My Big Goof Up

     Now that I have your attention, I can share my frustration over my misfire. I loved the Blue Bargello quilt I made (now gone) and bought 2 jelly rolls (you need 2) to make another bargello. The Robert Kaufman Watercolor Blossoms roll does not have 2 of every strip (who knew?) so I spent a lot of time digging and finding replacement batik fabric to cut and substitute for those single ones. Ok, covered that before. I sewed the two jelly rolls into 2 sets of strip tubes after arranging them in the best gradation I could do. Ok. Then, covid intervened and cooled off the whole project. While recovering, I marked all the 19 cuts I had to make in the first tube. Because my brain was hazy, I measured once, drew lines on the fabric, marked off on the pattern for each size cut, measured again, numbered the strips with painters tape, and wrote the measurement on each top back of each strip in pencil. Thought I had it made.

    However, in my single focus to sew the strips in accurate pairs, then 2 pairs, etc. I moved each strip up one. In my befuddled state, I did not switch directions when I got to the narrowest strip. As a result, I ended up with one big diagonal. Arghhh! Now what? I have another whole jelly roll strip set hanging there. Did I just waste $$$ and time? Even the cat left the room in disgust. 

What the first half should have looked liked like in design
(this is the blue bargello)

What it actually looks like

    The pattern I am using is a free one, but no longer available and the person who wrote it disappeared from the internet. I love sewing bargello, but I don't understand how to design them to do what you want. I would love to know, but I could not find any relevant tutorial on the web. Using colored strips of paper to figure it out is beyond me. My friend, Elizabeth, always says work it out on graph paper. I hate that. Drawing every strip and coloring in hundreds of little boxes is time consuming and tedious for me.

The second strip set sewn

    After a sufficient time steaming and stewing, out came the graph paper and was taped together to make it bigger. I did not even know what I was doing. I used one box for 1" and tried to approximate all the widths of those 19 strips. I colored in most of them to get the idea. Then I looked at the pattern's second half to see what it was supposed to do but how to make it mesh with my Big Goof of the first part. I had to change sizes and order to make it move together.

Graph paper first half and second half

    Right now, I have the graph paper done. I have the second strip set done. I have the first part Big Goof sewn. So, I have to grab the courage to cut that second strip set and follow the graph paper. And hope I did not goof up when I was drawing it.

Lovely gradations

    The Blue Bargello was given away to a very sick friend. I had wanted to keep it, but there it went. I bought 2 rolls of Watercolor Blossoms by Robert Kaufman and was dismayed to find that there were not duplicates of every fabric which is what I needed to make a similar bargello. After leaving it for a few weeks, I went through my own batiks and replaced the single strips with doubles I cut, actually double doubles because you need 2 complete jelly rolls to make this bargello. I had to find a piece of batik that was at least 10" by width of fabric in order to use it. This took a while, but after much manipulating, I had my two sets. I sewed the strips in pairs, then in pairs again, but alternating which end I was starting from. This eliminates the curve that the strips can take on. I sewed them on my speedy Juki 5500 which was way fun. This is the first set, one complete Jelly roll. The second set is being sewed and this set is being sliced up after marking the strip widths.

    Still trying to replace the Blue Bargello, I found these candidates that for sure have duplicates as that is how Island Batiks package them. I am starting to lay them out and it is fun to see the combos. Just lovely fabric!

Quilted: Blue Bargello

    Our guild quilt show is in October, so I have to get going and quilt my quilts for it. I had to stop doing the comfort quilts to do this and it pains me to do so. The Blue Bargello was first. I do not like stitch in the ditch. Maybe I am a weirdo, but ok. I hate pantos. Double weirdo.
    This time, I used an idea I stole from someone- I printed out a photo of the quilt (in black and white with the opacity lowered) and put it in a sheet protector. I used white board markers to draw ideas. I came up with a design that used parallel lines on the dark colors and swirls and leaves on the light. This helped a great deal to figure out what to do.
    The quilt has not yet been washed, so the pink chalk is still visible and it is hard to see the quilting as it hasn't puffed up yet. I did not get a photo of the back yet. I used Glide Steel Blue on the top and a PremoSoft blue in the bobbin. Oddly, I had no issues with all those seams. I will get some better photos later as the quilting isn't showing up as it is in real life.

Bargello time

      I received a gift of 4- 20 strip jelly rolls that were blues of graduated values. Back in the recesses of my mind and hard drive, I remembered a pattern for a blue bargello. It has been almost a decade since I made the Heart Bargello for my bed (my one and only bed quilt for me). That was when I was a newbie and it was extremely difficult. I had no clue what I was doing. I finished and gave away the book.

