3D MAGIC...
Design Your Own Quilt

Ever leaf through a book of quilt designs and think you'd really like to design your own quilt but didn't know where to start or what to do? Well, now you will.

With the easy-to-follow step-by-step directions on this site, you'll be designing your own 3D bargello baby quilt like a pro in no time flat!

First, we'll look at the few tools and supplies you'll need. Then we'll design the flat background; and finally, the 3-dimensional foreground of your bargello quilt.

We'll also take a look at how fiber artists can use baby quilts to test design concepts for larger, more lucritive projects as well as how babies react to color.

Bargello = Movement

Eye movement is the hallmark of bargello quilts. Interest, even excitement, is created by the way the design makes your eyes move as they follow the lines created by the positioning of the various colors.

Movement can be either 2-dimensional or 3-dimensional:

2-dimensional, meaning -- even though there is a background and a foreground, the surface looks flat (eye movement would be from foreground to background, then back to foreground).

3-dimensional, meaning -- the surface looks like it's coming towards you in some areas and receeding in others (undulating, in other words).

Take a look at the movement in this wall-hanging. Yes, the colors move your eyes around inside the borders. But it's the solid spacer-bars and the width of the strips that create that undulating, in/out, 3-dimensional effect.

Now look at the movement in this one. The background is stationary. But in addition to the 3-dimensional undulation created by the spacer-bars and the strip width, there is also an up-and-down eye movement created by the segmentation of the spacer-bars.

What? This all sounds complicated? Don't worry. Learing to design your own quilt is really not as difficult as it looks -- as you'll see when you get into the east-to-follow step-by-step instructions and begin to design your own quilt.

Other Design Sources

Beth Ann Williams book, Colorwash Bargello Quilts, and Marge Edie's book, Bargello Quilts, excellently cover movement in the overall design, movement only in the background, and touch on 2-dimensional movement of the foreground.

I see no need to re-state their material here.

My Specialty

My specialty is creating 3-dimensional effects in a 2-dimensional medium.

Therefore, I will concentrate my discussion and illustrations on helping you create 3-dimensional movement into the foreground as you design your own quilt for your baby.

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Train Quilt -- cutting and sewing instructions without photos

Step-by-step quilt-making instruction videos are now available on this page.

Here are the step-by-steps that we'll be going through:

(1) Designing your quilt ..... Flat Background (for bargello design)

Also, for simplicity of this first design, we will be using solid (one fabric) spacer-bars.

..... 3D Foreground (for bargello design)

(2) Choosing your fabric

(3) Cutting your fabric

(4) Preparing your backing and batting

(5) Sewing your quilt

(6) Sewing your binding

(7) Washing your quilt