Starting 4th Bargello
 

Okay, I am addicted to this Bargello stuff, and I am sitting here looking at my design wall, overwhelmed by all my choices and the many times I have changed my mind. I started the day with my decisions made, created my fabric map, and cut my fabric..

Since then I have changed my mind, over and over. I think I am satisfied now, but I am leaving it until tomorrow, just in case. (I have, at least, mastered the art of determining the value of fabrics by taking a picture and then looking at the picture in black and white. I have also made the decision that I like the fact that three of my fabrics are very close in value. I want to see if I can make this yellow glow. ...so I guess I have also mastered the art of ignoring the values, huh?)

If I stay with this current plan, I will need to cut about six more fabrics, make a new fabric chart, and mess up my neat stacks of fabric that I have carefully stored in order, removing those I have decided against. It is a good thing I have a lot of those garage sale tag sticky tab things.

My question is....this is normal, right? Right???? Changing it all is normal?

Dina

(Okay, just in case you want to see where I currently am, let me see if I can find my most recent pictures. This will be a blue and yellow Surf Song, or sort of. In the picture of yellows, ignore the ones after the 7. Those have been removed from my current plan, they are just reluctant to leave the design wall, as they feel left out!)

wow awesome,,,i haven't made one yet and I need a lot of colors for something like this. please show us as you go along.

pretty yellows. I have a hard time finding yellows that I like.

I think you are right on the money!!

Looking good so far!

I can't wait to see the quilt! I am still trying to pick fabrics--keep "tweeking" my stack and letting it sit. This is much harder than selecting fabrics for a regular blocked quilt!!!

That looks wonderful, looking forward to seeing more!!

You did great picking fabrics and getting them in a nice "run" of color. Can't wait to see this one in progress again.

Thanks for the kind words. Fabric selection doesn't come easily for me, but it is even trickier when I am doing a Bargello. I have done three since the end of Nov. though, so I keep thinking it might get easier. Not yet. Two were small....a placemat in purples and a wall hanging in earth tones. The Surf Song I made was blue and purple, and then this "sort of Surf Song"...I am trying to enlarge it from 50 inches square to 60 inches square. Not sure how my plan will work, but I know that blue and yellow usually look good together. Hope they will here.

I really hope that when I get up tomorrow this will all look just perfect to me and I will rearrange my fabric map and remove fabric I have rejected from my neat organized stacks. :)

Dina

great colors

Your yellows look wonderful!(My favorite color) Very interesting that you are enlarging size. How will that work? Please post more as you go along! I love the Surf Song pattern!

You've done a terrific job. The eye just moves easily from light to dark, not pausing on the way for a color that 'sticks out'. Please post more pics as you go along!

Dina, you are on the right course. I have told many quilters to lay out strips of fabric on a design wall and look at it many times a day. I even ripped out a fabric that once cut, was NOT working well. I do like your colors but I am slightly worried about that screaming yellow. If it doesn't bother you. then go for it. When you put so much effort into a Bargello, you don't want to make a mistake. I am starting to pull fabric to work on one Eileen Wright's quilt from her new book More Twist and Turn Bargello quilts. Good Luck and look forward to photos of the progress of this quilt.

I love these colors! It's going to be a gorgeous quilt. I adore Bargellos too, I've only done 2 but I have at least 4 or 5 more knocking around in my head just waiting for me to find time to make them!

I do the same as you when making them...lots and lots of revisions before I find a strip set that seems right. I usually start with 30-40 different fabrics and then end up with about 20 actually make it to the quilt.

Looking at the pic of the yellow fabrics ... are the fabrics to the far right (to the right of the bright yellow) fabrics that you "pulled" from the selection, or do they belong to the right of the bright yellow??

The blues look great. The yellows - just trying to figure out if you are trying to put that bright yellow in the center of whole selection of yellows, or if the fabrics to the far right are out of consideration. If you are trying to center the bright yellow in the whole selection of yellows (to make it "glow" as you said), then you might want to balance it out and take some of the fabrics from the far left and add them to the right.

Well, if I can keep it straight in my head, I am adding 1/4 inch to the length and width of each piece. That means I cut each strip 1 3/4 inches so far, then when I am cutting the next step, I will add 1/4 inch wider than it says.

If my math is right, it should give me about ten inches more in length and width. We'll see.

Dina

I have her new book too. Which pattern are you making? Like you, I am not sure about my yellows, but I think I will like them. I intend to make one strip set and then cut it into pieces and lay it on the design wall and THEN decide for sure about my yellows. :) Or at least that is my plan.

Dina

No, the yellows to the far right, after the number 7, have been removed from my original selections. Their feelings were hurt, but I eliminated them. I just hadn't removed them from the design wall when I took the picture. Currently they are in my "just in case" stack. :)

Dina

I'm still studying books on how to do bargello but haven't worked up the nerve to try it. Imagine - your 4th. I'm impressed. Love yellow and blues together.

Give it a try! I promise that if I can do it, anyone can. I did read the instructions over and over, and I made a place mat first, to learn the technique.

Dina

Looks good. Should be a gorgeous quilt!

I too agonise over colour! I sometimes feel I spend too much time, rather than 'going with the flow'.

That said, whilst I love your blues, something about the yellow Nos. 6 & 7 jar with me. I can't make up my mind whether my eye is being drawn to 6 because of the more pronounced print or I notice it when my eye is drawn to the strong No. 7 (told you I can't make up my mind, lol).

However, if you've taken a black and white photo and are happy, then that's all that matters.

Happy quilting :)

Go for it, Cagey!! Bargellos are quilts that (I think) look much trickier than they are. If you press the seams right you can nest every single intersection. All the sewing is done in strips, you're never dealing with tiny fussy pieces.

I think picking out the fabrics is possibly the hardest part of making one, actually. That's the step where I end up spending the most time, anyway!

I want to try using Ombres in a Bargello. A "cheater" way of getting a perfect gradient! LOL