Bargello Experiment

To make a quilted Halloween treat bag for my favorite person I decided to experiment. I had an idea on how to make a bargello patchwork that looks more intricate than it really is (and also hides my utter inability to match seams) but I'd never seen anyone try this variation of mine. I didn't know if it would work, either, but I had the fabric, so I thought why not. I started with these 5 novelty fat quarters.

I cut all the fat quarters into long rectangles.

I sewed the rectangles into ten strips, staggering the fabric placements diagonally.

I then sewed the strips together -- at which point you can clearly see my mismatched seams.

I took the block of patchwork and sewed the long ends together to make a tube (I learned bargello piecing from a book, but there are tons of free tutorials online to show you how to do it.)

I cut the tube into fourteen random-width strips, just avoiding the vertical seams from piecing the original rectangles. I then unpicked a seam on each strip counting up or down one seam from the last strip, which creates the bargello effect.

Here's the end result after I sewed those strips together. Turned out even better than I thought it would.

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Better than Fried

I cut some chives from the kitchen garden to make garlic-chive baked fries for dinner. This is a great side dish for veggie burgers. Click here for the recipe from Taste of Home.com.

Stuff

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The Mercantile

If you don't mind walking 33K square feet in retail space, The Mercantile may be the vintage/arts store you'd enjoy visiting if you're ever in Orlando. I certainly did. Because it was busy I didn't take any photos in the store, but it's absolutely amazing and chock full of antiques and artisan creations, most of which were pretty reasonably priced. For $21.00 I invested in a picture of sailboats for the guest bathroom I'm redoing, and a fairy mystery jar of cool stuff. The jaw was hand-painted and decorated, and utterly charming. I think I wanted the jar more than the contents. As you can see the contents were both generous and pretty cool, too. I finally have some vintage gloves to use for my art quilter bingo challenge!

Rayen

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