This is a static export of a blog I put on ice many years ago, that still has personally relevant content. No promises can be made around linkrot, styles, or working functionality.
Even when you strip piece, it takes forever to cut out the bits needed for a 54″×72″ nine-patch. (In other words, not a whole lot of actual sewing has happened this week.)
But cutting out and constructing this quilt prompted a thought to ask you about: are you extremely judicious about cutting with as little waste as possible or do you vote for speed and efficiency, figuring you can use the scraps for something else, no matter how small?
When I cut out the half-square triangles for the nine-patch, I made sure to cut them to exact measurements rather than doing them so that one half was waste (for that project, at last) like Iāve seen some tutorials show. Iād like to say that I did this because I needed to make sure my FQ pack would stretch as far as possible, but thatās only part of the issue. I really am just crazy about trying to fit everything into as little fabric as possible. It works great for sartorial and historical sewing, but am I just making things hard on myself in the quilting world?
So, wise ones, what approach do you take? Some grey-area ādepends on the projectā approach? What makes you decide to cut down from a larger block, or cut exact measurements?
I spent some time working on two different projects this weekend: a quilt and a vest.
On Friday, I received my order of a 18 fat quarter pack of Miniatures by Julie Hendrickson for Windham Fabrics (ordered from Fat Quarter Shop). I wasnāt planning on starting on the quilt from it for a whileāI already have some of the pieces for another cut out, but once I received the fabric, I just couldnāt help but listen to the creative voices in my head yelling about what to do with it, going all oooh, ahh, how romantically-colored.
The plan is just a pretty basic strip-pieced nine-patch with a twist or two thrown in. Stay tuned for more on that. For now, I spent time cutting out the 2 ½” strips needed for the strip piecing. Some day Iāll have a dining room and a dining room tableāor better yet a dedicated sewing roomāthat makes cutting out strips easier on my back. Ouch.
Why a simple nine patch?
I want something deliriously simple after the bargello.
The fabrics make me think āold-fashioned and traditional,ā and you donāt get much more traditional than a nine-patch/postage-stamp-esque quilt.
I want really quick blocks so that this can get finished in between my applique class project, the vest, and another quilt Iām already working on.
Speaking of the bargello quilt, it is officially in the mail enroute to my cousin, yay. Link now working. Thatās what I get for quick posting.
The Vest
Outside the realm of quilting, a friend wanted a copy of a wool vest he owns that has seen many better days. So, Iām working on that. To do so, I had to make a copy of the existing vest without taking it apart.
Hereās how I did it: I draped my coffee table with a towel (for cushioning/pinning loft), then craft paper taped over that. Then I just pushed pins through the seam lines and important parts of the vest which gives me a line to trace. I didnāt take photos all the way through the process, but here is one of the front sides partially done:
Then, I used the resulting pattern to make a muslin pattern. Thatās where it stands. Iāll start constructing the real vest this week.
Hereās a quick summary of things I learned in the process.
Staggered rows means uneven rows. If your pattern calls for staggered rows, then the rows starting with full blocks will be a quarter-inch longer on the top than the ones with half blocks. Knowing this from the start can reduce bowing and shifting later on.
¼” wide rows are obnoxious. If youāre inexperienced or looking for hassle free, pick a pattern that doesnāt have eight ¼” rows. I.e., not this one.
Be careful second-guessing yourself. I spent hours drawing the layout up on the computer. I calculated exactly how I should cut my mid-block insertions for purple pieces. Then, I decided to change one of them in the quilt. After doing so, I realized I should have left it as originally planned. Of course, your experience may be the opposite.
Poly micro-suede is not nearly as easy to sew as cotton. It’s a lot tougher, so make sure you have a sharp needle. I didnāt quilt in the purple areas because itās just that much more difficult to sew through than the cotton.
Trim stray threads as you go. Otherwise, youāll spend a lot of time pulling them through seams and snipping them out of hard to get areas.