   Fortunately, this time I have some sewing experience and a lot of hints and help from A Left Handed Quilter. After sorting and following the printed pattern carefully, I sewed all the strips in pairs in one direction and then the pairs to the pairs in the other direction. I used numbers on blue tape on evey strip so it would not get out of order due to various causes including Tugger the cat. There is another whole section of strips to sew for part 2. All those strips are sorted and blue tape labeled.
     After sewing the massive tube, I marked all the lines on the back for cutting as each strip is a different width. I cut the strips with my Quilter's Select ruler that does not slip and most of my lines were ok, I corrected as I went along checking the pattern chart and numbers. All the strips, all 19 were hung on the longarm that needs to be loaded up.
     Carefully, I opened each strip, laid out the pattern and then pinned all the strips on the top on a foam board that I will take with me to the sewing machine when I am ready. 

All numbered to be sewn in strip set for tube

 

Strip set before tube

Tube cut into strips

Now for another whole strip set

Hopefully back in posting rhythm

     I have no idea where the last month went. I went to PA to help my daughter out when her daycare closed due to 1 case of Covid and was there for a week. We went on our scheduled 4 day trip to the Adironadacks, and then some other running around. Trying to get things put away.
    The one big project I got done was assembling the Blue Bargello. It had sat in strips too long. The first half was done a while ago. The other strips were pinned up longing to be sewn together. I sewed the first half with my lovely Singer 301. I decided to sew the second half with my 115 yr. old Singer 15 treadle. You cannot believe the gorgeous stitch it makes. The machine is such a balanced and engineered marvel. I only wish the complicated bobbin winder worked.
     I know I will put a border on it because I do not want all those seams in the binding edge. I don't know how wide or what color. I am thinking at least 3" finished as I used 2 1/2" strips for the bargello. Maybe a dark blue, hmm.
     The pattern is a freebie.

Sewing the srips on the treadle. Kind of funny- the treadle backs up to my iMac.

I like it better flipped opposite of the pattern picture. Blue tape strip numbers not yet removed.

Tubes and tops

      This is not a fashion statement, rest easy. I am trying to make another Blue Bargello to replace the one given away. I am using the Island batik packs, you need two.

     Then, I laid them all out in gradating style as required by the pattern and sewed the strip sets. I have two identical strip sets. They have been sewn into 2 large tubes, waiting to be cut in the varying width strips.

     At the retreat, I was able to get this HST top tubed, webbed, and later at home, corrected:

What was I thinking? Or how to overload your life...

      Sometimes, a great idea is only as good as how well thought out it is- how to accomplish it and what it will actually entail. I get great ideas, foreseeing how to make them work is where I get into trouble.
     My dear friend was diagnosed with ALS in August. Went to lunch in September, she drove. She is the one who chose the Blue Bargello. By October, she had to sell her car and had to be helped to her feet and supported walking. By November, she is in a wheelchair, unable to move or reposition herself sitting. And in a lot of wincing pain. She is one of the most creative people I have ever known. She can make anything- collage and jewelry her favorites. She was a fabulous elementary art teacher.
     My heart was just breaking seeing her unable to do anything creative. I had this bright idea that I could take my kid/novelty boxes of cut 5" and 2.5" squares to her house, with a fleece I drew a grid on and she could layout, with help, quilts for her grandchildren. My thought was we could layout one quilt a week, I could sew it, bring it back and we could decide borders, take it home, quilt it and start another. Apparently the idea took ahold of her. Everyone who visited her helped her layout quilts and tape the blocks together, putting them in columns for webbing. When I returned after sewing the body of the first quilt to work on borders, I was given bags of seven quilt layouts. I should have asked how many grandchildren at the beginning.
      After I started breathing again, I had to figure out how to get these sewn and quilted. Once the squares were sewn together as you can imagine, the quilts were a lot smaller. I figured out to add lattice to the column quilts and coping strips around the smaller squares to fit the 5" ones. I ordered Bills fabric (the only fabric I bought). I made a chart for the quilts and all the component steps and freaked out. I took some quilts to the November retreat and one dear friend, Carolyn, sewed one all squares one, and one columns components for the lattice strips one. I had all those backings to make also.
      No matter how fast I sewed and figured how to do the borders and backs, I was far behind. I got the Bills quilt on the longarm, but no time to quilt it. I had a flash of brilliance and asked some friends who own a longarm business, Chasen Dreams, for help. They are incredibly generous quilters who quilt tons of kids quilts for camps, vets, and other community needs. They said they would help me out. I dropped 5 quilts with them on Friday. Today, I finished sewing quilt 7 top and backing. Now onto the longarm for quilt 1 and then all that binding for 7 quilts- omigosh- get panicky thinking about it. They are about 55 x 68 roughly.

