How to Make a bargello quilt
a few free bargello quilt pattern links
Bargello tutorial by Cutting Edge
I've been fascinated by bargello quilts for a bit. I don't know why I like them. I just do. I'm going to make one... although the Xmas present quilt list will have to come first. I've got one done already for hubby... then I need to make one for each of my boys, my nephew and my brother. But to keep me inspired I wanted to add a few links here for making and designing your own bargello quilt...
How to Make a bargello quilt a few free bargello quilt pattern links Bargello tutorial by Cutting Edge
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My youngest son's best friend's mom had a baby girl last year. They have dachshunds and I had seen a dachshund quilt in the Dare to be Square book.. and I knew I had to make it for her... last year... I had borrowed the book from the library and scanned the pages I needed and when I went to open the scans, the pictures were too small to blow up. I have not idea why. Stinking scanner. I went to borrow the book again and viola... the book had vanished. I had kept it in my holds list just in case... you never know if it would turn up... In the meantime I had started to make her a different quilt. My first attempt resulted in what I consider to be the ugliest quilt I have ever made - EVER. I could not give that to her... The I began a modern dresden flower quilt instead. That was working out well enough... By this time it was June. Then the Dare to be Square book arrived in my library queue! I was so excited! So I started on the new one - but added in a few of the flowers. In the meantime I had started to make her a different quilt. My first attempt resulted in what I consider to be the ugliest quilt I have ever made - EVER. I could not give that to her... The I began a modern dresden flower quilt instead. That was working out well enough... By this time it was June. Then the Dare to be Square book arrived in my library queue! I was so excited! So I started on the new one - but added in a few of the flowers. In the meantime I had started to make her a different quilt. My first attempt resulted in what I consider to be the ugliest quilt I have ever made - EVER. I could not give that to her... The I began a modern dresden flower quilt instead. That was working out well enough... By this time it was June. Then the Dare to be Square book arrived in my library queue! I was so excited! So I started on the new one - but added in a few of the flowers. In the meantime I had started to make her a different quilt. My first attempt resulted in what I consider to be the ugliest quilt I have ever made - EVER. I could not give that to her... The I began a modern dresden flower quilt instead. That was working out well enough... By this time it was June. Then the Dare to be Square book arrived in my library queue! I was so excited! So I started on the new one - but added in a few of the flowers. Flash forward a few months... Yeah.. the top is done... I needed a backing... nothing I had really was going to work. I thought of making more dachshunds and making them come and go on the back of the quilt.. then I ran out of background fabric and could not finish that idea... I found this awesome fabric at Hancock Fabrics online.... fortunately I was able to score it in one of my local stores. I bought a few yards of it and only ended up using 1 yard.. I've got a lot of happy dachshund fabric left to do something else with.... Then this past Black Friday, after a long day of fun shopping with friends, I come home to be told that my youngest was invited to this little girl's first birthday party. Wow. I knew I needed to finish that quilt... and I did. To make this long story a little shorter.... I started quilting on my new sit down Tin Lizzie. I had lots of headaches with skipped stitches... After hours of online research (my rep had not emailed or called me back) I discovered the possible culprit - the hopping foot was too high. I lowered it and it worked superbly.. but the quilt wasn't gliding much. It was a chore to move it around... so I raised it a little bit and then the machine just froze on me. I was happy that it stopped in the very corner of the quilt. I didn't know what to do. My rep finally emailed me back and told me to turn the handwheel as if I were angry at it. That worked and now it is moving freely... but of course that email came after I cut the quilt off the machine and finished it on my Juki which was not pleasant either. I think I need to do something to the hopping foot to make it not as high. It was a chore to move that quilt around as well... but I finished it... then bound it. I used the washable school glue approach to binding. It came out fabulous! I will never pin binding again - ever. Anyway. That is the story of the modern dachshund quilt. :) So I have begun my super secret quilting for Xmas. I can honestly say that I don't think my husband reads my blog... nobody in my family does. It's just me rambling on out in cyberland and that's okay. Some people keep a journal. I am an occasional blogger... My husband likes Spiderman. He collects comic books and yes, we own the super special dvd versions of the movies... So when I saw this black, white & grey Spidey fabric at Sir's in Fayetteville, TN last year, I scooped up about 2 1/2 yards of it. I thought I'd make a wall hanging out of it or something but it came in handy for a quilt instead. I