DogHouseMom

Bargello is much easier than a Lone Star. For one thing, no bias cuts, no triangles, just a bunch of squares and rectangles. The "twisted" Bargello are a bit trickier and depending on the complexity of the pattern you may or may not "tube" the strips. The one in my avatar was not tubed.

A few tips for you.

1) When you choose colors bring a color viewer with you. If your choosing red fabric you'll need a blue or green viewer. All other colors use a red viewer. The viewer will "remove" the color and show the "value" instead so you have light to dark. I have a red "Ruby Beholder" that I use and my blue is a wine glass that happened to be the right color! You could also use a few pieces of easter basket colored celophane sandwiched together to make a color viewer.

2) When choosing fabric, select fabric that doesn't have drastic color/value changes within itself on a large scale. For example: a 5" purple flower on a cream background with 3" of uninterrupted background color showing would be a bad choice. Some of your bargello blocks will be small enough so that only cream is showing and some will have only purple showing. If the purple flowers were very close together, or very small, you would be OK though. I've made several Bargello now (5? 6?) and each time it can take me literally days to pick just the right fabric in just the right order. I leave them laid out on my table and just look at them a little every day in different lighting.

3) When you sew the seams together (for both the 'color strips' and the 'bargello strips') sew one seam up and the next seam down. I usually leave the tail of thread attached to the beginning of the strip so I know which way I sewed the last row then start in the opposite direction for the next row.

I'm totally in love with Bargello and they are a lot easier than they look.

Good luck and have fun!!

woody

If you can cut straight and sew straight you can do a bargello LOL
Take it slow and keep things organised it's not that bad

lynn7448

What is a color viewer and where can you purchase them?

candi

I agree. The Bargello is all squares and rectangles, easy to match up seams.
I made a queen sizw Bargello, currently wokring on a wallhanging size lone star, and the later is definitely WAYharder than the Bargello..I'd say fo for it. I am now wishing I started another Bargello instead of this Lone star, but it will not turn into a UFO..I hope :?

Cybrarian

My first Bargello was a twisted Bargello at my LQS and I considered myself a confident beginner/new intermediate at the time. It turned out beautifully (I did the FMQ also). My teacher made all the difference-as a long time educator I can definitely recognize the impact she had on all of us. Beautiful quilts and all so different!! If you're not familiar with the teacher try to find other patrons of your shop that are willing to give an honest opinion. Label & organize, measure & check twice to sew once! Enjoy.

DogHouseMom

A color viewer will remove the "color" and allow you to view the fabric for value only (light, medium, dark) as it is sometimes hard to see with certain patterns.

there is a viewer on the market called a "Ruby Beholder" which is a translucent red plastic rectangle about 3" x 7". But you can't use red to view red fabric. For red fabric (and reddish browns, and oranges) use either blue or green. I don't know of a blue or green item on the market.

OR you can find something that is primary red or primary blue or green, translucent, and easy to carry (to take with you to LQS). You can even make your own by purchasing a sheet of colored celophane (the kind they use to wrap easter baskets). Just cut several squares or rectangles - enough to have "color" but not so much that you can't see through.

You then view the fabric from a distance through the viewer and you'll be able to see light from dark.

OK ... took two pic's of some fabric I have laid out on my table at the moment auditioning to be palm fronds <g>. Took one pic normally, the other I held my red color viewer against the camera lens. you can see how the viewer removes the 'color' of piece and reduces it to lights and darks.

LastGrandma

Thanks, DogHouseMom, for posting the filtered pic! Never realized that it would make that much difference!

momski

Wow, thanks everyone. I will definatly sign up for it.

I honestly left that Lone Star quilt class in tears and tucked it away where not even I would come across it. Two moves later, it's still in the same UFO box... somewhere at the bottom. Supposedly all I had to do was run a 1/4" seam on my perfectly trimmed strips and my star would appear; I call BS on that idea!


That color viewer is pretty awesome, thanks for the illustratin DogHouseMom!

sushi

I took the basic bargello course online from Quilt University, and I was totally shocked by how easy the technique is. At BEST, I could have been considered an advanced beginner. If I could manage an online course, I'm sure you can manage an in-person course where you can actually see how things are done.

While easy, bargello quilts are quite time, material, and thread consuming. (And the narrower the strips, the more time, material, and thread is consumed.) If you think about it, the first 1/3 of the work is creating a new piece of fabric, consisting of sown-together strips from all the fabrics you've chosen.

The second 1/3 is cutting your newly constructed "fabric" into new strips and sewing them together. (The third 1/3, not special to bargello, is finishing the quilt - batting, back, quilting, binding.)

To summarize, the technique requires 3 skills:
- the ability to use a rotary cutter
- the ability to sew a 1/4" seam
- the ability to keep track of all your pieces (I used scraps of paper attached with safety pins, and my design wall was two beach towels basted together :-)

I hope this helps and gives you the courage to proceed with the bargello class.

DogHouseMom

An easy way to keep track of which fabric is A, B, C etc is to keep the first cut after you put the color strip together (and before you "tube" it). Just hang that on your design wall and I either pin small post it notes to it, or if fabric is light enough I just use a heavy marker and mark it.

And one more tip. When you cut your color strips into Bargello strips, remember to constantly check the tube/pieced strips for straightness after you cut a strip. Because they are all pieced it's easy for them to skew and you'll have slanted bargello squares/rectangles. Yeah - ask me how I know :)