Valentine Heart Bargello

Another UFO off the list!

On Valentines day 2021 I decided I needed a big Valentines Day quilt. I had seen a little quilt like this on Pinterest, but I wanted mine to be a bit bigger, so I played around in EQ8 and came up with this.

I pulled fabric from of my Personal Island Batik stash and used the 2.5 AccuQuilt strip die to cut my strips.

I was given the 2.5 inch strip die with my Island Batik Ambassador box a couple years ago. Originally I had reservations about these strip dies....

I love all the their triangle and odd shape dies, but surely I could cut straight lines faster and with less waste on my own. But, as I was hand cutting strips without the die for another project, I realized every 4 or 5 strips I had to straighten my edge up again.  When cutting 60 strips that's a lot of waste. Probably the same if not more than what the edges of the die would produce.

I also realized I was spending the same amount of prep time I would be using with the AccuQuilt die as I was layered and stacked fabrics to rotary cut. Plus I only like to cut 4 layers at a time with a rotary cutter, more than that and things get wonky.

And sometimes my ruler would move ever so slightly and I'd shave off an extra 1/16 of fabric at the end of a strip. With the die I get perfect strips every time.

So with that other project I ended up debunking all my pre-conceived notions and have come to love using these strip dies, and I was excited to use it to cut out all the strips for this Heart Bargello.  

Once my strips were cut and sewn into a tube, I cut out the columns.

Next was the challenge of opening the tube a the right spot.

I would say this is the hardest part of making a Bargello quilt.  Making sure you break the tube at the correct color.  If you have somewhere to lay out the strips as you go it helps.

This one was put together in sections. So I had small strip panels to work with.

I completed the top in one week.  I started it on February 14, 2021 and the last border was added February 21, 2021.

I even got the backing pieced right away.  And then it sat while other projects took over.

Almost two years later I pulled it back out to finish it up.

I used the same quilting method as my last two bargellos.

But I did shake it up a bit on the white fabric.

Lookin good! Time to bind it!

This one started out so fast, but then stalled, so I am glad to finally have it finished and ready Valentines day 2023.

Happy Sewing!

=^..^=

@QuiltedDelights

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