The Tube Method of Sewing Bargello Quilts
Quilting as a craft and art form enjoyed a dramatic resurgence in the 21st century, and one of the oldest and most revered forms of traditional quilting is the bargello quilt. The pattern has the same name as the embroidery pattern sometimes called "flame stitch," where various colors are juxtaposed in stitches to resemble a rising and falling flame. Bargello quilting is an ancient and pleasing design that has undergone thousands of mutations from the very traditional Amish "round the world" pattern, containing a dozen or more colors, to more modern and subtle waves of color variations. Newer bargello pattern books present ways to make color waves curve and twist.
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Start with Strips
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Begin the tube construction of a bargello quilt with fabric strips cut to a uniform width of about 3 inches. They all must be of the same length, from 12 to 16 inches long. These fabrics may be gradations of a single color or may be cut from scraps of fabric of totally unrelated colors and patterns. The number of strips, the size of the strips and the length of the finished tubes will affect the size of the finished quilt.
Form a Long Piece
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Sew the strips of fabric together lengthwise to form a piece about 30 or more strips long. Sew with a quarter-inch seam allowance, and keep the edges uniform if possible. If using variations of a single color, arrange the strips in a pleasing order, and repeat that order if necessary. If the colors are random, arrange the strips randomly or to please the eye. If the same pattern can be repeated, sew another set of strips together. Otherwise, create a new and different set of strips to create a new long piece.
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Sew a Tube
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Press the seams all in one direction, and trim the edges of the piece with a rotary cutter and ruler. Fold the piece, right sides together, to make first and last strips of fabric meet, and stitch those strips together to make a tube. Holding the tube flat on the cutting board, cut the tube into strips as wide as the original strips. So if the first strips were 2 inches wide, these new strips must be 2 inches wide. When finished, all the squares will be exactly alike..
Begin Offset
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Separate the first strip wherever desired by clipping the seam between squares. Set this aside. Select the next strip, plan to place it one square above or below the first, separate the squares as needed and sew this strip to the first with right sides together. Continue with the third strip, offset it one square above or below the second and continue sewing. All the strips should either climb or descend from each other.
To Finish
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A bargello quilt can be simply finished by sewing the rising and falling sections together, adding a backing and binding and quilting around the squares. Another way to finish bargello is to combine strips so that the colors rise or fall all the way across the quilt. It is also possible to add sashing between the sections to make the quilt larger. Bargello designs are perfect for using scraps, making bold, utilitarian quilts for everyday use.
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