figure why not make the man a quilt for snuggling up in front of the tv? Yes, I know that means I'll have to make one for both boys as well - and maybe a little one for Buster too but that's okay. So here's the front of the quilt. It really isn't THAT bright in person. I don't know why I took this picture on the floor. I'm sure if I hung it on the design wall it might have had a chance at looking somewhat closer to true color but hey, it's okay. You guys get the gist of it. I used the Oriental Garden quilt design - the same one I used for my sister's quilt. I did say that I loved this pattern, right? I've seen the block for this quilt popping up here or there but I do like the way this one is framed out so it's a keeper for me.... There are errors in the cutting instructions for this pattern... so if you make this, drop me a message and I'll let you know how to fix it - if they haven't fixed it yet. I have contacted the company to let them know there are errors in the cutting instructions... but that doesn't mean that they'll get fixed. If they do, I'll come back and edit this so let's just assume that if this paragraph is still here, chances are, so are the errors in the cutting instructions... And if you know anything about me, you know that I like my backs to be interesting... So this is the beginning to the back of this quilt. Here's the dilemma... the front is 72" square.. the back is 70" square. I could add on a 2" border so that it will give me a little extra wiggle room for quilting it or I can pretend the front is the back since it's already a little bigger... I'll fold it up and put it on the shelf and think about it a bit. I don't have enough of the grey mesh looking fabric that I used for the background so using that is out of the question. Oh and the colors aren't right here either. The quilt isn't so bright. What's with my camera wanting to make things brighter than they really are? I used this pattern.... Urban Shades from Moda Bakeshop .. but of course I had to change it up a bit. I wanted to add a little more umph to it so I played around with it until I was happy with it. I really like how it turned out. So now back to the dragon quilt. I'm hoping to have that finished and assembled by Monday if all goes well. We'll see... And then I get to start on couch quilts for both boys.... with only a month and a half until Xmas... I'll make it! I swear I will... and then I'll finish up that baby quilt for Lanie and the college It has truly been awhile since I posted last. I have been very busy. Between crochet designs and quilt projects, I have had little time to rest... and I have to admit that I actually just forgot to post here in the blog. I finished the quilt for my niece's wedding. She already received it, so I can share a few pics of it.... She loves frogs... and her husband was born in the year of the dragon so the backing fabric was perfect. Of course I don't have a picture of it that isn't blurry. I know that there's one on Flickr that one of my guild friends took. I should really download that one.... Here is a close up of two of the blocks... And here is the back.... I like making quilts interesting on the back side as well. I know there are those that just back it with a sheet or muslin but I try to make the backs interesting if at all possible. I didn't do that with my sister's quilt but that was because I was on a time crunch - and I admit that I didn't have any fabric in my stash that looked right on the back... For my niece's quilt, I used this pattern off of the Moda Bakeshop... I will say that if you ever want to make this quilt, let me know and I'll give you my suggestions on how to fix it. The designer did not construct it very well and caused a lot of unnecessary piecing.... so don't cut all the pieces out before consulting me.. I'll give you the help you need to make your quilt a lot easier to assemble. My friend also quilted this one for me on her longarm. ..... Oh! My Lizzie is due any day now! I'm so excited I can barely contain myself! A few weeks ago my sister and niece both announced they were getting married... in OCTOBER! Egads! What's a crafty person to do? I had just announced on Facebook that I was going to design and release 13 Days of Halloween designs on my website, www.CraftyDeb.com and then this popped up?! Now I'm in overdrive mode... sort of. I have to admit that I'd be much further along in my somewhat spooky crochet designs but I've taken too many personal days for one reason or another. I will say this now. I don't think I'm going to be able to whip out 13 designs. I'm finishing up #6 and getting ready to move on to #7 but they take time... which is one thing I don't have a lot of. I have to get these done, edited, tested, photographed and set up to be released and no later than Oct 11th, I need to be in a car, driving 13 hours (how appropriate!) to get to Jersey for pre wedding assistance for my sister... It would be better if I could get there earlier but it is what it is. I'm doing the best that I can. So, I've got about 10 days to finish 7 crochet designs, find a dress or pantsuit that I can cram my body in to (which involves shopping and emotional distress), and run the household which involves shopping, cooking and some degree of housework all the while juggling the quilting process for finishing two quilts... I know that I won't be able to do it all. If I come even close, I'll be amazed. Last week I did take a step toward