Bargello Piecing

Quilt Top – Assembled

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108 Blocks Assembled

I just finished sewing all 108 blocks together – they need a bit more pressing but I’m now ready to move on to the next step – adding contrasting circles and embroidery to make this a double layer quilt. Later this afternoon, I’ll add fusible web to the back of my pile of blue fabric scraps and begin cutting out circles in many different sizes to fuse to the top.

I’ve already spend a couple of hours looking through my embroidery design collection for circular shaped embroideries – I’ve put several in a folder so I can locate them later. They’ll all need modifying for size and included elements. It takes a lot of time!

The assembly of the quilt top went reasonably quickly – I didn’t pin each row to the growing top – I find my nestings aren’t as accurate if I do; I start at one end, match up the first nesting, hold it firmly against my machine bed with my right index finger as I stitch toward my finger/the join. I take a stitch or two past the join then align the next nesting, holding it firmly with my index finger as I stitch my 1/4″ seam toward that nesting point. I do that with each segment. When I flip and press that row open my joins/nestings are almost all dead on.

There are some small inaccuracies – the original cutting of the blocks may be a smidgeon inaccurate, the HST diagonals may be a very tiny bit off the corner, my seams may be a thread width from exactly 1/4″ in spots, etc. All those very small variations add up – that’s quilting for you! But if you look closely, my joins are pretty close and when when I’ve added the circles/embroidery and quilt the whole project, nobody but me is going to notice the “background” seam joins.

Thursday, I taught a “bargello” class – about using strips sewn together, the panel then cut in strips of different widths, these new strips are sewn together to create a “wave” – this involves lots of nesting of seams.

2 Bargello Blocks

The two blocks came from one of the two sets of WOF strips I created for a demonstration piece. I’m not going to make the second two blocks – I don’t need another table runner I’m not going to use. I could give it away, but this two block piece will go into my “demonstration” projects box along with the remaining set of strips which I can use on another occasion when I’m teaching “bargello” again.

Both women in the class were nervous about sewing nested seams – there’s lots of practice in this project and in fact they’re easy to do – also without pinning. The joins are actually more accurate, I find, if I just align each new nesting as I go along, one at a time. The whole block assembles surprisingly quickly.

I could have joined the two blocks end-to-end, with the yellow centre blocks pointing in the same direction; I could have aligned them side by side with the yellow centres both pointing toward the opposite side. I chose to alternate them – to make my join I added two narrow strips to each block to bring the yellow back to the edge on each side. I probably should have made the join using the widest strip on each block but one of my wide strips wasn’t cut accurately – I only had one I could use – so I cut it in half!

This is, after all, a demonstration piece.

Bargello Table Runner #2

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I’ve been working on a second bargello table runner for a class I held last week (we’re supposed to meet again in a week and a half – not sure if the gals will come or not – not sure if the shop will even be open!) The government directives to “stay at home” may prevail and even this small group may not take place. If that should happen I may try a Google “Hang-Out” with the gals – (that’s if I can get it to work and write them some instructions for connecting) so we might talk about assembling their table runners. [PS: Everything has closed down here in NS – shop closed; classes cancelled… (Mar 19 2020)]

My fabric for this runner came from a 5″ wide 20 strip jelly roll with a lovely range of contrasting colours. I selected 10, deciding to use the bronze as the contrast fabric and situated it between two of the black/bronze strips. 5″ allowed me to cut 2 x 2 1/2″ set – precisely what I needed for 4 bargello blocks.

Bargello Table Runner II – Under Construction

Notice I said 2 1/2″ strips. The previous bargello table runner used 2″ strips. Using 2 1/2″ strips makes each block quite a bit taller – so much so that placed together end to end (as above) my table runner would turn out to be somewhere around 75″ long; too long for my table; too long to hang on my front door.

So, I’ve decided to join the blocks on the sides using a 1 1/2″ strip which allows me to generate a flowing wave pattern. The other thing I did was to use several narrower strips at the centre of the block which produced a more bargello-like curve to the layout (more obvious in the top image).

Three blocks laid out as a “wave”

I haven’t sewn all three blocks together yet – I want to be able to show the gals different ways of thinking about layout. So tomorrow I’ll assemble the 4th block (which is cut and laid out) and ready to go.

I should end by saying to anyone reading this “Stay safe.” Stay well!” I am staying at home for the most part – I went to pick up a prescription this afternoon. I tried to see my dentist (I just lost a small filling while eating lunch) but the office is only taking emergencies. My small filling doesn’t count – so heaven knows when I might be able to get it repaired. Months maybe?

I’m so grateful to have the sewing and knitting to keep my mind and hands busy. I’ve a lot of projects, including a spring jacket, I want to work on during the next while.

Bargello Table Runner IV

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I finally finished the 57″ x 16″ Bargello table runner last evening. It took me several hours over two days to stitch the whole thing in the ditch – that was because I was changing thread colour and having to stitch on the zig-zag.

Bargello Table Runner – Finished

I thought about quilting the piece in the hoop for quite a while – doing an edge-to-edge style of design along the length – but I decided it would detract from the bargello detail. In this case, I also stitched through the backing, which meant I needed to add a binding. I chose a 1/4″ binding on the front but 3/4″ hand stitched down on the back.

