Well, the week kind of got away from me, but this morning I finished cutting out my strips. I cut 9 strips from each fabric, for a total of 180 2.5" strips! Phew...

I might start sewing them together later today or tomorrow. I like seeing the fabrics in their smaller cuts, really helps me visualize the quilt. I think it's going to be pretty.

There's something about seeing all those strips lined up in neat little rows that just sets my little quilter's heart at ease. Progress! Order! I even put the leftover fabric away, to be taken out later when I have to decide on a binding...I think a single fabric would be good, but one that has some motion and variation in it. But I'm getting ahead of myself. For now, I'll revel in the strips :)

You did well , how exciting all those tidy stacks of strips, just ready for construction. I bet you can't keep your self from looking and admiring that beautiful run of color.

Buckled down this evening and pieced these strips together in about an hour. 8 more sets to go. I went slow to try to avoid bowing, because I've had problems with that in the past. I took Eileen Wright's advice in her book, and pieced two strips together at a time (starting at the top). Then I combined the strip chunks by sewing in the opposite direction (from the bottom), so that every other seam was sewn in the opposite direction. I could not detect any bowing so far, so hooray!

Now, I didn't do any pressing yet, so any creases and/or bulgy-looking bits are only due to that and not my stitching (I swear) :)

Looking at them like this, I can see that a couple fabrics will not make the continuous blend that I tried for, but I think it makes a nice run, nonetheless, and might actually foster a kind of echo in the pattern with the leaf print teal in the middle. Might lend itself to the ocean more than I expected, so hooray for happy, unexpected effects. I am liking this quilt more and more, can't wait until I get to start slicing and piecing rows.

I just received my quilt back from the quilter, made from the same book but the quilt is Wave Bargello. The picture posted here is not the quilted version but the top only. When I get the binding on the quilt I will post a picture of the completed project. I loved, loved making this top. The great thing was my husband picked out the 24 colors. He mixes ink for a living and is so great with colors.

Wave Bargello. Sorry my photo did not upload in the last post.

Forgot to say how much I love your colors. You may have less trouble with bowing of your strip set if you press each set of 2 as you go, particularly if the instructions say to press each row in a particular manner.

Well I'm going to watch this progress. You go girl

First, your quilt is gorgeous! Tell your hubby he did a great job with the colors. Looks like scrumptious fall :)

I will take your advice on the pressing. I had to take extra care since the seams weren't pressed, and I didn't notice any bowing. But it will make the stitching easier at least, and further hedge against bowing. I've made sort of a tactical error in my setup, which is why I wasn't pressing last night...

I had my strips laid out on my dining table, which is big and lovely and sturdy, and I sew on it. But then we had dinner guests, so I moved the strips (in order) to my ironing board, where they would be left in peace, out of the way, and not spilled on. When I started stitching the strips together, I sewed two at a time up the color run. It was only when I started stitching the pairs together that I realized I had no usable ironing board, so I just soldiered on. I need a better place for the strips that aren't in use!

Well, it's been a while since my last post, and I just wanted to let everyone know that I didn't forget about this thread. I've been making slow progress, mostly because I've been busy. I've started stitching together two strips at a time and pressing them, going up the color scale. When that's done, I'll have 10 sets of two strips each, and I can start piecing those together and pressing along the way. My goal is to finish stitching the strip sets together by the end of this weekend, but we'll see. I'll start cutting as soon as possible, since putting the rows together is my favorite part! I'll be sure to post pictures of progress.

At this rate, I'll be making this quilt into the summer! I should really try and focus :P

Phew! Progress! I just finished sewing and pressing the last of the 8 strip sets that I made. I have a set of un-sewn strips in reserve for a 9th if I need it, and more fabric (put away) in case there's some kind of disaster and I need even more sets. Using the technique outlined in previous posts, I've noticed that there is no noticeable curving! So I think I'll be able to use all of the strip length.

If I get around to cutting and piecing some rows tomorrow, I'll be sure to post pictures.

This evening I took a deep breath and started cutting some rows. I've stitched the first 3 together (the center and two adjacent rows) for the top half, and I think it's off to a good start. This quilt is going to be quite large! I knew that, but it's different to see it! I'm going to push so much fabric through my machine :)

Using the method outlined in the book, I've got the row seams pressed in opposite directions for every other row, which means that they "nest" when you're sewing the long strip of patches together and makes it easy to match up the seams. In the close-ups, you can see how well that's worked! Crispy clean corners :D

hi thee to thy sewing machine!! GO, go -- go sew!! I cannot *wait* to see more!! it is just incredible . . great job!!

More rows! It's so exciting to watch it grow. This is just the top half. Once I have all the rows for this half I'll do the bottom half, then they get sewn together to finish the top. This makes 9 rows out of 41 (I think). Sorry the picture's a little blurry, I had to stand on my stool to get it all in the shot :o

Alright! Status update. I've now pieced 23 rows of the top half of the quilt top. It gets prettier by the row :) It's laying over another quilt in the photo, so disregard the edges that don't belong.