Quilt 1 in squares

Ready for the longarm, backing made

Quilt 2 needs lattice to separate columns. Instead of pins, they used tape to hold 4 patches together.

Quilt 2 all sewn with lattice and borders, gone to Chasen Dreams

     The other quilts will be in the next post as this one is way too long. Quilts 3-7 coming.

Scattered Block Shots

      Trying to meet deadlines for challenges, exchanges, etc. means doing a lot of different blocks, fabrics and sizes. That means fabric shrapnel all over the place and now facing picky cleanup. However, I did get done all I promised.
     My guild is doing a block exchange- sets of 24. I did two sets of 24.

     The guild is also doing a twin challenge- two people each making the same block in their own fabrics. In my case, it is three of us. The block was PopRocks. I did two because I usually do better on the second one.

     Our guild show is next year, so we are working on the raffle quilt now. The organizers chose Lucky Star and I did 2 of the blocks they kitted up. All batiks.

     I promised Lynne that I would make a bird block for her collection. It took me three until I got the bird with the attitude I wanted. The top bird is going to her.

    The second half of the blue bargello still needs to be sewn together. It is waiting not so patiently pinned up.

     And finally, Elvira (Gudrun Erla) is on the longarm. I found a person in need of comfort due to health issues who just loves lots of crazy color. I think this quilt is all her.

Bordered

      A border was added to Blue Bargello because I did not want to bind on the seam edge and  have all that bulk in the binding. I think I was able to add the right color and width to the quilt without diminishing the sparkle. Just got lucky, I guess.

The end of the Kids' quilts story

      I have no idea what I was thinking when I left off blogging last year. It was a blur. I have continued to take photos and sew, although greatly interrupted. I finally got a quilt off the longarm and bound yesterday. I have been pulling out unfinished projects and digging in. I have kept up reading all my blog friends with little energy to respond.
    A short version is: I laid out the guild quilt show in late September by photographing all the quilts, printing them out and making a map of the show. All quilts were separately bagged, tagged, and put in organized piles. The last week of September I went for 4 days to the ADK, Old Forge for wonderful fall times. Upon coming back, I got Covid the first couple days of October and missed setting up and attending the quilt show. Thank God the whole show was laid out and marked so others could put it up.
    Then, my dear friend, who had been diagnosed with ALS a couple of months previously, came and picked out a comfort quilt (Blue Bargello) and rapidly deteriorated. I came up with the idea of working on quilts for her grandkids with her when I visited bringing boxes of precut squares and strips, maybe one a month. That had to be accelerated because of her rapid decline so others stepped in to help her lay them out. I was piecing non stop and freaked out over the quilting. My friends, Kris and Kathy of Chasen Dreams, agreed to help when I asked and quilt them (angels for sure). They were fast and refused payment. While they were quilting, I made the bindings and kept piecing. I was able to get all 7 done and washed. I took them to her and she whispered what she wanted to have on each label (I had sewn blank labels on). We wrote it and bagged each quilt in a large ziploc. They were given out at Christmas to her grandchildren. She died 5 days later.
    At the memorial luncheon, many photo boards were on display and they included the quilts on a table for people to see. She might have not been physically able, but she chose every piece and indicated where it would go for all 7 quilts. I taped all the pieces with frog tape and sewed like a maniac. 

Blue Bargello- Halfway

     As blogged a few posts ago, started with these (used 4):

     After lots of strip sorting and sewing, half of the quilt is sewn. The other strips are sorted and numbered and ready to make strip sets. The other half will be sewn next to this piece, where the pincushion is. Glad I used numbered painters tape.

Smatterings of fabric and stuff

      Fabric, just love it. No matter how it comes in the door, no matter what size. Recently, a box came from Gwen, who has over the years boosted my ability to back comfort quilts.

     With the brown batiks jelly roll I received from Gwen, I bought a jelly roll of neutrals to go with it and now have to remember the pattern I was going to use for the two.

     I was trying to find another set of affordable two jelly rolls that I could make either another Upstairs, Downstairs quilt or another bargello, like the blue one. It is so hard online to tell if they will work. These are called Hidden Canyon, and they were under $20 ea. When I opened and laid them out, I don't think the gradations are sufficient- too many darks, dark mediums and then real lights. Hmm, now what do I do with set of 2?

Tried to layout for a bargello, B&W shows how there is no gradation despite the colors.

Tried to layout sets for Upstairs, Downstairs but not great gradation.