Be aware of row alignment as you work across the quilt. My top was pretty out of square at the end. I maneuvered it back into some semblance of shape by steam ironing bits to stretch them as needed. However, it could have been avoided if I had paid attention to how the rows were aligning. With a staggered pattern like this, make sure that every other row is aligning properly with each other. Meaning, row 1, 3, 5, 7ā¦ should all have seams along a straight line. Mine did not line up across the quilt, which caused some of the out-of-squareness.
Number of seams ripped because I sewed the wrong pieces together: 6
Number of rows cut twice, because I thought I lost one: 1
Number of purple pieces cut .5″ too short: 40
Leftover fabric: I havenāt totaled it up, but I have at least a ¼” yard of most of the fabrics, and more of others. Granted, I purchased extra of many because I like them so much.
About the quilting itself
Iām kind of un-adventurous when it comes to quilting so far. I decided to stick to simple stuff: echoing the purple curve. I used invisible thread on the top, and a teal (called peacock, I believe) poly on the bottom.
My machine does not like GĆ¼termann invisible thread. Something about the way it comes off the spool causes it to tangle around the horizontal spindle and eventually screws up tension. Halfway through, I managed to get it to work on the vertical spindle, but I didnāt want to tear out the first half, so it is less than stellar overall.
After I figured out how to get mine to work, I came across this Quilterās Review invisible thread comparisons article and comparison table. I wish Iād seen it before. I donāt even remember why I purchased the GĆ¼termann thread to begin with (itās been sitting in my thread box for a while). Iām usually a fan of the brand, but I think Iāll try something different next timeāespecially since the author of that article claims itās the thickest of the six (I really hate the stiff texture!).
I used a 50% Bamboo Rayon / 50% Organic Cotton blend batting, that is pretty similar in consistency to Warm and Natural cotton batting. Really, my choice of batting in this case came down to the fact that they sell a 60″ x 60″ packaged version, which was absolutely perfect for this quilt. Since I used a poly fill that Iād purchased for some previous crafting/couch reupholstering in the baby quilt, I wanted to work with something low-loft like Warm and Natural, and the bamboo/cotton blend seemed decent.
It was very easy to work with, but I suggest pulling it out of the package and laying it out flat for a couple days or ironing it or something, because it holds the packaging folds. My teacher suggested possibly throwing it in the dryer on low or air with a very slightly damp towel just to release the wrinkles, but just laying it out flat overnight had helped enough that it wasn’t too much of an issue.
As I expected, doing a 55″ square quilt on my machine was a little unweildy, but aside from the frustrations with the nylon thread and a few mistakes I made in how Iād planned to quilt it, it turned out okay, I think.
Here are some photos of the front and back.
Front details The back of the quilt. In the detail, you can see that I have some wrinkles sewn in. I didnāt baste it quite well enough.
Now that the front of the bargello quilt is complete with borders, it is time to think about the back. Quilt backs can be simpleāsmall ones can even be just a width of fabricāor complex. The most common form of backing is simply taking yardage and using it as-is (if wide enough) or sewing widths together until it is wide enough. I wanted to do something more exciting than that.
Who says piecing is only for the front of quilts?
Well, if someone did, Iāll have to politely disagree with them. You can do fun things with the back too, if youāre so inclined. Itās a great chance to use up extra blocks from the front, or fabric leftovers. Of course, itās a creative process so I canāt really do a tutorial on how you should piece a back, but hereās what I did.
Color-run inspiration
After finishing the front of my quilt, I still had some of one color run left; by the time I got to the central strips, the two color runs had converged into the same exact order, so I chose to exhaust one completely by cutting the remaining strips from it, leaving a good 8″ left on the second.
I also had a whole pile of little 3.5″ wide slices that Iād removed from all the rows for purple-block insertion, and a spare 1 1/2″ strip that I cut because I thought Iād lost the first one I cut (Iād actually sewn it to another strip in the wrong section).
I decided to use the extra color run, strips and pieces on the back, filling in the remainder with the teal batik.
Labeling
Labeling is one of those things that is easily overlooked because itās not vital to the quilt-making process. But, because I am giving this quilt as a late wedding gift to my cousin (the wedding quilt is in the long-term UFP pile), I thought a label recognizing their marriage is important.
