A Quilt and A Prayer: Bargello

Monday, May 14, 2012

Design Wall Monday – MOONGLOW!!!

Today my design wall is empty! Why? Well, because the quilt is finished!!! Here is Moonglow in all her glory….

Isn’t she just absolutely gorgeous??? That Jenny Beyer knows her stuff for sure! This was my UFO Challenge quilt for April (& May) - it took two months to complete it, but I am so glad I decided to just continue it until I was done. Whew!!!

It's a good thing I took this picture early Saturday morning, because it started to rain just after and we’ve not seen a dry sky since! Laying it out on the patio was the only way to get the majority of the quilt in the picture. At some point I will get some friends to hold it so I can get a picture of it square on. :*)

The borders were actually not as much trouble as I had feared, but they did take a ton of time! There were seven of them (as I'm sure you remember from my previous whining!), each 1-3/4” wide, starting and ending with the black fabric. The in-between colors radiate out to echo that “glow” look in the blocks.

And by the way, my friend Denise at Count It *All* Joy helped me see my "whining" in a whole new light.... " that's not whining; it's running commentary on the whole creative process, good and bad. It makes for explicit, dramatic, and thorough documentation. LOL!!!"

Yes!!! What she said!!!

So, ahem, uh .. to get back to the business at hand.... Each border was cut 3-1/2” longer than the one before it. Then I sewed them together, staggering the edges in 1-3/4" on each edge.

I also reversed the direction as I sewed the strips together to keep them from curving from the feed dog action. I learned that little trick while making the Twisted Bargello! I pressed the seams all toward the inside on two of the borders and toward the outside on the other two, so that I could nest them when I did the mitering. This helped a ton in getting those seams to meet perfectly!

When the borders were all sewn together as one unit, I marked a quarter inch in on the tips of the corners of the quilt, and began sewing the border units on each of the four sides, stopping and starting at the mark.

Then all that was left was mitering the border corners for a nice finished look! It was so late when I finished this part that I forgot to take pictures, but here is the finished result.

Whew! What a huge job done and off my shoulders!!! It will need to sit for a while now as I figure out what I want to do for backing fabrics and quilting designs.

Also, it is possible that I may end up adding another border to it! My husband likes the quilt so much that he wants us to perhaps put it on our bed!!! He says it is the only quilt I’ve made so far that can rival Bargello :*) But in order to do that, it needs to be slightly larger as it is only 86” square. Let’s see, let me think about that…. for a good long while!!!! Well, at least a few weeks. I really need to work on something else for a while in order to keep my sanity, if you know what I mean :*)

That’s it for me. I don’t have anything else on my design wall yet, but next week I’ll start posting process pictures of Vintage Valentine!

It’s going to be so much fun to do this sweet applique after all the intense piecing of Moonglow!

Have a marvelous week my friends!!! I'm off now to have a little therapy time with my sewing buddies :*) The first lady on the left is Linda, and we will be without her for the next 6 months because she goes to Wisconsin for the summers. Take care Linda and we'll see you in October!!!

You can go HERE to Patchwork Times to see what others have on their design walls!

Also linking up with What a Hoot for BOM's Away!

Quilting by the River's Linky Party

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Such a Sew and Sew May Finishes

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

=^..^=

Monday, April 9, 2012

What’s on Your Bed?

Bonnie Hunter set up a little impromptu Linky party today, asking in her post – “What’s on your bed?”

This Twisted Bargello quilt was the first quilt I made when I got into quilting in 2006. (Or should I say, when I “dove” into quilting? I’m not sure I’ve come up for air yet – LOL!!!) Prior to this, my entire experience with quilting had been starting a hand-pieced grandmother's flower garden during a class in the early 80's that was still half-pieced and abandoned in a box on the top shelf of my closet!

When we moved to Tennessee, I was able to not work for the first time since my children were little and I was looking for something to do that would be fun and creative. Then I learned about a small quilting group in a local quilt shop, and since I had been sewing since I was a little girl, I was very interested in seeing what they were up to. The first day I walked into that shop, these wonderful ladies welcomed me in like a long-lost friend and I have been having a ball with them ever since!!!

Now as for this Twisted Bargello on my bed, no one told me I shouldn’t start with a Bargello, so as soon as I saw one of these beauties, I loved it and immediately signed up for the class to make it. It took me several months to complete the quilt top, but then it sat for about a year because I really wanted to quilt it myself and I took classes here and there while I jumped into several other quilt projects at the same time. Ever been there done that? Come on, you can admit it here! We’re all friends here, right? Hehehe!

After a while, my husband and I decided if we ever wanted to enjoy having it on our bed, we’d better cough up the bucks and get it professionally done because it was taking me a while to feel competent enough to quilt something like this special quilt on my home sewing machine! :*D

This quilt is a favorite of my husband’s, so it has remained on the bed ever since. I’ve started new ones for it, but somehow they never seem to be able to live up to the Bargello in his eyes!

So what’s on YOUR bed? Go to Quiltville to see all the lovely quilts on your fellow quilters’ beds!