The very beginning
of my first“Bargello”
Three and a half to four years ago my youngest daughter asked if she might be so bold and put in a request for the next quilt I would make her…
“Why sure” I told her and proceeded to ask what pattern she had in mind…
her answer was
“A Bargello”
“I would like it to be a light weight one, done in colors that make you think of spring ,in the wave pattern , I’d like to put it on my bed in the warmer months of the year.”
This sounded very nice…
A pretty Spring Quilt.
After seeing one my stomach seized and my hair stood out on end…
Somehow…,
somewhere
my family had come upon the conclusion that
“Momma can do anything…”
or at least somehow make sure it got done”
Not wanting to be toppled from any pedestals..
even if they where very short ones…
I agreed to the task…
“There’s no rush Momma” she spoke sweetly
“I’d just love to have one”
…
The first thing I did was call my sister, The winner of numerous State quilting awards …
We began looking over the internet for some kind of
instruction…
“She” ,
my sister that is within no time had made herself a bargello quilt…
upon her next visit she accompanied me to the fabric store and we picked out the ten different pieces of material that would come together to make
my first Bargello…
Decided which way the colors would come in the pattern, and then after my sister spent several days with me she and her award winning know how went home…
leaving me to contemplate
how on earth I would be able to stand up to this task…
well, that fabric sat there in my sewing room and talked to me…
It did a pretty good job of belittling me…
we got news of our grandsons soon to be arrival and I “had” to finish
his “100 Wishes” Quilt that so many people had given bits of fabric to have made for him…
about the time that was finished
the company was sending us to New Hampshire …
“Well”, I told myself, “I really should not start cutting fabric and have those moving men loose or mess up any of it..”
So I waited…
each excuse became easier…
and with each passing month
the fear of the unknown…
of cutting and not being able to piece together a pretty quilt
became humongous…
other quilts,bibs for children and adults, bowling shirts,and drum major outfits have been made…
The Bargello fabric moved to South Carolina with me and then on back down toward Savannah where it had first originated …
By now the fabric had quit talking …but had begun taunting…
I have decided it was time to conquer the Bargello…
Now for those of you that have not seen or at least known that you were seeing a Bargello Quilt here are a few pictures I have come across on the web
You figure out how to put a bargello together to get the pattern you want…
You start out with so many colors, cut strips sew them together make tubes of these strips, cut them apart and resew them together to get the pattern you want.. I have seen instructions for the twisted one, and some others but, not the wave…
Last week I said enough is enough,
went to town and found a book on Bargello
It did not have the pattern but it did
tell me how on graft paper to draw my design,
then with the help of a little math…I plotted my pattern
each 1/10 of an inch of graft paper equal to 1/4 of an inch of fabric…
The 10 colors will be
cut in 3 inches strips.
Each strip
will repeat 4 times per run
with 2 runs for the top before boarders…
and finally the work has begun on Carries
Bargello.
The fabric all prewashed and ironed was ready to cut…
Each piece was squared up and trimmed…
with very close supervision
All ten were cut to 3” wide
Next posting we will start to sew!!!
I faced my fears and found that they had been for nothing all these years!
I should have listened to my mama…
she has always said
“Why,you girls can do anything you set your mind to…”
.
