Continuing bargello saga: All that planning and here's where I am.
Once the rows are sewn for the strata, and you sew the bottom piece to the top piece.....you get a tube. All that is easy, the slicing it up takes a ruler, a sharp rotary cutter, and bravery! I find it the scariest part to slice up the tubes for some reason. But I can go no further if I don't.
So I slice and pin to the design wall. I use 3 1/2" width, 3" width, 2 1/2" width, 2" width, 1 1/4" width for my cuts. I knew I wanted about 5 to 6 very wide cuts, and at least 7 narrow cuts, so those were my first ones. I ended up with 3 at 3" instead of 3 1/2" as I was running out of fabric. Not really a problem as I didn't have a plan written in stone.
This was pinned up according to my original plan with the dark green as the #2 fabric. The strips are still as tubes, so this is one half of the whole design. I liked it, but.....I didn't love it. The drama was happening in the corner not in the middle.
So I began rotating the tubes to change the position of the fabrics and re-pinning to the wall. Zing! That was it, much better. I made notes on the swatch card of the change in number position----but the order of the fabric stayed the same. OK, ready to sew.
Before I get to the serendipity thing that happened, here's the rest of this technique. On the odd number rows the piece at the top is a full piece. The even number rows have half drop pieces at the top. For the odd rows you cut exactly on the seam line between the fabric you want at the top and the last one....or cut the seam line of #1 and #18. #1 goes to the top and #18 to the bottom. For the even number rows, you will cut the piece for the top exactly in half---that gives you the half drop. It is very easy to do by folding the piece in half and matching the seams in the sewn tube and make the cut. I only cut the rows I am sewing right now....remember I get interrupted and confused too easily. Then sew rows together in correct order. Remember Eleanor Burns' book, Quick Trip Quilts, has all the details.
Note the upper corner at the left in the above photo, and look at this one. Guess what I did? I sewed the first 2 rows together in reverse.
Pattern is going up instead of down in the second row.
So I slice and pin to the design wall. I use 3 1/2" width, 3" width, 2 1/2" width, 2" width, 1 1/4" width for my cuts. I knew I wanted about 5 to 6 very wide cuts, and at least 7 narrow cuts, so those were my first ones. I ended up with 3 at 3" instead of 3 1/2" as I was running out of fabric. Not really a problem as I didn't have a plan written in stone.
This was pinned up according to my original plan with the dark green as the #2 fabric. The strips are still as tubes, so this is one half of the whole design. I liked it, but.....I didn't love it. The drama was happening in the corner not in the middle.
So I began rotating the tubes to change the position of the fabrics and re-pinning to the wall. Zing! That was it, much better. I made notes on the swatch card of the change in number position----but the order of the fabric stayed the same. OK, ready to sew.
Before I get to the serendipity thing that happened, here's the rest of this technique. On the odd number rows the piece at the top is a full piece. The even number rows have half drop pieces at the top. For the odd rows you cut exactly on the seam line between the fabric you want at the top and the last one....or cut the seam line of #1 and #18. #1 goes to the top and #18 to the bottom. For the even number rows, you will cut the piece for the top exactly in half---that gives you the half drop. It is very easy to do by folding the piece in half and matching the seams in the sewn tube and make the cut. I only cut the rows I am sewing right now....remember I get interrupted and confused too easily. Then sew rows together in correct order. Remember Eleanor Burns' book, Quick Trip Quilts, has all the details.
Note the upper corner at the left in the above photo, and look at this one. Guess what I did? I sewed the first 2 rows together in reverse.
Pattern is going up instead of down in the second row.
Repeat after me, the first row goes on the bottom and the second row goes on the top.
Since I absolutely hate to unsew, I looked for the serendipity of the situation. Found it, too. A little change in the design plan, and realized this was exactly what I wanted in the first place.
So I am sewing and sewing. The top will take about 2 to 2 1/2 hours . Back soon.
Happy stitching.
Happy stitching.
Looking good.......always wanted to make one of those, just never looked up the directions to do it. Maybe I will start slicing and dicing up some blue fabrics, I have LOTS of blues in all tones and values from almost white to almost black. What size were your strips to begin with before you sewed them in your strata color way?
ReplyDeleteThis one is going to be beautiful... just beautiful!
ReplyDeleteThis looks awesome, Debbie!
ReplyDeleteIt looks great. I am really going to have to give this a try, aren't I?
ReplyDelete