Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Wavy Bargello Quilt



At last, the Bargello (pronounced bar Jello) I made months ago before Christmas for Tekara. I really need to put up a clothes line or something to display these a little better.  I pulled this straight off her bed so it's a little wrinkly....  It's actually quite an easy quilt to make, ANYONE can do it! I saw this idea when I was looking for something fun and simple, yet striking. I pulled some of the fabric out of my stash and the rest came from an awesome sale on fat quarters from Joann's. I've been wanting to do something really colorful and happy and this was just the pattern to fit that. I couldn't find free instructions anywhere and (being pregnant at the time) didn't really want to spend time looking for a book with this specific pattern so I figured it out on my own.

For the design I did, I just cut out a few strips from each color 2 1/2 inches x 21 inches. Then I arranged them in the order I wanted them to appear, from top to bottom (40 different fabrics) and then sewed them all together In one long row. Then I sewed the ends together to make a tube. This is the fastest and easiest method for this specific quilt.  I made sure to iron all my seams flat and then folded the tube so that I could cut strips from each tube.

x6  ~  3 1/2 inch
x5  ~  3 inch
x7  ~  2 1/2 inch
x7  ~  2 inch
x11~  1 1/2 inch

The strip sizes from the tube are what give the quilt the wavy look. You can create a subtle wave, or something more dramatic depending on your preference. How to make the wave is to seam rip on the color where you want the wave to start on the bottom left corner. The next strip you seam rip between the next two colors, slowly moving your starting color up each row. Then voila! You have a wave! It took me a little bit to graph out a good size variation because I wanted a smooth wave. You can work something out on your own, or you can use the one I figured out already. The order I used by size I cut (not the finished size) from left to right was:

Row 1:      3 1/2
Row 2:      3
Row 3:      3
Row 4:      2 1/2
Row 5:      2 1/2
Row 6:      2
Row 7:      1 1/2
Row 8:      1 1/2
Row 9:      1 1/2
Row 10:    1 1/2
Row 11:    1 1/2
Row 12:    2
Row 13:    2
Row 14:    2 1/2
Row 15:    3
Row 16:    3 1/2
Row 17:    3 1/2
Row 18:    3 1/2
Row 19:    3 1/2
Row 20:    2 1/2
Row 21:    2 1/2
Row 22:    2
Row 23:    2
Row 24:    1 1/2
Row 25:    1 1/2
Row 26:    1 1/2
Row 27:    1 1/2
Row 28:    1 1/2
Row 29:    1 1/2
Row 30:    2
Row 31:    2
Row 32:    2 1/2
Row 33:    3
Row 34:    3 1/2
Row 35:    3
Row 36:    2 1/2

Because of the movement, this design is very forgiving if any of your corners don't match up perfectly.  So don't sweat it!

The border was 3 1/2 inch cut black with white polka dots sandwiching a 1 1/2 inch cut lavender.

If you have a question or I need to clarify something or am missing something, please leave a comment!



4 comments:

  1. how big is your finished quilt?

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  2. Hahaha, good question! I can't believe I forgot to put that in. It came out to 78 1/2" w x 91 1/2" h.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you! It's lovely. And thank you for going to the trouble of writing out the instructions.

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  3. Finally you published (shared) the directions for this great quilt. I got to see it in person before the border and it is amazing. I love when a wonderful looking quilt is not easy to see exactly how it is done--in other words that is looks way harder (or more difficult) than it is. I actually haven't tried it yet, but with the directions of how you put the different widths will help immensely--I can put down the graph paper and the colored pencils, oh yeah and the small strips of paper as a sample ha ha.
    Love it
    Mom Deb

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