Jelly Roll Bargello Tutorial

Want to make this quilt? I have finally gotten around to writing a tutorial for it. 

These are notes to the specific quilt I made. Adding or deleting jelly roll strips will alter the size of your quilt. You can use my quilt as a guide to create yours. You may use the pattern for personal use (i.e. to make a quilt for yourself  or as a gift) but please do not use this pattern to make quilts to sell.

One jelly roll makes 27.5 inches of the bargello. I used 2 jelly rolls, to make the width 54 inches, finished. If you want to make a wider quilt, use more jelly rolls, or add borders.

My quilt finished as a twin; 54 x 88 inches

The size of this quilt will depend on how many jelly strips you use. I only used 36 of 40, so before borders my quilt was 72 inches long. If you use all 40 strips of a typical jelly roll, your quilt will be 80 inches long. If you use all the strips you may not need to add borders, if you use less, you may need to add more fabric. Your length will be # of jelly strips X 2. Add borders to meet the size you want.

Fabric requirements

2 Jelly rolls - don't trim off selvages

Fabric for borders - 1 yard - cut 3 strips 8.5 inches wide. Make 2 pieces that are 8.5 x 54.5 inches long. I also cut 4 strips, 2.5 inches wide to be used for binding.

Yardage for backing - 6 yards (this is generous - I just pieced big scrap pieces together until it was big enough)

Batting - 58 x 92 inches

Binding - I used the 4 leftover jelly roll strips, along with strips cut from the border fabric.

Step 1: Picking your fabric order.

This might be the hardest part for some. Most jelly rolls are already sorted from lightest to darkest, it really is finding what you like best. For me, I picked 5 or 6 strips of 2 different colours that I thought looked good together, then added 1 or 2 strips to go in between them for contrast.

In this set, there are 2 blue strips between the green and purple strips. This set has 13 strips.

In this set, 1 green strip is between the pink and blue strips. There are 11 strips in this set. 

Step 2: Piecing the strip sets

Instead of piecing all 36 strips together and then try to cut them for the bargello strips, I made 3 different sets that were then cut and joined together to make the bargello strips. This just makes it easier to handle. 

For each set, I first sewed them in pairs - selvages at the same end.

Then sew the pairs together, starting at the lengthwise grain edge. Starting from opposite edges will help prevent the fabric from being stretched during the piecing process.

When you're done, you will have a set with all the selvages at one end. 

Lay your sets down. This is your last chance to change the order (without creating major frustration for yourself). If you are happy with your sets, it's time to iron and cut them. Press the seams how you like - open might be the best way. I pressed each set a little differently and open seams went together better.

Step 3 - Cutting the Bargello Strips

Now is the time to trim off your selvages to give yourself a straight edge. 

From each set cut: 4 strips - 2.5 inches wide

10 strips - 2 inches wide

6 strips - 1.5 inches long

You will have about 3 inches leftover in case you cut one wrong and need to cut another.

Put your strips into groups based on size and set (2.5 at the top, 2 in the middle and 1.5 at the bottom)

Doing one size at a time, you are going to sew the strips in their correct order to make one long strip. Then sew the 2 ends together to make a ring. Above are the 1.5 strips lined up waiting to be sewn together.

I chained pieced my strips, causing the middle strip to make a loop between the 1st and 3rd strips.

This is what you should have after piecing. Keep all loops of the same width together.

Step 4: Piecing the Bargello strips

This is where you really need to pay attention, or you will be using your seam ripper. Trust me. To make it easy, I made the first strip start with the first fabric. I number the top fabric as #1 and the bottom fabric as #36. 

Click to enlarge.

Using the chart above as a guide, sew the strips together, ripping the seam of each loop between the top and the bottom fabrics. The top number tells you which fabric will be at the top of your strip, while the bottom number, tells you which fabric is at the bottom. The middle number tells you the width of the strip to use. 

Here is the first 2 strips sewn together with the next 4 waiting to be pieced. Take your time to make sure the pattern is going the right way.

First bargello section all sewn together (just realized this picture was taken upside down - oops). The pattern is set up so you can add as many sections as you want and the bargello pattern will continue.

Here are both sets done and sewn together - and the picture taken from the right way.

Add borders if you want. Quilt as desired. Bind and enjoy.

Finished quilt.

Pieced binding.

Enjoy my first tutorial. Thanks to all the other bloggers who have offered free patterns and tutorials. I really appreciate them.

 Please let me know of any errors. I hope to make a printer friendly, pdf version in the future and would appreciate any comments on anything that is hard to understand.