Argyle Bargello - in Pinks!

Maybe I’ll give this one a name before I quilt it but for now that is what it is. This is a pattern by Eileen Wright and is in her book, More Twist and Turn Bargello Quilts (affiliate link).

I knew that when I saw the book on Amazon, a while ago, I wanted it. I was so tickled with the first book, Twist and Turn Bargello, (affiliate link) - where I got the pattern, Surf Song— and even though I’ve only made one other one in there - I knew I wanted to make this quilt. I asked for the book for Christmas a couple of years ago and a church sent it to me. (Thank you, Victory Baptist!) I looked at this one but you know how things are - sometimes you take care of what has to be done and not always what you want to do. Until I didn’t. I decided to push back and just “make it”.

So here it is.

In her books, Eileen encourages you to use a couple of fabrics that might be considered “unusual” as you make the strip sets. She calls them “zingers”.

In other words, everything doesn’t have to be a blender or tone on tone to look good.

So I did. I considered those two wilder fabrics to be two of my ‘zingers’.

Then as I was making this one up I had serious doubts about it for a while, wondering if I had made too many light strips.

But it is fine. In fact, very fine.

When you make a bargello like this, you need to make a sort of master sheet where you can keep track of your colors and fabrics in order.

This is what I did here.

You will need to keep it close by as you work on your project as you will reference it over and over again. Eventually you will have memorized which is fabric #13 or #8, or whatever.

Then, here’s what I had left of the last strip set. This pattern calls for 9 or 10 strip sets. I had to use all 10 as I had some shorter strips which rendered my sets with less usable fabric than a nice consistent 45” width would have.

With this pattern you need 20 fabrics ranging from light to dark.

This is my first time doing this one - but I already know I will make it again. I just really love it too much not to do it again..

Just not this week!

I am going to go out on a limb right now and say that I am glad that I went ahead and used both the warm and the cool pinks together. I was afraid that somehow that they would clash with each other.

I’ve used orange/pink together before in a quilt and was amazed how much I liked it. (I admit to serious misgivings about it until my sis showed me the two colors together!) I wanted a little bit of that look in this one - and unbeknownst to me, that is what I got when I used the warm and cool pinks side by side. As you glance at the top, you may think I actually used some orange strips - or threw orange in there. There is a bit of orange in a couple of the fabrics, but the fabrics they are in are definitely pink!

So, as far as I am concerned, this one is a success! I’ve not quilted it yet - I’m thinking about how to do so.

I can’t really do with the quilting what I have done with the other bargellos which is simply straight lines along the design. At least I don’t think I can. I’m still thinking about it.

I’ll probably do some scouting around on the internet and see what others do. Whatever I do, I will do my best to not let it take away from the design of the piecing!

Thanks for reading along today and checking out what I’ve been up to.

In case you are wondering how long it took to actually make this top - I cut the strips on one day and let them sit in a container. A different day I sewed the strip sets together - 9 of them - and a different day I pressed the strip sets. Then I put it together in two days - but they were pretty intense. It took longer to put together than I thought it would. But my husband reminded me that it was my first time with this pattern. :)

And there you are! I trust you have a great day wherever you are reading this!

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Be sure to check out what my sis has for you in the store!

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