Long ago, I learned about turning strips into a bargello-type ‘thing’ .. and wondered what can I do with that? Fortunately, I stumbled upon www.quiltville.com, and Bonnie’s wonderful photos and examples of scrappy bargellos, and scrappy Trips Around the World , and quilters, I was off to the races!
You can use one color as an accent, you can ‘bleed’ the colors from light to dark, you can zip-sag them across your quilt, you can cut the strips into different sizes, they can be square or rectangles, you can make all the blocks the same for a coordinated look, and the best part, you can use practically anything in your scrap strip bin. For a year I couldn’t stop coming up with ideas. I even saw one beautiful quilt where the odd blocks were separated with sashing, with excellent results. Thank you Bonnie, for turning me and many others ‘on’ to all that fun and enthusiasm.
Along with my quilt guild, I/we made about 20 scrappy bargellos for Community Quilts. I’ve used total scraps, planned scraps --they all turned out great. I found we could machine quilt in the ditch, with excellent results. I saved 2 for myself because they turned out so friendly-like. I guarantee, if you have not used this technique, you will be hooked with it’s diversity. One lady, cleaned out some of her stash by making up kits, ready to sew, and passing them out to the Quilt Guild. They were quickly snapped up like candy! .
One wonderful use is for borders. This border on my Jacob’s Ladder is made of 1 inch squares. Despite the small size, it went together extremely well. It’s all scrappy, but with one constant - the white. I had to think a bit, and use my graph paper for the center of each border, where the strips met, but it was important that the corners turned gracefully.
The large pocket/label includes a friend – those little critters show up where you least expect them!
Wow - I never thought about that block for a border. What a great idea.
ReplyDeleteLove the bunny in the pocket/label.
L.
Just found your blog today and really enjoyed looking through it! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteLove your bargello story..*VBS* I've only done 4, and did hand quilt all of them, oddly enough. But with perle cotton and the big stitch. Goes quickly. I have another almost done in red, black and white. It's a planned one also.
ReplyDeleteYours look great and you seem to like doing that, that's wonderful. They are very forgiving, as is Bonnie's strip Twist.
Love your little pocket idea with a surprise..Hugs, Finn
P.S. Thanks for stopping over at my blog, Pieces
Clever border!
ReplyDeleteL.
Hi Elaine.I saw your comment over at Hedgehog Jen's and came over to visit. You've made some great scrap quilts. love this bargello border and the telephone book quilts are marvelous too.
ReplyDeleteElaine, I love how you used the scrappy trips blocks for the border of the jacob's ladder..WONDERFUL effect! You are the border queen! :c)
ReplyDeleteBonnie
Such a wonderful quilt, I love the way you've used the bargello in the border!
ReplyDelete*hugs*
Tazzie
:-)
You are a inspiration to us all Elaine thank you for the link to this site. You put so much energy into your projects we can see you are having the time of your life.
ReplyDeleteFLO