Monday, November 30, 2009

Bargello with a story

This bargello quilt was made for two reasons. The first reason was that the York Heritage Quilters' Guild was having a quilt show. This was in 2006. I had no new quilts on the go and needed inspiration. That was the year that my daughter Maili's boyfriend, Casey, decided that he would enter the AIDS Lifecycle 5 which is a 7-day bike ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles. The bike tour includes up to 2,500 bicyclist and more than 500 support crew participants who cycle or crew to raise funds for services and awareness of HIV/AIDS. I have no idea how I came up with the idea of a bargello quilt but here it is. The colours, of course, represent the water (blue), sand (gold), road (white and grey), and of course the trees (brown and green).



I actually made the quilt sideways. After sewing all the pieces together, I turned the whole quilt on it's side so that it was in the position you see here. I stencilled the bike riders on it. It was finished and quilted in time for the show. There was no set plan for the quilting and so I just went with the flow and put in what I thought it needed in each of the colours.
Casey received the quilt just after Christmas that year when Maili brought it to him after her visit home for the holidays. I do believe the label reads "From San Fran to LA."

Note: the AIDS Lifecycle bike tour is an annual event that takes place in late May or early June and earlier this year Casey did it again. This time Maili took part as one of the roadies.
For more info: http://www.aidslifecycle.org/

8 comments:

  1. That is a FABULOUS quilt and I love the story - the quilt is perfect for it! I am in awe.

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  2. Beautiful bargello quilt and so nice story behind it. I have never tried to sew any bargello myself...but always admired them!

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  3. What a wonderful quilt and story to go with it! Impressive biking too!

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  4. Hi Delores,
    That is an amazing bargello, particularly when enlarged so the bike riders show plainly.

    Thank you for entering the Buderim Patchwork giveaway, we all had a ball but it was a huge weekend with the Christmas Fair as well.

    Andrea

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  5. what a beautiful design....and you did a super job dolores!! :))

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  6. Hi Dolores,

    This quilt is wonderful and I loved the story behind it.
    I have never heard of Bargello, so you learn something every day.
    I am just going to go back and enlarge it now.
    Well done to your daughter's boyfriend, for doing this hard ride and for her being a roadie.

    Happy week
    Hugs
    Carolyn

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  7. The Bargello is great Dolores!!! What a great bike ride! Wow!!! My butt would be sore within 1/2 hour!!! All the power to them that do ride and raise funds for a great cause...
    Happy stitchings!

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  8. What a gorgeous quilt Dolores! I think you really did a great job. I like the idea of the quilt and how you
    turned a traditional quilt into an art quilt - grin.

    You do gorgeous work and I can hardly wait to see what you do for your new Challenge! Shirley

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Thank you for commenting. I appreciate your thoughts.