the completion of quilt #1... my sister's quilt... I thought I'd share a pictural process of the way it went together... My sister had picked out a very pretty Hawaiian print fabric that I scored at a second hand store for $1.98. It was labeled "curtain" since someone had stitch witched the edges. I think it must have been used once. The fabric had never been washed and was pristine except for that stitch witchery which was a best to remove. I used this pattern for the Oritental Garden Quilt. I wanted to use more than two colors but could not succesfully matched the fabric colors at Hancock's or in my stash so two colors it would be. I thought I'd have enough so I cut and began to assemble.... I cut out all the pieces I *thought* I needed... and I had *just* enough Hawaiian print fabric to make it work... it was like it was meant to be!! Here is the first step - frame out square pieces of fabric... The next step in making this quilt was framing that out... That involved a bit of piecing but it was easy peasy... still had no real points to match up! By this time I was thinking, man this is just too easy! I am totally loving this quilt by this time... another blue/black frame around those blocks. I felt like they looked like they were floatiing. I loved it... until I got to the next step.... This is where you sew them in to strips with another border around these guys... so I went to work and kicked this step out... My gorgeous floating squares were lost in a muddle of Hawaiian fabric... I laid up the remaining pieces before sewing the next black strips just to get an idea. I wasn't sold on it... so I began to rip out a row and figure out what I could do... Here is one of the many color options I was looking at. I tried it up against every bit of fabric that I thought would work - that I had enough of. Then I went in to town, armed with a swatch and came up empty. I posted pictures in my quilt guild's facebook group pages and it was unanimous. They all liked it better with just the two colors so I began to sew it all back together again.... and that's where even more problems began to surface.... I was short two lengths of the Hawaiian print fabric and didn't have any more so I had to make an executive decision... Cut off 2" from each of the outer fabric borders that were suppose to be sewn on next to the sides. Saved by quick thinking... then the final blue black blender fabric got sewn all around it, boxing it all in... on to the final outer border and to completion! I could see the end of the quilt!! Except there was a problem. I was going to be literally 2" short on each side. I seriously did not have enough fabric to piece it together and make it look decent. I already had to piece that Hawaiian print together a few times and at this point I didn't have a 2" strip of fabric big enough to pull a fix... back to the quick thinking board! Tada! One quilt top done!! My friend Jen offered to quilt it for me. She has a nice longarm machine. I'm going to be owing her something in return... she hates doing bindings so it looks like I'll be doing some binding for her. I was thrilled that she offered to quilt it for me. It will help me tremendously to get this done in time. I really don't like mailing quilts. Too many of them disappear in transit... Here's a close up of the fabric. It really is pretty. When I had bought it, I had thought of my sister. She had just purchased a condo in St Thomas. I was going to make her a stack and whack kaleidoscope wall hanging... instead, it became her wedding quilt. It's 66x70... a great size for snuggling in front of the tv. This quilt making process sounds like it took forever but in the end, even with my ripping it apart and going in to town, it only took me 2 days to complete. I'm confident that I would have been able to piece it completely in one day had I not had so many obstacles
In the middle of making this quilt top, I also had gone on a road trip with a few members of my quilt guild. We went to the Birmingham Quilt and Sewing Expo. My favorite booth was the Gypsy Quilter. They had really cool quilts and gadgets, one of which I already own and blogged my high praise for. They demonstrated a quilt they call the Less than Traditional Quilt. The pattern and ruler & template was available for sale but it was killing me. I was pretty sure I had what I needed already... as in I thought I had the template already... turns out I have templates for making a double wedding ring... but it still was itching at me that I had seen it before so I checked online. Yup. There's a free tutorial for that... so it's a quilt as you go project and that is what I'm going to be starting on today for my niece. It's going to be cool - and when I'm done piecing it, it will be finished which in this short notice situation is just what the quilt doctor ordered! I'll post pics when I'm done with it. No worries about spoiling the surprise for either of them. Neither of them have ever been to my personal website or read my blog. I feel the spoiler pictures are safe here. Yesterday a few ladies from my quilt guild went to the Birmingham Sewing & Quilt Expo. It was a small event but I really enjoyed looking at all the gadgets that you normally only get to see online... and I got to sit on that gypsy quilter purple sit upon thing. It was very interesting... still not sure if I like it but I can see how it would make sitting for a long period of time much much more comfortable...