The way I decided to incorporate a label actually became part of my back piecing. Deciding to stay far away from embroidery, I chose to give printable fabric a try. I picked up June Taylor Colorfast Printable Fabric from JoAnn Fabrics (with a 40% off coupon, of course). I hope to review it soon, but for now, suffice it to say that it seems to be somewhat color fast and printed just fine in my Canon PIXMA iP4300 (which is going on 4 years old now). I purchased white printable fabric, although you can also get cream. I figured white would allow a wider range of options in the future, since Iād have a lot left over. So, I printed a cream background to my label (which has faded a bit, hence the “somewhat” color fast). Having a border-less printer is really helpful here, as you either have to waste the printable fabric so that you can cut it down or have a printer that can do less than a 1/4″ margin on all sides of the label so that the white edges are hidden in seam allowances. My border-less printing settings werenāt behaving, but the print margins were < 1/4″, so all was well.
I set up a 3.5″x6″ (the width of the strip it was going into by a pretty arbitrary height) document in Illustrator and had fun designing a cool label, complete with a verse, my name, city, the date (Winter 2010/2011) and the name of the quilt. Drumroll pleaseā¦ āBye-bye Bluesā¦ Welcome Verdant Spring.ā
The blurry bit under their names is on the photo for privacy. It doesnāt really look like that. Itās their last name and wedding date.
Putting it together
Once Iād created a label, I put it in a strip created from all the extra color run pieces. The strip is mostly in order of the color runs, but begins to skip when I ran out of some colors. I enclosed that strip with two strips cut from the color run leftovers (well, one was that spare one Iād cut accidentally).
I miscalculated the amount of fabric needed for the back, so I was short on the teal batik. I made up the difference using pieces of the other fabrics. Mainly G3 and B4, along with a lot of the black/brown paisley that was the original inspiration fabric and all the other little pieces left over from the front. I tried to use as little of the purple as possible on the back, because the poly is a bit harder to sew through than quilting cotton. One piece made it in as part of that stray slice Iād cut for the front.
The full back, laid out on the living room floor. After sandwiching, I am not quite sure that the strip of piecing on the top of the quilt will actually be on the back. I may have miscalculated overhang by a few extra inches, but no big deal. I can always use it for something else!
The result is a back that is a little more tailored and interesting than a plain back (not that plain backs are boringāthey can be amazing to look at the actual quilting of the quilt, but itās really better to ignore that on one of mine as my quilting skills are very amateur).
Now itās all sandwiched and waiting for me to quilt it!
What tips do you have for piecing backs? Is it something you do for most quilts, or do you prefer basic backs?
Now that the main section of the quilt is complete, itās time to square it and add borders.
This is the center of the quilt before borders. You can see how uneven the bottom is.
Squaring
My quilt top was badly out of square. Itās kind of demoralizing itās so badly out of square. Make sure you’re paying attention to how rows are lining up across the quilt, not just within row groups. Had I done that, I think it would have helped a lot. Instead, I was steam ironing the heck out of one section of the quilt trying to square it up a little by stretching it to match other sections. I donāt know if thatās the most advisable way to do it, but it worked relatively well. At least, it made the edges mostly square, but you can see where the row seams do not line up across the quilt.
The top and bottom rows are also not straight, because I had to cut an uneven amount to square up the sides. But, it happens sometimes, and you just have to roll with it.
Top edges. See how the two sides have much different amounts being removed?
The sides were mostly square, but the top and bottom werenāt. To square them up to add the borders, I taped the quilt to the floor, and measured center, then measured the top and bottom and lined up the borders so they were square, meaning that there were different amounts of seam allowance on the quilt top. After sewing the borders on (using the 1/4″ border allowance to guide me), I cut off the excess.
Measuring.The top and bottom borders pinned on in a mostly square configuration.
Borders
My teacher made one of the quilts from Twist and Turn Bargello Quilts by Eileen Wright. The prescribed border includes a 1/4″ strip much like the one Edie used on the pattern that Iām using.