Your quilt is coming along beautifully ! When ever I get to this point in a bargello its hard to stop sewing as it just gets better with each row.

Wow, that is going to be one gorgeous quilt! I want to make one sometime too, just have to get some free time.

Lillie: Thank you for introducing this, every time somebody does something like this I learn so much. For sure if I ever get the courage to try a bargello I will ask for input from the experts. Lillie, love your colors, I have a river close by where I walk my dog. Have been looking at the variation of colors, your choices really capture what I am seeing.

Thank you so much! I think it's going to look like the water is churning and flowing when it's all done. Just enough white in there to look like waves breaking or a river rippling. I'm glad it looks like water to you, too!

It has been a while since my last post, so I just wanted to drop in with a status update. I've almost got the top half done, only 5 more rows to go. I'm hoping to get it done this weekend, and then I'll post a picture. After that, I've got the other bottom half to do, which is basically the same. Bottom half should go much quicker. Knock on wood, I haven't had to rip a seam yet!

Top half of the quilt top is finished! You can't see it all in this photo, because I had to drape some over the end of the bed, but I think it's looking pretty good! The light's a little harsh, so some of the darker colors are washed out, but you can see the detail pretty well. Looks good to me! I'll start the bottom half this week, and hopefully it will go faster than the top :)

absolutely gorgeous..that last photo reminds me of the beach where the waves are coming to shore in the shallows. Thanks for posting your progress it has been enjoyable to see it coming together. Your beautiful quilt reminds me of my dear dad who recently passed away and his favourite color was blue and his favourite place the ocean...

I think their great. Can't wait to see the finished quilt. Have fun!

Isn't it wonderful to find our loved ones through memories? My father passed away years ago and I still find him in unexpected places. I'm glad you were reminded of him here :)

Love love love it!! Sorry, I'm just stalking here as I've only just discovered Bargello quilts and it's made my mind just go "POW" - I can't wait to try one ... one day. Sigh. Great colour choice, indeed. Congratulate that hubby of yours ;)

This is looking gorgeous! I wasn't seeing it in the first couple of pictures but the picture when you were on a stool made it all come together. Thanks for keeping us all posted on your progress. It is really neat to see your quilt grow! Thanks to one of the earlier posters who explained why certain pieces wouldn't quite work. Seeing the fabrics in black and white and numbered made sense to me. Now I have another one on my bucket list!

I like it, I do think perhaps that there are too many light ones on the right side. Some of those look a bit too similar and you might lose some of the effect...

It's Done!!!! (sort of)
 

Hello Everyone! I'm sorry that it's taken so long, but my PhD research has been eating up a lot of my time the past few months. I didn't forget about the quilt or this thread, it's just that progress was very slow. But today I knuckled down and finished the top! All of it! And I even managed to get a picture of it on our bed. It's very big, but will drape nicely over the sides of our very deep mattress with ease :) Enjoy! I certainly did! Now I just have to baste, quilt, and bind it, which I suspect might take me a month or so on my current schedule. I can knock the basting out in a weekend, and maybe even start the quilting. We'll see where my free time (if any) is. I'll post the finished product when I'm done!

For now, I'll celebrate a little!

That is gorgeous! I can't imagine what it'll look like quilted. Job well done.

Thanks! My husband wants waves in the quilting. I was just going to do straight-line quilting like I've done with my other bargello quilt, but I guess I can give it a go. I'm debating whether I should try it on my small machine or rent time on a long-arm machine...I know I want to do the quilting myself.

My dog approves of my basting job :D

I'm not ashamed to admit that I used duct tape to keep the backing fabric taut whilst pinning. Also, I ran out of safety pins and had to get more. I had to use around 350 in all! I laid out flat on it and flattened the fabric between old and new pins going radially towards the corners. It's not perfectly square, but it's pretty darn close. One of the sides bows out *a little*, but I doubt someone else would notice. I'm pretty proud!

Just in case anyone was wondering, I did the math and there are 2,499 individual squares in this quilt! I plan on chalking out my waves pattern and quilting it this weekend. I'll let you know how my first foray into long-arm quilting goes...

It is gorgeous and the inspector certainly looks very proud sitting there . I hope he was very helpful with the enormous amount of pinning.

Just beautiful! Your color choices flow into each other so well. Congrats on a lovely finish.

Just wanted to mention, I keep this one in mind as a tut. The discussion that you sparked at the beginning was amazing, I really learned a lot from it. Thanks for that and the update on your progress.

He was very helpful in that he didn't go on the quilt once, even though I was laying on the floor all inviting. What a good boy!

You're welcome! I think most of the value came from others who were chiming in with their sage words of advice on color and value. I'm going to update this thread until I get it bound and finished, preferably with a shot of it hanging outside in the sun :)

It is a beautiful bargello! Just fabulous!

The quilt is gorgeous! I really like the inspector too.

Cheers, K

Thank you for this great post. Your quilt has turned out to be very stunning. I hope your husband approves. I learned so much from this thread and will definately review when I get brave enough to try a bargello quilt which is on my bucket list.