Bargello Blues Quilt

Bargello Blues Wallhanging Quilt

 

Wow, I sure seem to be on a roll lately with UFO completions.  Yay.  This is the second week in a row I’ve finished off an old project.  Sorry if it seems like Bargello Quarterly around here, it’s just that I have a couple of workshops coming up this fall using the Bargello technique so I wanted to get some of these pieces finished to display them at quilt shops around the area.

So, today’s UFO Spotlight is another of Ruth Blanchett’s Bargello Designs “Bargello Blues Quilt“.  I just love the sweeping geometric rhythms created in this piece.  This quilt is actually a really good one to use to talk about how important it is to be really careful with your fabric design.  As I mentioned in my post last week on fabric selections for bargellos, the success of the bargello effect depends really heavily on the fabrics you choose.

So, why is this such a good example?  Well, I will take for granted that you agree with me that the finished quilt is pretty stunning.  I know, I know, that sounds really conceited but hear me out.  I want to show you what this quilt top looked like with my first fabric selections and you’ll see what I mean about how important it is to get the fabrics right:

Bargello Blues Quilt In Progress

Bargello Blues Quilt In Progress

Do you see the difference?  After I had finished putting this quilt top together I realised that the third lightest fabric was really distracting.  In fact, it nearly ruins the quilt.  Can you just imagine how much work it was going to be to rip out all those tiny pieces and replace them?  I knew that if I didn’t change the fabric I would never finish the quilt and boy would that have been a waste of fabric, time and effort.

See, the thing is, Bargello Quilting uses a tube technique to make all the strips so you don’t have to piece all those tiny little swatches of fabric together.  Unfortunately, repair or replacement doesn’t get to use the tube technique and instead has to be performed by hand.  My favourite, reverse sewing! Ugh!  I am what I am, though, a perfectionist, so the pieces had to be replaced.

I think it was worth it in the end, don’t you think?

Right.  I know I still owe you a list of all my outstanding UFOs, so hopefully I will get that worked out later this week.

In the meantime, I hope this second UFO Spotlight has helped inspire you to open up your tickle trunk, pull out an old project and finish it off.  I’d love to hear about your UFOs that you’re working on, or if you’ve just finished one, or even if you’re struggling to figure out how best to quilt or build your borders.  Drop me a comment below and let’s chat about it.

As always, you are welcome to submit your own finished UFOs to be featured here on the Quilts by Jen blog.

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