The catch is, Wright has you cut a 1″ strip, fold it in half, and simply sew one end into the seam, leaving the other loose (similar to a prairie point border). After sewing eight 1/4″ rows in my quilt, I decided that this was the best thing since sliced bread, and used this method rather than piecing together the strips normally.
Wright also has you cut your borders on bias, which my teacher said made a huge difference in attaching them (much easier) and also hid any joins better than normal seams. Unfortunately, I didnāt have enough fabric to do borders on the bias, but it is something to consider in the future, for sure. Also, because of my out-of-squareness, I am relying on my non-stretchy borders to help square it up. Bias borders would just bend out of square with the quilt top.
Instead of doing borders with half blue, half green like Edie used (well, blue/brown), I chose to use a blue inner border and green outer border, with brown binding. Edieās pattern called for a 1/4″ inner border, 3/4″ outer border and 3/4″ binding, which I also modified. Mine are 1/4″ inner, 2 1/4″ outer (technically 2 1/2″, but 1/4″ is covered by the inner border), and 3/4″ binding. I added a wider outer border to infuse a little more color to the quilt. Once I finished the top, I felt that the browns and creams were overwhelming the blues and greens.
Hereās the completed top, including borders. The hanging shot is probably the most color-correct.
What tips do you have for squaring up quilts? What about adding borders?
So, back in November, I left you hanging about the progress of the bargello quilt. We didnāt have class in December, and Iām woefully behind because my machine was acting up and in the shop. But I have it back now, and it is time to get to work! Class this week focused on measuring and building borders, but I havenāt even completed the main part of the quilt. I need to finish it, have borders added and everything sandwiched for class in two weeks!
The progress so far
Because of how the color runs require swapping in and out different rows to get the color shift, the quilt is best constructed from the outside in. The pattern groups strips into different sections (A*āH*), and in my layout, B, C, F, and G all have strip swapping. This means from C-E, I’m able to focus on one side at a time, which Iāve done.
This is row groups A-D on the blue-dominant side. You can see two green shifts so far (of four total). Also, on the far right, Iāve moved into the more difficult mid-block insertion for the purple pieces.This is section A and B for the green-dominant side. Only one shift has taken place here, which you can just barely see on the left of the photo (thatās the back side, because the section is hanging folded in half).
Overall, the progress has been pretty simple. Simply cut the right widths from the color run, swap out the required blocks for purple ones, and sew the strips together, alternating seam direction (sew every other one from the bottom up rather than top down). Iāve been sewing the strips for each group together (they range from 1ā5 strips), then sewing each group to the next, rather than sewing each strip to the next for the whole quilt. As I mentioned when making the color runs, I think it lessens shifting and bowing.
You can see in the progress above that my current progress isnāt exactly square, although the angle of the photo and pinning I did exacerbate the problem in the photo.
One important thing to note when doing a staggered pattern like this is that the tops and bottoms of your rows will not be aligned. Rather, there will be a 1/4″ staggering effect because the half-blocks will not have the full seam allowance. Instead of trying to line up the rows, I start pinning by marking the midpoint of the second full block down and matching that up with the correct seam on the connecting row, then back tracking. If I ever find that my strips arenāt matching up correctly, I simply use that method again later, and adjust the ease through the intervening pieces.
Part of my issues with the progress being out-of-square is that I didnāt realize this until about 4 rows in. Itās much trickier on the narrow rows.
Mid-block insertions
For most rows, my plan to add in the purple contrasting curve simply requires removing one block from the color run and replacing it with a purple one of the correct width.
For a few strips, however, this would result in the purple taking over the existing curve, which I donāt want. So, toward the middle of the quilt, youāll start to see partial blocks. The first one in the blue-dominant side is apparent on the far right of the progress.
I accomplish this by cutting out bits of the existing blocks (keep your seam allowances in mind!), and inserting the purple block midway, rather than substituting it for an entire block.