Anyhoooo... I really went to look at sit down quilting machines. I already had a frame set up and it is a space hog. I don't want a machine on a frame. I like to sit down when I quilt and the floor space the frame takes up is something I don't want to part with... I tried out the Janome Horizon at a nearby dealer already and I'm sad to say that as much as I really wanted to like it, I wasn't just blown away by it. I have a Janome sewing machine and I like it a lot but I just didn't get awestruck with the Horizon.. so that is probably not the machine for me. At the show I got to try out the Juki 2000. That does stitch really, really nice but I hated the foot pedal with the thread cutter built in there. I kept cutting my threads instead of sewing. That was annoying. The woman said that a lot of people turn the foot pedal sideways because of that. I didn't really like how that felt on my foot. It sewed really nicely but I am not 100% sure that I will like the 9" throat. I don't know if that would be enough to comfortably work on a queen or king sized quilt. The Tin Lizzie dealer did not have the sit down model to show off. That's a stinker to say the least. I really really wanted to compare it side by side to the HQ Sweet 16 machine.... which I did get to try out and man, it is a sweet machine :D I really liked it a lot but was put off by the dealer. I had to get the show special pricing that day because it was the last day of the show and it would not be available even a day later which means if I want to get the savings I will have to trek out to Georgia next month for the next quilt and sewing expo. I liked the machine but didn't like feeling pressured. The local Janome dealer also sells Lizzies but she won't have the sit down model in the Huntsville store. She is getting one in at the Scottsboro store in the next few weeks... I will take a road trip once she gets it on the floor. It will be a nice trek out there. I do like going to the Unclaimed Baggage store and a few other thrift stores in town there so it won't be a one thing only trip :) Next weekend I am going to trek out to Waverly, TN to look at the Pennywinkle Sunshine 16 machine. It's $2000 cheaper than the HQ. I'm curious to see what $2000 buys you. I've read that some people have had the screen on their HQ go bad and that's not a good thing at all. I could not imagine that happening a Oh decisions, decisions!! I wish I could have tried all the machines out but that was just not an option. :'( I have a design wall already.. It's a piece of blue felt thumb tacked to the wall. It's probably a 4' square. It's great as long as you only need to put up something small - like a wall hanging or a small baby blanket... but as soon as you sew a row together, the fabric is too heavy and it just falls off the felt. What's a quilter to do? Well. Go to the local building supply store which was in my case Lowes. I picked up two 4'x8' foamy insulation boards and shoved them in the minivan. That was interesting all on its own. In hindsight maybe getting them cut in half would have been brighter but I wanted them as big as I could get.... There will be a few different kinds of foamy insulation. I picked the one that didn't have stuff written all over it on both sides. Most of the ones I saw were like that. There's also a kind of spongy one that was a blue color and I was concerned that the color would show through. I wanted white so I went with the styrofoam ones. I read online from several people that made design walls years ago using the styrofoam kind and it's holding up nicely. Then I searched store after store, hopelessly looking for a white or cream king sized flannel sheet to cover these babies with. No. Not wasn't going to happen. I really didn't want to use batting. I have read online that it just doesn't hold up nicely. I wanted my design wall to last as long as I could. A quilt shop I took a class from had batting on the walls and it was all saggy and