Well, first of all, let me say "Happy 4th of July" this Saturday to all my south of the border quilting friends.  Having lived in both Bakersfield, CA and Lafayette, LA, I know how huge this holiday is for you....have a great one!

As you may recall from my last post, I was frantically searching for the camera my dear hubby had misplaced (that's being generous because he really had no clue where he'd left it).  Well, as luck would have it, we went to our cabin this past weekend and there it was.  Of course, right out in the open, where anyone except my husband would have spotted it…that genetic defect I was mentioning last time.

So, here’s the picture of that second quilt class project, the stained glass appliqué angel.  As you can see, I didn’t do any real machine quilting on it….just simply sewed down the gold bias tape through all three layers and added the binding.    

Just to clarify, this class was taken in 2004.  I’m going back to the beginning of my quilting journey so that you can see how the progression from 2004 to 2009 happened and how each project took me a bit further towards where I am today (and where you can be too if you just get started).   You can see how simple this angel project is.   It is the only appliqué class I’ve ever taken….and was enough to give me the basic techniques to use in all the appliqué projects I’ve done since. 

In the fall of 2004, as I walked into the shop to take this appliqué class, you will recall from my last post that I spotted a bargello quilt on the wall and decided I had to give that a try.  I signed up for the class that same night.

The first task at hand was to pick out 28 fabrics that ranged from dark to light and back to dark again.  I had decided that this quilt would end up living in our log cabin, so I chose greens and teals (for the forest surrounding the cabin) and terracotta shades (like the color of the logs) for the darks and for lights went with light creams.   I’ve never had much of a problem with choosing colors.  I believe that is a direct result of my stint in decorative painting which taught me all about color, shading and highlighting.  (And in case you’re wondering, no, I can’t draw, but I can trace and follow directions.) 

It looks really complicated in the end because of all the tiny squares, but rest assured, you don’t have a zillion squares that you have to piece together one by one.  A bargello is really just a bunch of width-of-fabric strips (one for each fabric) sewn together lengthwise in what is called a “strata” (like stripes).   You have to remember the order or numbering of the fabrics so it’s best to cut small swatches and stick each on a piece of paper with its corresponding number. 

Basically you cut strips and sew them together in rows.  In my case I had 28 strips (one for each color) per strata.  You have an even number of strip sets or stratas….one set is ironed toward the first color and one set towards the last color.  (Seems strange at first, but this allows for the differently ironed strips (let’s call them the A set and the B set) to interlock later when you sew them together.)

After you have the strip sets sewn together and ironed in the appropriate direction (A or B), you sew the color #1 row to the color #28 row so that you have a tube.

The next step (and the pattern will tell you what width to cut and how many of set A or B) is to counter-cut the strips according to the specified widths. 

So let’s say you cut a 1.5 inch strip, one from set A and one from set B.  Now, you have two 1.5 inch wide loops of 28 fabrics, each ironed in opposite directions…one towards color #1 and one towards color #28. 

Here’s the cool part.  You now (according to the color number indicated on the pattern) pick apart one particular seam of set A….say color #1.  This will be the fabric that should be the top square of the row.  Then you pick apart the Set B strip so that color #2 is the top square of the row.  Now you sew those two strips together lengthwise.  The colors will be offset by one and because you used a strip from set A and one from Set B, the two seams will easily interlock themselves as you’re sewing because you ironed them in opposite directions.

Hopefully, this doesn’t sound complicated.  It’s harder to explain in writing than it is to do.  Basically, if you can use a rotary cutter and sew a straight line, you’ve got it made.  In fact, picking out the fabrics is the hardest part for most people. 

So here’s the final result.  It's really not as faded as it looks.  It was a very sunny day when I took this picture and I'm not the best photographer.

I had finished this quilt top, my first real quilt, by the end of 2004.  Let me also mention that I have a full time job as well as three kids at home (they were all in high school at the time), so it didn’t take me that long because it was hard to do….just hard to find the time.  However, I was definitely hooked on quilting at this point.

My next challenge?  How on earth was I going to quilt this thing?  It was a king-sized quilt and I had a 27 year old White sewing machine.  So, stay tuned for my next post where I’ll talk about how I tackled the actual quilting of this king size quilt and show you some details of the actual quilting.