The beginning of my Bargello

I love the Bargello quilting style. The bright colors, the ability to pick crazy fabrics you might not otherwise choose, the numbers oh numbers (I know I am a total nerd) all appeal to me. The monotony of the pick and re-sewing soothe me, the finished product delights me. The hardest part about a Bargello is picking out twenty(20) fabrics that coordinate enough. I can literally spend hours in the fabric store, this time I think I have gotten lucky. I took a friend who owns an embroidery store and has an eye for colors to assist me in the choices. (It has been a few years remember) It only took about an hour with his help. (no, he is not gay--Don't be judgy)

I have a lot of ironing to do... this is after washing and drying

The poor lady at the fabric shop "wow, what is she making looks like a large project" .. I only needed 1/2 yard of each  of them. Bonus was they were having a sale so most of them were only $4.00 a yard.  So I rushed home and threw them into the washing machine so I can begin my cutting into strips and sewing to cut into more strips and pick them apart and re-sew and then finally begin piecing the quilt together.  This is not a tutorial sorry! I will however show you pictures of my progress.

Here is the basic process:

Step 1 pick out fabric----sorry no photo though the stack of bolts was impressive
Step 2--patiently wash fabric, then dry fabric, then iron fabric
Step 3--cut fabric into strips
Step 4--number fabric and create a matrix
Step 5 --sew strips together in numerical order
Step 6--cut strips into thinner strips
Step 7-- pick apart and put together strips again, making really long strips in a pattern making                  sure to keep them in order(I sew them together as I go)
Step 8 --sew all strips together for final piecing
Step 9 --- add border
Step 10-- add second border
Step 11 - glue piecing onto batting
Step 12 -- pick out backing, wash back, dry back iron backing
Step 13 glue backing onto batting,
Step 14 buy tagging guy or a lot of safety pins
Step 15 safety pin or use fun tagging gun
Step 16- start quilting from the middle out
Step 17-- continue quilting... it is a big quilt
Step 18 cut off excess
Step 19 measure and prepare strips for border
Step 20 attach border
Step 21 Have a bottle of wine to celebrate.

NOT A BARGELLO--But it was my very first quilt!