I made a very amateur mistake while my machine was in the shop. I decided to start cutting out all the little purple blocks so that I could start pinning everything together and be ready to sew once I got the machine back. Then, I misread my notes and ended up spending an hour cutting out pieces that were all .5″ too shortāI forgot the seam allowance. Itās really de-motivating when you do something like that. But, we all must soldier on.
Even worse than the motivational factor is the fact that I donāt think I have enough purple left to re-cut all the pieces, so some of the middle ones will likely be pieced together, adding even more bulk and seams to the project. Iām hoping that I can get through all the strips with two purple blocks, and then piece together purple blocks for the center of the quilt, where there is only one block per strip.
Do you have any tips and tricks to keep your runs from shifting? What about getting yourself back in the mood to work on a project when you really mess up (like my cutting problem)?
This is part four in a multi-part series. Keep following along by subscribing to the RSS feed, or view the related posts.
With the color runs done for the bargello quilt, itās time to start cutting out the strips for the quilt top. On one hand, it sounds simple: the pattern from the book tells me the widths I need for each pieceā¦ I just need to cut, right? But, in practice, the color shift across the quilt, combined with my plans to insert the purple āpopā pieces meant graphing it all out was a superb ideaāand also the next step in my homework, along with starting to sew the pieces together.
Seam alignment and graphing
My teacher suggested using Microsoft Excel or a similar program to graph it all out, so I started with that, but it wasnāt lining up in a way that made sense. When cutting and piecing together your strips for Bargello, you have two basic choices: line the horizontal seams up, or stagger them. The quilt pattern Iām using is a staggered pattern (think brick laying)āso when I blocked it all out in a spreadsheet, everything was misaligned. Working from a pattern that is not staggered would have severely thrown off my piecing, since it changes the starting color of each row.
Plan two, which I should have done in the first place (considering it is what Iāve done in the past) was to open up Adobe Illustrator and block it out in that program. (Your mileageāespecially if youāre not familiar with the programāmay vary.)
Hereās what I came up with.
The first image has no color shifting. The second is the result straight from the instructions. Before deciding to use the pattern as-is from the book (well, prior to purple-izing it), I spent some time playing around with the color shifting as well. Itās quite simple to just swap the color of the blocks, although the color is clearly a poor substitution for the actual fabrics.
Adding the purple twist
Once I had a good graph of the color run cutting and color shifting, it was time to plan out my purple accent rows. This required a lot more playing. I knew that I wanted to do a competing curve rather than simply follow the existing ones. Ultimately, I decided on this structure:
When the curve directly mirrors the main curve, adding in my accents simply requires swapping out blocks. However, when the curve happens to correlate with the main curve, that approach will result in the purple completely taking over another color for a few blocks, which I didnāt want. This results in some trickier half-block replacements in certain rows. Having this graph to guide me is immensely useful.
If youāre interested in making a similar quilt or want to see a more detailed explanation of these modifications, you can download this pdf of my adjusted pattern complete with cutting widths.
So, at present, Iām cutting out all of my columns and inserting the color shift blocks and purple accent blocksāwhich requires a lot of seam ripping. Thereās no solid goal for next classājust to have started piecing everything together and to bring in any questions weāve come up with. Next time I update, Iāll be showing you progress of piecing together the rows.
What tools do you normally use to plan out your quilts (bargello or other)?
Two weeks ago, I showed you my color choices and pattern for the bargello quilt Iām making as part of a bi-weekly class. Our homework before this weekās class was to create our color map and have all of our fabric cut into strips and sewn into color runs for the quilt.
The color map of all the fabrics. This is made from excess cut off while squaring your fabric prior to cutting strips. I simply taped each strip to a manilla folder, and wrote the strip number underneath. This helps you keep track of the order of fabrics. You can see my G/B designation for the two different color runs.
Bargello quilts are made by strip piecing, which means sewing together long strips of fabric, and then cutting the result to create the pieces used in piecing together the quilt. The foundation of the bargello technique is using strip piecing to create color runs: rectangles of fabric made from equal-width strips of your fabric. The color runs are then cut perpendicular to the sewn seams in different widths to create the curves of the quilt.