whatnot. I'm not saying that my felt one won't sag years down the road but hey, what I ended up with was cheaper and prettier than batting. So back to the story..... I then Joanns & Hancock's since both had their felt on sale. Joann's was out of white and the stuff at Hancock's looked thinner so I waited... I'm so glad I did! Yesterday after a horrible sewing day (don't ask. Everything I touched might as well just shrivelled up and died), I went to Joann's to see if they had anything on sale that I might not be able to live without. I had a 20% off your entire order coupon burning a hole in my email. So the felt was still on sale 40% off so it was $2.99 a yard and take off that 20% as well... yeah, I left feeling much better. Here is how we built my new design wall..... Step 1... Pick out your craft room real estate. I chose the wall that used to have my midarm Bailey quilt machine... but I sold that and am now looking for something to replace it with - probably something site down and less of a real estate hog. Craft room floor space is a commodity you know... Step 2. Cut your insulation boards to fit. We had to cut off about 5" to clear the floorboards. I don't have a picture of that. Close your eyes and picture hubby and his father taking a utility knife to it. Yeah. Nothing photo worthy. Step 3. Lay your insulation board on top of your fabric whether it be felt or flannel. I'm using white craft felt by the yard. I'm allergic to wool so the real stuff is just not going to be hanging in my craft room. Leave about 3-4" all the way around. Cut off the excess and save to use as batting when making smaller wall hangings. Step 4. Fold over the edges and tape all the way around. I'm being sneaky. I'm using clear packing tape. Why? Because that's what we had. Step 5. Attach to the wall. Hubby and hubby's father tried to use 2" screws. Sadly it was not a good experience. The screws just wanted to twist the felt and it just wasn't working so on our way back from having lunch out, we dropped by Walmart to pick up longer nails and more washers... After we came back, I started making chocolate cake and they got to work on the design wall. They put a nail with a washer on it and hammered it in to the wall. I still have to smooth out some of the felt and push it between the two pieces. Hindsight... I should have been watching what they were doing. They didn't make sure the felt was nice and smooth but it won't take me long to fix it up :) So there it is. My design wall. with a fat quarter splatted on it to show it off a bit. Now when I have longer rows of blocks sewn together, I can use pins to hold them up.... and it's bigger than my old blue one - which I still have. I think I'll keep it. It's mostly behind the door so that real estate isn't really in a prime location.... It's been a bit since I released a new pattern. I totally skipped August. We were in the process of selling our house - which was not a pleasant experience thanks to the buyer but that is a totally different story for probably a never not another day... Anyhooo... I had started on Nero in July and had every intention of releasing him on August 1st but that just didn't happen. A little late than never, I'm happy to introduce Nero the Fiddler Crab to my website, www.CraftyDeb.com He's on sale through September 14th. What is next on my hooks? It's actually time for Halloween. I am going to try to get a few new things out before the holiday... and then I'll be on to Thanksgiving and Christmas/winter.... check on back or sign up for my newsletter which will let you know when something is released! You can sign up for it here.... Last Saturday was my Sewing Saturday with my quilt guild. I was working on a baby quilt that I had started and set down last spring. It's for my youngest's best friend's new baby sister - who was born last December... yeah. I'm really behind but then I'm behind on a lot of projects. I'm whittling them all down though, bit by bit...
