Designing a Bargello Quilt - Part 3

With the design complete, it is back to paper and crayons to work out how much fabric to buy and how to cut it.  I probably could have done this digitally, but I find that physically drawing the pattern on graph paper helps me understand it, and I can scribble notes on it as I go.

NB - I'm not describing in detail how to construct a bargello quilt - if you haven't made one, there are tutorials and patterns available online, and I would suggest trying the technique first before designing your own.

The graph paper I have is four squares to an inch, which is a handy size for quilters, and as the pattern is symmetrical I only need to draw half.  I am going to create the quilt from 2 1/2" strips and would like the shorter edge to be 48" so I need 24 rows and I have numbered them on the left. 

The first column is the centre strip, so I have labelled it C to remind me I only need to make one and the last column is marked Bg for background - this will be a plain strip of the background fabric at each end.  The rest of the columns are numbered from 2 to 18.  Each column has also been marked with the width that the fabric must be cut - starting at 1 1/2" at the left and increasing in stages to 2 1/2".

I simplified the design slightly to use 8 shades of two colours A (shown as red) and B (shown as yellow) plus a dark background D, so now it is a case of adding up how much of each fabric to buy.

Let's start with A and proceed step by step,

 1)     Add up the widths of the colour A columns. 

         1.5 + 1.75 + 1.75 + 2 + 2 + 2.25 +2.25 + 2.5 + 2.5 = 18.5

2)     Note that each of these columns has 16 rows coloured in A but I am only using 8 fabrics so each             will appear twice in every column and I need to double the result from step 1

        18.5 * 2 = 37

3)    Remember the diagram is only half the design, so I need to double again

        37 * 2 = 74

4)     Finally, column C is the centre and only needed to be included once, so I can deduct it from the             total.

        74 - 1.5 = 72.5

Cutting across the width of fabric will give strips that are around 42" long, so this tells me I need two wof strips that are 2 1/2" wide for each shade. So I want to buy 5"  (this is where it gets a bit messy as fabric is sold in metric measurements in the UK, the nearest round number is 20cm).

Repeat steps 1 to 3 for colour B.

Calculating the background fabric is slightly different.  I want to cut the two Bg columns down the length of fabric so I know I need a piece of fabric that is 48.5" long, I am just checking that I can get all the other strips from this piece as well, and I would like to cut them across the width.  Assuming the fabric is 42" wide and I need 5" for the two Bg strips, I have a piece left that is 37" wide by 48 1/2" long.

5)     Every other column has 8 squares coloured in D,  and in most cases there are some at the top and           some at the bottom. The finished height of each row is 2" and if we add 1" to each column for                 seam allowances we have

        

        2 * 8 + 1 = 17.

6)     Remembering that the diagram is only half the design, I double this

        17 * 2 = 34   

        And I can see that this will easily fit across the width of the fabric.

   

 7)    Adding up the width of the columns from C to 18 gives 37" and this will easily fit down the                  length of the fabric.

So converting to metric, I will need to buy 1.25m of D to complete the quilt top (backing and binding to be decided later).

This is as far as I'm going with describing the design process, but I have one final tip to share for assembling the quilt.  I sewed together the strip sets for colours A and B (which consisted of 8 shades running from light to dark  x 2) and before going any further, wrote out a set of labels for the whole quilt on scraps of paper.  I used the headings from the diagram and added a prefix L or R for left/right side - the exception is column C as it marks the centre.  Odd numbers and C are for colour A, even numbers for B.  I found it easier to take each colour and cut all the strips of the same width at once eg all the 2" then all the 1 3/4" and so on, pinning on the labels as I went.

       

 

I repeated the process for the background fabric, however this time there are either one or two pieces per label.

The quilt then comes together easily in two stages.

1)  Attach the background pieces to the strips of A and B by matching the labels.  Refer to the diagram to see which of the pair of background strips goes at the top (lighter end of A or B) and which at the bottom (darker end) when they are different lengths.  Keep a label on each column.

2) Join the completed columns in number order - I joined them all into pairs, then the pairs into fours and so on.

Designing a Bargello Quilt - Part 2

Moving from cutting out coloured paper strips to digital designing.  Working in Illustrator, I created sets of rectangles in 10 shades each of green and orange, then copied and resized them to match the strips I would be cutting from fabric. So they are all the same length but the widths in cm are 1, 1.25, 1.5, 1.75, 2. Again, I used metric measurements to scale down the size while making it easy to keep the proportions the same when converting back into inches for the fabric cutting. NB these widths do not include seam allowances.

I'm not listing the steps here - to be honest, I didn't write it all down at the time and now can't remember what I did!  The good news is there are many Illustrator tutorials out there,  I can recommend Jason Hoppe who generously shares lots of tips and the Adobe You Tube channel.

With the strips all ready, it's playtime. I opened multiple artboards and added coloured rectangles on a separate layer for backgrounds. This is a lap quilt so I want the finished size to be around 60". Making use of a grid, I arranged strips of each colour  to create a wave with the width of the strips and the gaps between them flowing from 2cm to 1cm.  The strips are evenly staggered by moving down one colour each time. Then these waves were copied,  pasted and rotated to try out different arrangements.

