste when machine quilting. I'm hearing something kinda different here. What is correct...not that there are any quilt police..LOL

joannl, that is an interesting video...would you try to baste between where you might quilt (machine) in the ditch, then cut the basting threads to finish machine quilting?

Sandpat,
Good question! In the past I have basted top to bottom left to right, then a big x- corner to corner. Most of my quilts are hand quilted but I have used the same basting method & really haven't had any problem removing my basting threads. Sometimes I've had to cut close to the machine quilting then pull the basting threads out but the machine quilting I've done has all been 'in the ditch'.
Sorry this isn't more definitive.

Thank you for the information on the video. I will watch it today. It couldn't have come at a better time :)

I started the thread basting last night....but I don't know what I'm doing and it wasn't going well. I ripped it out and told my husband "I think I'd better get some help before I do a lot of work that I'll have to do over again."

You ladies are so great! I appreciate your support.