The pattern I chose has rather tall rowsā3″. That means, all of my strips were cut to 3.5″ (for a 1/4″ seam allowance on both sides). Cutting was simple with a rotary cutter, mat and 6×24″ ruler. Then it was time to actually start sewing!
The green color run strips.
One place Wright and Edie differ is how to sew together your color runs. The most difficult part of this step is to create the color run without having the strips begin to dip in the centerācalled bowing. To counteract this tendency, both Wright and Edie recommend altering each seam direction as you create your color run. So, you sew the first seam in one direction and the next one the opposite, and keep switching back and forth.
Wright suggests sewing all of your strips in pairs with the same seam direction: 1 to 2, 3 to 4, 5 to 6, etc. Then, you sew your pairs to each other with seams going the opposite way, continuing to sew the groups together until the color run is finished.
Edie takes the sequential approach and has you sew each piece to the next in order, switching seam directions as you go. Wrightās recommended method is a bit faster I think, since you can chain piece all the pairs, and is the one I chose to use.
The strips paired up for the first direction of sewing
Another place Wright and Edie differ is how to place the ends of the strips. Wright proposes to line them up evenly on one end, creating only one jagged end (due to differences between manufacturerās fabric widths). Edie counsels arranging the ends based off the shortest strip, creating two jagged edges that supposedly allows you to have more useable strips. I figure, the shortest is the shortest, regardless of how ends are set up and used Wrightās way instead. Only one jagged end also makes Wrightās method a little less confusing: when you sew the pairs, you sew from the side where the edges meet. When you sew all the other seams, you sew from the uneven side; this is an easy way to tell which direction you should be sewing your seam.
The two ends of the finished color run. (Okay, technically only half of the green color run.) I was amazed at the difference in widths of ā42″ā fabric!
Using Wrightās method, I didnāt experience notable bowing. In addition to the speed advantage that I spoke of, I also think that her method keeps you from making exponential errors. If you sew each piece to the next one, any previous bowing will continue to get worse as the issue is compounded down the line. When you sew the groups together, you donāt experience as much of an issue because you are working in smaller chunks that donāt inherit the mistakes of each previous piece.
Unfortunately, I missed Mondayās class (and a day of work) with some sort of bug. I did find out today that the homework is to start cutting the actual strips from the color runs and piecing them together, so Iāll be talking about that in my next post. Also, please forgive me for the poor quality images. My phoneās camera had to do, as the real camera was unavailable.
Do you have a preference for either of these methods? Tell us about your experiences in the comments.
This is part two in a multi-part series. Keep following along by subscribing to the RSS feed, or view the related posts.
The project that started this new quilting hobby of mine was the idea to make a quilt for my oldest friend’s baby-on-the-way. Because she reads this blog occasionally, I couldn’t talk much about it while I was working on it, but now that it’s done, I get to share!
Quilt pattern as shown on allpeoplequilt.com
I started the fabric shopping plan with a certain quilt plan in mindāa simple sashed nine-patch layoutābut then came across a bit of fabric that I fell in love with. The design didn’t suit the small squares of the nine-patch, though. So, I decided to use the basic pattern of the 1930sāInspired Wall Hanging featured on allpeoplequilt.com. I went through a lot of their baby quilt designs and liked many, but when I saw this design, I not only liked it a lot, but realized it is about the same size as a crib quilt. I thought I could use my inspiration fabric as the outer border, and maybe as a square instead of the rail fence blocks. So, the choice was made.Ā While I dig the ā30s reproduction fabrics, I wanted to go a little more modern with the quilt. The end result looks quite a bit different, donāt you think?
The front and back of the quilt. The photos arenāt the greatestādaylight is slim these days, so I had to use flash.
Although I canāt claim that my edges are totally square, theyāre not nearly as off as they appear in the photos. The way I had to hang it to get photos ended up pulling it even more out of square temporarily.
