THE Bargello

I started the Cosmic Twist Bargello quilt class today and WHOA was it chaulked full of great color selection information! Somewhere between value, hue, and tone... my brain started to hurt but two hours later after looking at 10 or so quilts and 60 or so fabrics, it kinda started to make sense.


We spent some time reviewing and critiquing the fabrics people brought as "their" color palete for this quilt. In the previous post, I included a picture of the fabric's I bought. I chose to work in the blue-green/blue/blue-violet portion of the color wheel. Only one of the fabrics I included in that picture didn't make it in my bargello pattern. There were two problems with it; first, it's values were too drastic (ie. light AND dark Vs. light OR dark) and second, the print was too large to get both of the colors (purple and teal) in each square. I plan to use it for/in the border. I had also purchased an additional two fabric's from Joann Fabrics, only one of which I ended up including in the bargello pattern. The one I am not using had the same issues as the other unused fabric. But I LOVE the color so it might be the inspiration for a different quilt in the future.


After evaluating what we had... we went into the quilt store portion of the building and literally took over the floor. Seriously, we laid out the fabrics we already had that we would be using and then pulled literally every bolt of fabric off the shelves that fit in our tone and value range. I think I personally pulled about 45 bolts off the shelves (in addition to the 7 I already had) to play with and in the end, we only need 20 different fabrics for the pattern.


The instructor came by to each of us and showed us how to seperate the values then would leave for us to work on it on our own for awhile. Then, she'd come back and help us pare down what we had to fit into our tone ranges and finally into the bargello pattern. The last 3 hours of the class were reserved for this part of the process and it took over 4 hours. It's a very intense process but I learned a LOT. This is what I ended up with.

For the next class, we are suppose to 1) wash the fabrics, 2) cut the fabrics into strips and 3) join the fabrics in order 1-20. It doesn't sound hard, just time consuming because there are 20 different fabrics to work with and keep organzied. I am excited with my color choices and can't wait to see how they will all work together.


I really enjoyed the other ladies in my class today. I felt like for the first time, I wasn't the "younger" quilter even though I was the youngest. Truth be told, I have about 5 years experience on all but one of the four other quilters. My opinions and questions were really valued and it made a huge difference in how I felt about the class. I really look forward to the next day of class, which sadly is not for another month. But at least I will have plenty of time to get my "homework" done.