It is interesting to see how different the pattern looks when one set of the orange strips are flipped.  Above, the colours run from light to dark twice, below they run from light to dark then dark to light.

I settled on the final design below, I like the hourglass shapes that appear when it is viewed this way up.

With the design complete, the next step is to calculate the amount of each fabric needed and work out the cutting plan, which I will describe in part 3.

Designing a Bargello Quilt - Part 1

I have just finished making the top for this quilt, so it seemed like a good time to share the design process.  This is my first bargello design, which means I can't claim any expertise, and this is not exactly a tutorial, more a description of how I approached it.  If it encourages someone to have a go themselves, then that's great. 

I have made one bargello quilt before using a pattern and read some articles about designing them, so just dived in boldly.  I really like the way colours can be used in this style and also that they look much harder to make than they really are.

First steps - good old cutting and sticking. Handily, Hobbycraft sell pads of paper with lots of shades of one colour.  I used orange and blue cut into 2cm strips and glued them horizontally to white card, grading them from light to dark. NB I usually use inches for patchwork but swopping to metric measurements is an easy way to make a design to scale.  So if I have 2cm paper strips, I know I will need fabric strips that are 2" + seam allowances.

Then I cut the strips vertically -  this time I varied the width, starting at 1cm and going up in increments of 1/4cm - and spent some time rearranging them and seeing what patterns emerged.  At this point it is useful to label the strips so you don't have to keep checking the size.

After a while, I realised I needed a lot more strips to see the whole design, and also to be able to compare different versions, so it was time to go digital and start to work in Illustrator.  I will tell you how in the next post.

Disappearing Nine Patch Quilt

My last post was all about the quilt raffle I am holding to support my daughter's fundraising for Tearfund -  see
http://jinny-gallimaufry.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/quilt-raffle.html
for details of how to enter - and as promised, here's a peek behind the scenes.

I decided to use fabrics from my stash so I pulled out lots of bits and pieces in soft vintage-ish colours, mainly shades of cream and pinky-brown, with a few bits of blue thrown in. Some of the fabrics have strawberries and patchwork imagery, making me think of afternoon tea on the lawn.

Step one - sorting the fabrics into colour value order.

Then trying out arrangements for the nine patch blocks.

 The quilt uses the disappearing nine patch technique, which is new to me.  I have collected lots of images and tutorials on my patchwork and quilting board on Pinterest so do go and have a look.  the general idea is to make a nine patch block, cut it into quarters, rearrange and reassemble.  So you end up with blocks containing large squares, small squares and rectangles which create complex patterns when you join them.

 Laying out blocks.

I machine quilted using lots of separate motifs - they show up more on the back - and brought the blue to the front with a self binding.

 The finshed quilt front

 and back.

Quilt Raffle

So here it is, your chance to win this lovely lap quilt I have made!  The raffle will be drawn on 8th October 2016.  Here's the front...

and on the back you can see all the quilting.  This is my favourite size for a quilt, just right for a summer picnic and we keep one on the back of the sofa for snuggling up when it gets chilly.  

If you want it to last as an heirloom, you can carefully store out of sunlight, and lovingly handwash it.  Or if, like me, you believe things are made to be used, you can just sling it in the washing machine occasionally and enjoy using it until it wears out, full of memories.

 Want to know more about the making of the quilt? Have a look at this blog post
  http://jinny-gallimaufry.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/disappearing-nine-patch-quilt.html
but don't forget to come back to buy some tickets!

And that's not all, the second prize is a Craft Cotton Co. Quilt Collection kit to make your own small quilt,  kindly donated by Hobbycraft, Bristol.

I'm holding the raffle to support my daughter's fundraising - she is volunteering in South Africa at the moment with Tearfund as part of the government backed ICS scheme.  I have put a pledge on her JustGiving page to raise £600 and so far we have around £400, which is brilliant but we want to do more.

So, here's how to get your tickets, which are just £1 each and come in books of 5.

1)  In real life - stop me and buy one, I always have a few with me.

2)  Online - send your donation directly to Katy O'Leary's JustGiving Page.  IMPORTANT - as you are buying raffle tickets you cannot add Gift Aid.  Send me an email at janeolearyart@gmail.com telling me how many tickets you would like and confirming you have donated, and I will email back a photo showing the tickets filled in for you. 

3) By post - send a cheque made out to Jane O'Leary to Quilt Raffle, 13 Cross Hands Road, Pilning, Bristol, BS35 4JB.  If you would like me to send the tickets to you, please also enclose a stamped addressed envelope, otherwise I can email a photo.

Don't miss out! The draw takes place on October 8th 2016.  Let's see how much we can raise to support this great cause.

Silhouette Quilt

Every now and again, I decide I need to practice free machining to get more control.  This time, rather than just stitch random samples, I took one of the designs from my City and Guild diploma work on faces which was based on  a silhouette of my daughter (see this post on Gallimaufry for details) and made a little quilt, about 18” by 12”.  I wanted to try working some of the interesting fillers designs from the free motion quilting project but made the fundamental error of choosing very busy fabric, which meant that most of the time I couldn’t see what I was stitching.  Still, you learn by your mistakes  - the next one will be better.

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