The fabrics
The entire quilt was based off the fabric that I used as a medallion on the back. (I intended to use it for the outer border, but couldn’t fussy cut it in a way that I liked without cutting off too many animal heads). I took my color cues from it, resulting in a palette of creams, red, blue, green and yellow. Ultimately, I decided to stick to four patterns for the offset square blocks mostly for simplicity’s sake. I picked up a fat quarter for each, which was more than sufficient.
One part of the original design that I really liked is the way the center blocks are highlighted by the surrounding white prints and the center rail fence blocks. I wanted to keep that contrast. Then, I realized that the fat quarters that I chose are basic cotton prints, while the border fabric is a quilter’s flannel. That gave me the idea to play around with texture in the quilt, since babies and toddlers are very in to tactile sensation.
These are the four colored fabrics for the front. I couldn’t get good photos of the whites.
The result of that decision means that the white and off-white fabrics I chose were not just patterned, but different textures. Two are basic fat-quarter white-on-white/white-on-beige prints. Another is a 100% cotton linen-like weave. There are a few silk blocks. A cotton embroidered eyelet fabric was used as well, ultimately layered over the color fabrics so that there was something between the holes and the batting (which also gave a tint to those blocks, since the color bleeds through a bit). I grabbed each of these (except the fat quarters) from the remnant bin. To continue the texture bit, I also decided to use a different green fabric, swapping out the fat quarter I bought for a green/white stripped cotton seersucker.
The inner border is a very fuzzy yellow furry-type fabric that seemed fun. The outer border is a plain brown quilterās flannel. The back has a medallion of the inspiration fabric, with the same outer border as the front of the quilt, and an applique of the elephant shape from the inspiration fabric cut out of the yellow furry fabric. I hope the baby has fun exploring all the different textures.
The construction
The project construction details that are provided by allpeoplequilt.com made cutting and piecing pretty simple. For the rail fence blocks, I tried to make sure the blocks were never made using the same sequence of the white fabrics. I then laid out all the pieces and did a lot of moving around of the pieces for the hourglass blocks and solid white squares so that the textures and patterns were distributed in a way that I liked. The instructions gave a very clear description of the steps needed to construct the four different hourglass blocks needed in the quilt.
I sewed the pieced part one row at a time, then put the rowsĀ together. Adding the bordersĀ as described in the instructions was simple as well. I did modify the outer border plans so that it has a log cabin motif instead of two longer pieces and two shorter, because my fabric wasnāt wide enough for the two long pieces.
I did a bit of piecing for the back, rather than making it plain. I had a yard of the inspiration fabric, which worked out perfectly for a square to mirror the 34″Ć34″ pieced square/inner border of the front. I added an outer border of the brown quilterās flannel, again with a log cabin motif. This border is a couple inches wider than the frontāsāto be trimmed after quilting. I machine appliqued an elephant to the bottom right corner of the medallion for a little more interest. In hindsight, adding a little batting so that the applique was raised a bit would have been good, but didn’t think of that until after the fact.
The quilting
Well, I managed to quilt it. I used a ~1″ diamond pattern all over. Iām somewhat unhappy with how it came out, and yet happy at the same time. From a distance, it looks fine. Up close, you can see how uneven the grid is. I tried marking with chalk, but ultimately I need some sort of guide that attaches to my machine, because the chalk plan didn’t work. Also, about half the quilt shows the darker bobbin thread (I used dark brown on the back, ivory on the front), because my machine decided it wanted to mess with the tension and nothing I did changed it. Then, at the end, it decided to work correctly again. What can I say, it was a labor of love, and its imperfections show that?
The binding
I had about 3″ of extra fabric on all sides of the backing, so I just folded it over and hand stitched it down, rather than cutting it off and using a separate binding. I think bias-tape bound quilts are more common, but I like the look of self-bound quilts, especially since my binding was going to be the same material as the edging on both sides anyhow.
So thatās that. My first finished quilt. I learned a lot. I have a lot of improvements to make, mostly dealing with impatience making seams not line up properly. Now itās time to go back to the wedding quilt and hope I can finish it before my cousin and his wifeās fifthĀ anniversary. Judging by the time it took me to quilt this small crib quilt, their queen one seems very daunting. Theyāve been married for two months so farā¦ my goal is actually Christmas, but Iām already doubting myself there.