The original Bargello piece is also finished – it’s the inverse of the longer table runner with a dark, rather than the light, centre.

Bargello Table Runner I

I’m teaching a class in two weeks on how to improvise a Bargello block and how to think about layout for a table or bed runner, a cushion, a wall hanging, or a quilt. The point will be to understand how the quilting version is derived from wool on canvas work and uses the same math principles.

For the class, I will need to set up another Bargello piece so I can demonstrate forming the tube stitched from 10 strips, cutting, and laying out the Bargello array. Better think about that in the next day or two.

Here are instructions for this table runner –  Download the PDF

Bargello Table Runner III

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I’ve just finished piecing the bargello table runner top. The second pair of blocks went quite a bit faster than the original two because I was careful about pressing seams in the right directions so I would have no nesting problems as I assembled the blocks.

Bargello Table Runner Top – Finished

The unanticipated thing was pressing seams as I constructed the blocks – I discovered I had to press the seams in the opposite direction from the original two blocks so seams would nest when I went to attach the new ones.

Next I have to find a backing fabric. I’m going to do a pillow case finish without bindings to preserve the clean edge I have here.

Bargello Table Runner II

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Years ago I did some wool on canvas bargello embroidery creating seat covers for several chairs.

Bargello done with wool and canvas

Bargello is done by stitching across a set humber of canvas threads – in this case I’d guess 4 threads – with adjacent stitches stepping down two threads. Also there are different numbers of stitches at different points – three consecutive stitches over the same threads, two, two, one, one, one, one… It’s the changing number of repeat stitches at any level that creates the interesting curved lines characteristic of bargello work.

It’s similar with creating bargello using fabric. Set up a panel from coloured strips, cut new strips of different widths from the panel, sew these strips together systematically staggering the colours to set up a bargello pattern.

Beginning to Lay Out The Pattern

Here is my completed bargello block:

Bargello “block”

Here are two blocks sewn together to make a curved diamond.

Bargello Double Block

Yesterday when I created a test block I wasn’t quite careful enough with my cutting, and my 1/4″ seam allowances weren’t perfect, so the finished panel was just a bit slanted. Instead of doing the same block using my second set of strips, I started a new layout and this time I made sure my ruler didn’t slip while cutting the initial strips, that I matched up my edges precisely when sewing them together, was particularly careful when cutting the panel into different width strips and nested the seam joins when sewing those strips together. My two blocks turned out pretty much the same dimensions (and although the photo doesn’t demonstrate it, this panel is straight).

The other thing I did this time was to add a 10th very dark strip next to my contrast colour. I ran into difficulty nesting the joins yesterday and that was because I had used just 9 strips initially – taking care to press my seams in alternate directions – but when I added in the contrast strip and joined it to the first (creating a tube) I ended up with a pressed seam not paired to another and as a result I was changing nesting direction for just about each join/point while assembling the block. With 10 initial strips I had the right number of seams that when pressed in opposite directions matched up.

Seams pressed in opposite directions

Sewing the different width staggered strips together was nearly effortless – the nestings were all just about exact. So in spite of some directions I’d found online calling for an odd number of strips to form the bargello layout, it turns out an even number of initial differently coloured strips makes the later sewing much easier.

Bargello Table Runner

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The women in the last class I taught asked for another project. I thought they might be interested in bargello piecing. It looks complicated, but it’s another of those techniques where you sew strips together to set up a colour palette, then recut and re-sew to create some kind of a pieced pattern.

Bargello is a type of needlepoint embroidery consisting of upright flat stitches laid in a mathematical pattern to create motifs. The name originates from a series of chairs found in the Bargello palace in Florence, which have a “flame stitch” pattern. Traditionally, Bargello was stitched in wool on canvas; but bargello can also be created from fabric piecing.

A number of years ago I made a bargello quilted jacket:

Bargello Quilted Jacket – Back

The jacket was cut from 6 panels constructed from pieced strips – 2 fronts, 2 sleeves, 2 backs (joined in the centre). In this case the second cut was done so that there were two sets of strips on opposite diagonals creating the zigzag effect.

There are simpler ways to piece bargello. Today, I took nine 2″ strips cut from the width of fabric graduated in colour from pale to dark blue with a contrasting yellow/green. I sewed the nine strips together from light to dark, then added the contrast strip and sewed the first and last strips together to form a tube.

Bargello Table Runner – In Progress

Next, I cut the tube into 11 strips of different width (1″ – 2 1/2″) and sewed them together to create the parabolic curve. I had enough fabric in the first sewn panel to make two blocks which I then stitched together in opposite directions to get the “diamond” in the panel above.

I started out by cutting two sets of 2″ strips – I will use the second set of strips to make two more bargello blocks to add to either end of the current piece to construct a table runner – the project I’m suggesting for a class.

I will need to take pictures as I construct the second two bargello blocks to record the steps in the process.

So far we’ve heard back from one person who is interested in doing the class. Hope there will be a few more.