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I am SO not doing another bargello. Now that I’ve (mostly) got all of the pieces together for the Hus Ved Havet quilt and definitely have it all hung up on the design wall, I am DONE with this bargello idea. I am going to love both of these quilts when I’m done, but whoo…never again.
In this image, the bottom is the left side of the image, and the top is the right side of the image. So the red house that’s layered on the top actually comes just to the right of the right edge of the bottom.
I adore this quilt. I am still working on a couple of things in my head, though, that I am going to try not to screw up.
First, I’m not 100% sure I’m OK with that red. I may try to go for a darker red. While the house is meant to stand out, I think it stands out too much, and that a darker, more “muted” red (if it’s possible to mute red) might be the way to go. Still contemplating this one.
Clouds. The original image actually has more clouds than clear sky, but I am taking a little bit of artistic license here and reversing it – the quilt will have more clear sky than clouds. (I love the sky fabric, though. It is perfect for this quilt!) I have the very light grays – three of them – that I intend to use as cloud fabric. My dilemma: do I try to substitute out pieces of the sky fabric – further becoming acquainted with my seam ripper – and sew in square blocks of the grays, or do I applique the clouds in, as I will do for the house? I am inclined to do the latter, as right now, the house really stands out as not-square against all of those bargello squares, and I think that including appliqued, “rounder” shapes in the form of clouds will balance the house out, especially since most of the clouds will be on the left side of the image. I will also have to figure out how the clouds will interact with the words I intend to cross stitch on. So much to think about!
My goal is to get at least one of the two bargello quilts finished for my guild’s quilt show in the middle of March. Will the buttons win, or will appliqued clouds win? Stay tuned to find out!
The College Fjord quilt top is finished! Well, the quilt-as-you-go portion is done, and it mostly came out well. It’s only slightly wonky, and while there are some things that are clearly not “right,” the overall effect is exactly what I was going for. I will save the final reveal for when the buttons have been sewn on to represent the clouds, though. That might be a while, depending on whether or not I can get a hold of the store where I bought the buttons.
I did not estimate the size of the buttons very well relative to the size of the quilt. A hundred buttons is a lot! Well, except when you want them to represent clouds on a 30”X50” quilt – then they become very small. When the quilt was done, I laid it out on my bed and took 50 buttons and scattered them across the sky of the quilt. It looked like a handful of buttons scattered on a quilt. I need more buttons, and I need different sizes of buttons.
I acquired those buttons from a gift shop in Alert Bay, BC, Canada when I was on an Alaska cruise last summer (the same cruise where I took the picture). Look up Alert Bay. It’s not that big of a place. I was able to locate the gift shop on Google Maps and find their website, and I sent them an email asking if they had any buttons I could purchase from a distance. I have not heard back. I need to call.
My goal is either to get another package of 100 buttons of the same size, or to get a package of 40 or 50 buttons that are slightly larger. My preference would be the larger buttons, but I don’t remember if they had any. I think a combination of bigger and smaller buttons would be effective in making it seem more like clouds. But first I need to see if I can even get any more buttons from the shop!
If I can’t, I might have to improvise. If anyone has any leads on 2” diameter mother-of-pearl buttons, let me know.
A key component of being motivated to finish things, for me, is being able to look forward to the next project. I have to finish things before I can move on, of course, but the planning for the next idea can take place while the actual construction is taking place on the current project. Sort of like building houses – you’ve got your architect finishing plans, and you’ve started to get the permits in place, and you’re ordering supplies for the next house you’ll be working on while you’re finishing up the final details of the one you’re building now. If you don’t do this, there’s lag time. Lag time is bad.
In the case of the projects I’m working on now, two are near completion. The Oregon waterfall quilt is all put together and just needs finishing touches to the top. I’m not sure what’s going to happen once the top is done – I’ll finish it to get some experience with the sewn details that I’m working on, but I’m not sure I like it enough to make it into a quilt. We’ll see once it’s done. Maybe it’ll get framed instead.
The College Fjord quilt is, honestly, a good weekend of work away from being finished. I have ten or twelve vertical strips left to sew on, and then the quilting is done because I’ve been quilting as I go. I’ll need to add the buttons and the binding. That’s it.
The Hus Ved Havet quilt is the one that isn’t nearly done yet. There’s still a ton of work left to be done there, and that’s OK – I can (and need to) work on multiple projects at once.
So…where do I go next? One thing that I’ve been wanting to figure out is a sunrise or sunset. I have taken many, many pictures of sunrises and sunsets over the years, many of which are very nice (if I do say so myself). One of the ideas I’ve been mulling over in my head is the idea of going horizontal this time instead of vertical. Horizontal stripes. The Hus Ved Havet quilt is a little like that – the mountains in the distance and the water are both composed of horizontal stripes that have been broken up by the bargello construction. But this time, I’m thinking of vertical stripes that have not been cut up into smaller pieces. Think jelly roll quilt, only 1” strips instead of 2” strips. (I’m going smaller this time.)
If you’ve ever done a jelly roll quilt, it’s basic construction is “sew the strips end-to-end, then cut them into lengths of a certain measurement (say, 50”), then sew them side-to-side randomly.” The idea I’m mulling in my head is similar: sew long strips together end-to-end, then sew them side-to-side. It’s not unlike the bargello construction in reverse, only there are no small pieces going in the horizontal direction, only long strips. Let me explain using one of the images I’m thinking about using.
This photo has been cropped to take out wide swaths of sky at the top and black land at the bottom. I took it in Acadia National Park, from the top of Cadillac Mountain at sunrise. There’s land, there’s water, and there’s sky with clouds. And there are colors.
Imagine this image divided into twenty horizontal stripes. Those stripes aren’t very wide in the image, but they’d be 1” wide in the final quilt. Let’s look at the stripe just above the water line. Most of that stripe is going to be a purpley-gray color, but for a few inches in the middle, that stripe will be orange. The purpley-grays on the left and right will be long pieces of whatever fabric I find to represent that color. The orange in the middle will be a small piece. So that one strip of the image will be made of three pieces of fabric. (Note: This construction sounds heavenly after sewing a bargello. Two seams instead of forty!) The bottom strip of the quilt would be one long strip of whatever I find for black.
I’m still trying to decide if this is the way I want to go, but I’m leaning in this direction for a couple of reasons. First, it’s different from what I’ve been working on. The structure is basically the opposite of what I’ve been working on for a while, so it intrigues me. Second, there are different colors. The blues and greens and grays and browns I’ve been working with for a while are fine, and they’re completely appropriate for the images I’ve picked so far, but working with pink and orange and purple sounds lovely. I also want to redeem myself a little bit after all of the oranges I used in the Horseshoe Canyon quilt, and I want to prove to myself that I can use orange responsibly this time.
I’ve got a little while until I’ll feel like I’m ready to take on another quilt, so this can simmer for a little bit.