Iāve started taking a bi-weekly class on bargello quilting. Iām now two weeks in, with a pattern chosen and fabrics picked out. The class is structured so that we meet for an hour every other Monday, and then have homework in between. Last weekās homework was to finish picking out fabrics and get them washed and ironed before class this week. We also looked at different bargello designs and did a preliminary ordering of the fabrics to be discussed in class. While Iām eager to get started, I think the bi-weekly format will work great for allowing me to work on other projects and keep you all updated as well.
Bargello patterning has its origins in needlework from 16th century Florence and Hungary. The term itself comes from works found in Bargello Palace in Florence. The style experienced a revival in the 1960s and has branched out to other media in the intervening years. Bargello quilting has been gaining popularity for over 15 years.
The style is classified by its gradated curves and points flowing through the design. The simplest bargelloĀ designs are simple curves or waves that repeat in different colors and patterns. Ambitious quilters createĀ beautifulĀ designs that incorporate multiple curves, broken curves, color shifting and many other alterations to the basic bargello curve.
Bargello quilting is strip-piecing, plain and simple. Iāll discuss it more once I begin piecing my quilt, but essentially, you create color runs by sewing strips of the different colors togetherĀ horizontally. Once youāve created your color runs, you cut vertical strips from them in different widths to create your curve. You end up with blocks of each fabric that are all the same height across the entire quilt, but in varying widths.
Our resources
Although you donāt particularly need a book to learn bargello quilting (hooray Internet), our instructor recommended two books (and required us to purchase at least one):
Twist and Turn Bargello Quilts by Eileen Wright (2009)
Bargello Quilts by Marge Edie (1994)
I started with Wrightās book, and ended up purchasing the other as well. While I love the curvy patterns of Wrightās quilts better, the descriptions in Edieās book are more thorough. WrightāsĀ does a good job of describing the basics and the steps to create her featured quilts, butĀ Edie provides a wonderful description of how to create your own designs and how to modify them with advanced techniques for something more than simple curves. Looking ahead, Edie takes an odd approach to piecing the rows; she sews the rows to the batting while piecing the quilt together, rather than making the quilt top in one go, then sandwiching. Iām not sure which method weāll be using, but Edieās sounds like it will take some getting used to.
One thing of note: Wright is a fan of using many more fabrics than Edie. The majority of her designs call for 20 fabrics (one is even 24!), whereas Edieās generally require somewhere around 12 (19 at the most).
A quick search on Amazon.com turns up many more books on Bargello Quilting if youāre interested in the subject.
After a lot of debate, I decided to do a twist on one of Edieās quilts. The goal of the class is to create a wall hanging, but Iād like to create a project that can be used as a lap quilt instead of a wall hanging, depending on who I end up giving the final product to. Edieās āBye-Bye Bluesā quilt is a decent size (52″x52″) for that flexibility.
I chose my fabrics before settling on a final pattern. I found this beautiful paisley of teals, greens, browns, tans and a highlight of gold, and took my color cues from it, coming up with aĀ paletteĀ of browns, greens and bluesāand a deep purple for a funky twist. The fabrics are a mix of batiks and prints with an overall floral texture theme.
I ended up with 18 different fabrics. I purchased a couple for other projects (mainly the wedding quilt), and ended up with leftovers (or didnāt use them). Two are reasonably reversibleāproviding a lighter shadeāso I ultimately have 20, which is what the original pattern I chose from Wrightās book called for. The final pattern choice only needs 16āand 4 of those will be doubled, so the final fabric count is 12. I plan on adding the deep purple as a counter-curve through the design, so the total is actually a bakerās dozen.
Do you have experience with bargello quilting? Interested in learning more? Let me know what questions you want answered as I journal this quilt. This weekās homework is to get the strips cut (done) and sew the color runs together. Iāll document that process as I go. See you in two weeks!
This is part one in a multi-part series. Keep following along by subscribing to the RSS feed, or head over to part two now.
