Bargello Adventures

Waaaay back in 2011 i bought a bargello kit at the Ally Pally show, i loved it at the time but as the years passed and i kept seeing it in the stash bag my love for it has gradually waned. I decided i needed to do something about this before i lost the love completely so in April i decided it was time to get it made.

Of course, i couldn't do something so simple as to follow the instructions and have asimple project. No. I had to do something different. Something that didn't involve leafy applique. Something that was slightly more interesting than a grid. And because i wanted it to hang on the wall i thought that Bloke ought to have a say in how it looked.

Over-complicate things? Moi? :/

So, what did i do? I cut up strips of paper and played around with them.

This didn't quite work for me and Bloke didn't like the shape i designed so i investigated computer programs. I found a couple that looked like they might have what i needed (i will have to edit this post when i am at my own computer cos i can't remember what they are called!) and so settled down to have a play around with them. I was able to scan my fabrics into the program and use them in the design which i have to say made it a lot easier to visualise than the strips of paper did!

Several hours later i had a design we both liked. None of which are in the photo above lol

By this time though i had really gone off the colours of the fabrics, i think it's sitting looking at them for so long, willing something to click in my brain and say "YES! That's it, the perfect design"

That never happened in this instance and actually, it rarely does for me. I am rarely satisfied with anything i make. I always think it can be improved somehow. I won't say "never" though cos that wouldn't be true :)

Anyway... I settled on a design and started cutting up the fabrics. It's a very repetitive process:

Sew strips together and make them into tubes

Cut the tubes into varying widths

Find the right colour spot to unpick the seam and make them into strips again

Sew two strips together to make one long one with the colours reversed while fiddling with the centre and end pieces because i decided to do offset strips which requires half blocks!

KEEP THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER!!

I didn't take many photos because i found it quite an intense process. I tend to put my head down and get sewing otherwise i get distracted ;)

Once that is done it is a case of sewing them together to make the final panel.

I took a progress photo once i was halfway through rejoining the strips into the finished piece just to show how much it shrinks in width. I find it quite difficult to visualise the effect of losing half an inch off each strip so this photo really helps in that!

And then once i had finished joining all the strips it had to hang in the living room while i decided how i wanted the borders!!

Again, i couldn't keep it simple, i thought it would be fun to have really thin strips of colour. What i forgot is that it is hard work to keep the thin strips even. Especially with all those seams to go over.

So, it's not perfect in construction but actually, i do really like the finished design.

The borders are assymetrical on purpose. I wanted a contrast to the symmetry of the main design. Although with the variance in colours of the fabrics, tonally it's not symmetrical at all!

I love the placement of the dark splashes in the right hand border too, it was a little more wasteful fabric-wise to do that but it pleases me :D

All that is left to do is to back it and quilt it. That's another challenge for me, i know it doesn't want to be ditch quilted which is my go-to method of quilting but i haven't quite decided what i will do.

Oh well, plenty of time to ponder :D

I have learnt a couple of things with this project. The main one is to check placement of pieces. I could have rearranged the pieces slighty an achieved a better graduating effect instead of that "jump" on the right hand side. As it turns out i like it but i think that is only because of the dark smudge in the border.

Also, i learnt that i shouldn't buy something if i am not going to make it straight away. I came very close to falling out of love with this kit!