Monday, February 3, 2014

Doing the Happy Dance!!



I am totally doing the happy dance this morning!! The Scrappy Bargello is FINISHED!!! WOOHOO! 

If you are so inclined, you can read my trials and tribulations with this quilt here, here, here, (you are kidding me right?) here, here, (seriously??) here, here, (how much can there be to say about one quilt??) here, and FINALLY here.  Wowsers! At one point in this process I put in a post that I was obsessed with this quilt - there's your proof!! LOL I have to admit, there were times that I really questioned whether those two panels I started with would ever become a quilt.... BUT IT DID! and here it is!! :)

It is kinda cloudy out this morning but I was too excited to wait to take the pictures.... :)


This quilt it sooo big it is hard to get a good picture of it!

Trying different angles LOL

^                       Yup, that's dirt. . . it is in the wash now :)

Quilting shows up much better on the back.




Just to recap, this started from Bonnie Hunter's free pattern for a scrappy bargello.  If you take a look at the quilts she shows, you will no doubt notice that mine is very different. . . . and that, my friends, is why there are so many here's up there :) I LOVE how this quilt turned out and cannot wait to sleep under it tonight!!

I spent a couple of hours hiding threads last night and this morning. . . OK, in Amanda Jean's (Crazy Mom Quilts) tutorial she suggests hiding threads as you go. . . I'm thinking this would not have been a bad idea but I was on a mission and I just wanted to get the monstrosity quilted!

Here's the down and dirty recap:

Material used was scraps from all of the batik quilts I have completed.  I did not cut into any new material for the bargello part.  I did have to order the outer border material and the backing material.

The quilting is spiral quilting inside the inside border (see Crazy Mom Quilts tutorial mentioned above) and straight lines radiating out from the inside border and spirals on the border.  I did all of the quilting (except the border) with my walking foot and I had the stitch length set at 4.5.  LOVE the bigger stitch look on quilting.

I used Superior King Tut Lapis Lazuli for the quilting.

The backing is Charcoal Quilter's Suede by P&B Textiles.  FYI, if you are looking for a nice looking, heavy weight backing - this is it! I was very impressed with this fabric.  

The finished size is 104" x 106".  The intent was for it to be about a foot bigger in both directions.... Had I done the friendship braid border and inner border in the pattern I could have easily accomplished this but I had had ENOUGH of this project and just wanted to be done! 

After all of my trials and tribulations I have to say that I might just do this quilt again - on a smaller scale!! And I might just play with different sized panels to make different patterns. . . . hmmmm, where's that scrap bin??? No seriously, I am totally kidding! For this week anyway ;)

Oh, and for those of you who have been hanging around and following my (mis)adventures, you 'might' have noticed a change in the looks of the blog.  I tried to change the font to bold in the date tab and the entire blog went black!! I clicked on view blog and seriously everything was black! SO, since I could not find the background template I had used originally, I had to pick a new one.  I'm not so happy with it but it's readable and it seems to be growing on me. . . What do you think? 

I'll be linking this post to every linky party on the planet LOL Your blog is about flying pigs and purple people eaters? Wanna see my quilt? ;) But really, linking today to Anything goes Mondays being hosted by SergerPepper.  Go check out what other peeps are working on! 

Also linking up to Linky Tuesday with Connie over at Freemotion by the River.  Head on over and see what people are working on!

And Needle and Thread Thursday with Kelly over at My Quilt Infatuation.


OK, I'm off to work on the Square in a Square quilt back.  Will have more on that tomorrow :) . . . later in the day lol

Until then, Keep on Quilting!

23 comments:

  1. Love your quilt and love this blog design! Thanks for sharing all the photos.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's just beautiful. Congratulations on a great finish. It does seem take forever to tie off all those threads. I was thinking the same thing about doing it as you go, but isn't it more efficient to do a single task all at once?

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is absolutely gorgeous. I can see how much commitment and determination it took to finish it. I like it with just a simple border. The quilting is perfect for the pattern....GREAT job!!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Your quilt is fantastic! You did a great job!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wow! You should totally be doing the happy dance. This quilt is awesome. Have you calculated how many squares are in it, just for fun? I have one quilt with over 2700 squares. ;) I am a bit of a math geek. This blog design is actually easier to read.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Amazing! Such a colorful and happy quilt!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks for inspiring me with that spiral quilting! Your finish is amazing! What a perfect job!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Beautiful! I love everything about this quilt!

    ReplyDelete
  9. How many pieces? I'm impressed!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is made by making a tube and then cutting strips - looks like WAY more work than it is :) I think there are around 2300 squares. . . If I did the math right, and that is a big if LOL

      Delete
  10. Gorgeous! Nice work!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Love, love, love your quilt. I enjoy making scrappy bargello trips. So much fun to use all kinds of bright colors! Nancy from PugMom Quilts!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Wow your Scrappy Bargello is beautiful! Your blog gave me a couple of chuckles especially listing all the here's where you experienced adventures with your quilt! You should be quite proud of this amazing quilt!

    ReplyDelete
  13. This is really, really awesome!! I do love bargello quilts though it's been many years since I made one myself and none of them were quite that big! Grats on finishing such a large project!

    ReplyDelete
  14. What a beautiful quilt and wow....I thought I had a lot of batik scraps.....not as many as you! Thanks for sharing.
    Freemotion by the River Linky Party Tuesday

    ReplyDelete
  15. oh my goodness! this is such a beautiful quilt! It is a scrappy masterpiece!

    Thanks so much for sharing at Needle and Thread Thursday!

    :) Kelly @ My Quilt Infatuation

    ReplyDelete
  16. WOW! that is amazing!!! your quilting is great too!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Thank you for sharing this wonderful, wonderful, wonderful version of this pattern! I had collected strips for the last couple of years in anticipation of making a scrappy bargello until I realized that the width and number of strips you used in your panels determined the final size. For once I was not really sure what size quilt I wanted to make and didn't see how I could easily change the size (other than adding solid borders) if I wanted to later. At that point I figured I would instead just use the strips and succumb to the craze for Bonnie's Scrappy Trips blocks instead since that is built block by block.

    But now because of your genius I have new bargello layout options and I have to admit I like how yours looks so much! Time will tell which road I eventually take but thanks for pointing the way to a new path!

    ReplyDelete
  18. I don't this I could make this....it is absolutely beautiful though!!!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Incredible! I honestly couldn't believe this was made from scrap fabric. I never would have guessed! And I love the spiral quilting on the back- it's a nice contrast from the geometric front.

    ReplyDelete

Comments make me smile :) Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to comment. Come back real soon!

If you left me a comment, I will be responding in kind either by email and/or by visiting your blog and commenting on your wonderful creation :)