I finished the top today. It's roughly 47 x 64" I measured it but not I'm forgetting the exact measurements. I purposely made it larger to go on a toddler bed because I figured by the time she got it she might be a toddler! I'm also working on - and hopefully will finish it by tomorrow afternoon - a smaller quilt that can be used for in the car or for her to carry around or snuggle with. It will have another dacshund on it but not as long and 3 of the dresden flowers on it. I've got it mostly done, mostly. I'll try and kick it out tomorrow then quilt that one up so I have something to give her next time I see her. My friend, Jen offered to quilt the bigger quilt for me. She is so sweet. I'm going to owe her a lot of bindings. I sold my Bailey mid arm quilter since I hadn't used it and now I'm beginning to whip out larger quilt tops and am really regretting selling her. It's all good though. If I get my book published, I'll buy an 18" or 20" machine and set it up. For now though, I'll be playing it by ear. Anyhooo... here's my baby quilt picture. The dogs were out of a book called Dare to be Square which is a seriously cute book in my opinion. I got it from our local library. There are a few in there that I want to make. The flowers are just dresdens, alternating the background fabric with the pinks. The Bowls with Borders blog hop has been in full swing this week. Carol over at Just Let Me Quilt blog is a blog hop queen and I'm so happy that I came upon it.... And a big thanks to Madame Samm over at Sew We Quilt for getting it all going. I found out about the blog via Regina Grewe since I'm a big fan of hers. The bowls are her design. She has some seriously cute paper piecing designs available. I suggest checking her out and getting on her newsletter to find out when new designs are available... Anyhooo..... Today is my day to post my first ever blog hop entry! I kind of cheated a little. I had a bit of a preview of my bowls when I did my tutorial on how to paper piece using Lapel Stick. I finished my set of 4 bowls. I originally had printed off a ton of bowl additions. I was going to originally make a ridiculously long one. I don't know why. I just wanted to.... but then we got an offer on our house and it was a quick, stressful closing so I didn't get that super long head start on my bowl project like I originally had envisioned... and then I was wonder what on Earth am I going to do with a ridiculously long stack of bowls? Make it in to a scarf? So I set off to work again, thinking I would make just a stack of 7 and add a teapot then make a shelf above it and put some jars.. well, someone before me already kicked out a really cool version of that so I just had to do something else... I had considered making potholders. They'd make really awesome potholders... but again, someone beat me to it so I chose to do something else yet again... Then I had a brainstorm last Wednesday when I began to work on it again... Lapel Stick in hand (yes, I'm so sold on using it for paper piecing now. It is truly awesome!) I began to make another set of B, C & D bowls... but realized that my C bowl had the same bottom color as the top of the B bowl so I had to make another C bowl.. and then when I was sewing them together I misplaced my B bowl and put two C's next to each other.. Yeah.. I spent some time ripping but that's okay. After I figured out what had happened, it was quick going from there. So I had this stack of bowls... the original 4 plus 3 sets of extra bowls piled on top and all I could think about was man, I hate doing dishes. It makes my finger nails brittle. I need a someone else to do them for me more often... So I dusted off my embroidery machine, frantically searched the craft room for my 5 x 7 hoop and set off to whip up a help wanted ad to go on top of my bowls. I quilted the center, purposely left the border unquilted - yes, I brought it downstairs for some better light and temporarily hung it on the fridge. My oldest thought it was really funny. My youngest actually went to the sink to apply and then realized that he doesn't know how to was dishes. My husband thought it was cute and thought that we should get stronger magnets to hang it on the fridge with.. I explained to him the magnets were there to just hold it up so I could get a good picture of it but ya know what? I kinda like it there so I'll be thinking of somehow to hang it. It's been hanging there ever since so maybe I will get stronger magnets after all :) I put quick corners in all 4 corners so that I could put a dowel on the top as well as the bottom to help keep it straighter... Had I quilted the border it would have helped tremendously but I really didn't want to detract from my border fabric. I regret that now but it's kinda too late since I have quick corners for hanging.... but it's all good :) Overall I'm happy with my scrap fabric box set of bowls. I wonder how many of my relatives are now going to want their own.. I will say that next time I'll make sure I keep my B, C & D bowls in order - and not use 3 colors per bowl. I think 2 would be loads better!! Here is a list for the rest of the bowls today....
August 18th Ann E. Jenny Stekje Yarn-or-Fabric - hey! That's me!! Englating Knotted-Thread Peanut's Patchwork Blessings From Our Nest For a complete schedule of the bowls, click on over here for the complete line up :) |
Deb Richey
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