Click to see larger view of this quilt

Hey Everyone, welcome back to Story Time Monday.

Bargello in Autumn is the third in my Bargello Seasons series. If you missed the first two you can check them out here: Bargello in Spring and Bargello in Summer. The Bargello quilts were all designed by Ruth Blanchet of Arbee Designs.

This Bargello is a little bit different in that there are fracture strips inserted between each and every Bargello strip and they are a quarter inch finished. Looks harder than it really is. Ruth has a great tip for inserting them and making sure everything is sewn straight and even.

I spent hours picking the fabrics for this quilt – all day in fact. I was in the Outback of Australia and had no quick and easy access to a quilt shop so had to dig deep into my stash. At the time I thought how am I ever going to come up with enough autumn colours. The quilt required eleven different fabrics for the colour run and then another one for the fracture strips. This meant mixing cottons with batiks – something I had not really done up until now and I loved the result. I managed to get enough from the stash to make the quilt plus increase it’s size and add a pieced border. Bonus. I chose golden yellow and rust coloured fabrics to create this autumn Bargello. Perfect warm colours that represent autumn.

The colour run used to create this piece

I, of course, had to change things up like I did with the other two and so made the Bargello design almost twice as long as the original. I didn’t have enough fabric to make all of the fracture strips the same so I used 2 – a light and dark fabric. The light I put in the middle and the dark out towards each end. The challenge was to make sure that the horizontal seam lines met up with each other on either side of these fracture strips.

Light and dark fracture strips between Bargello strips

I wanted to create a border that would really highlight the centre but also be very unique. Once again I referred to The Border Workbook by Janet Klime. The border I used was inspired by one from her book. I had to get my head around the math and the angles for this one but eventually I worked it out. The mitred corners were a bit of a challenge but they do set it all off nicely.

A lot of strips and bias edges to create this border

Once again this quilt sat in a drawer waiting to be quilted. It wasn’t until I returned to Canada and had an impromptu trunk show with some friends of my mother-in-laws that I had to get busy and get it quilted. One of the ladies had loved it and purchased it for her daughter as a Christmas present. She said it reminded her of Africa.

Nothing like a time line to get something done. I used my walking foot to quilt this piece and I used a variegated King Tut thread by Superior Threads. There was a lot of twisting and turning of this quilt as I turned corners and followed the Bargello lines.

Close up of quilting in Bargello design

To quilt the border I just echoed each strip on both sides of the seam lines and changed threads depending on whether the fabric was rust or yellow. A lot of work with a stunning result. I certainly pulled through and tied off a lot of ends.

Close up of quilting in border

I called this one In Flight as to me it looks like a bird with it’s wings spread soaring high overhead. Wouldn’t it be cool to be able to fly and look down on earth – it would be an amazing experience. I guess I’ll just have to read Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach again and live vicariously through his eyes. If you haven’t read it it is a fantastic book and a very fast read.

Want to learn how to create a Bargello? Then join me at Country Concessions in Cookstown the last 2 Fridays in May to create Bargello in Spring, Summer or Winter. Check out my Bargello workshop listing for more information and contact Country Concessions to book.

Happy Quilting!

Disclosure Note: I buy and use the products mentioned in this post and write about them without influence from the designer or any other commercial interests. I have included links to the products on Amazon.com and may receive a small commission if you purchase from these links. This doesn’t cost you any more to purchase these items but it does help me maintain this website, so I hope that you will please use these links.

I shared this post on Anything Goes Stich’n’Sew, What a Hoot!: BOMs Away Monday, Quilt Story Fabric Tuesday