Spring Bargello - the Process

With the piecing and appliqué done it was time to start the sandwiching and quilting process. I am fortunate to have several of these metal (army) tables in the room I use for teaching, so moving 4 together gives me the ideal space to stretch and pin my quilt layers. Lately a local (South African) designer of 100% cotton fabric has brought out really nice designs at a fraction of the cost of imported cottons and I love using these Da Gama fabrics for backing and the fact that these are 1.50 meters wide makes it even nicer.

Step 1: Stretch the backing fabric nice and tight. I used bulldog clips at the sides and masking tape at the top and bottom.

 

Step 2: Batting rolled out onto the backing and the quilt top neatly straightened on top of the batting

Step 3: Starting from the centre pin securely through all 3 layers

Batting not wide enough for the sides? Time to fetch the drawer of remnant batting and I might be breaking all the rules here but I simply don’t bother joining my batting. I feel that I quilt intensively enough in order for my batting not to move anywhere so I simply add a piece where needed, spray baste it in place and continue adding remnant pieces until I have enough batting.

Meeko, our parrot, doing the final inspection to see if I didn’t leave any visible gaps in the batting.

Step 4: Quilting


I then tried something different. I found a motif I liked, enlarged and printed this, traced it on Stitch a Tear and spaced these on my quilt top to stitch through it and removed the paper afterwards. Unfortunately the Bargello pattern/fabric steals all the attention and the quilt motif can be seen much better on the back side of the quilt.

I simply echoed the borders and the quilt fits snugly on a double bed.

Completed: 27 September 2010