Bargello Finished

When I left you yesterday, the strips were all sewn together into a tube and ready to start the “bargello–ing” process…..

The next step was to cut the “tube” up into various sizes of strips but my first issue was how to make the tube flat and even so that my strips wouldn’t be wonky!!

I thought about it for a while and decided to fold the tube in the middle of one of the strips rather than on a seam line. I used a ruler to make sure that the first fold was exact across the entire strip…..

Once I had the tube even, it was time to make the cross-wise cuts. I started at one end with a 3″ cut, followed by 2.75″, 2.5″, 2.25″, 2.0, 1.75″, 1.5″ and 1.0″. Then I started going back up again, increasing by a 1/4 inch each time…..

Now I could lay out the strips and see the movement…..

Even though I am only seeing half of it here, I LIKE it!!

Now comes the fun part!!

On each strip, I had to take one of the seams apart……

so that the squares moved up or down in each column….

There was one misstep but it was easily fixed!!

I added numbers to all of the strips……

….and started the sewing process…….

It was a bit slow because I had to stop and line up EACH of the diagonal seam lines. This was made easier because the strips had been ironed to opposite sides so the seam allowances were ALWAYS facing opposite directions!!

I did figure out a way to use both hands to align the seams with my left hand on top and my right hand on bottom……

After each seam, I carefully pressed the strips, allowing the seam allowance to migrate to the wider strip.

I didn’t take long to put the strips together……

I had a small portion of the strip tube left, so I cut out two more 2-inch strips and added them to each of the sides……

It needed some borders and, although I only wanted to add one, it really needed two. I finally succumbed and added two!!

I do like this first Bargello quilt and am looking forward to making more with each being a little more complicated than the previous one.

Stay with me and we will see how far this goes before I poop out!!