Bargello Placemat Quilt Along – Part 2

Part 2 – Cutting your tubes, using your seam ripper and sewing rows back together. Miss Part 1? You can find it here! By now you should have all your fabric cut and sewn together into tubes.  Depending on which pattern you are doing you should either have four tubes sewn together for the placemats or two tubes for the table runner.  If you are doing both you will have six tubes total!

Now it is time to cut into the tubes to get our rows.

I cut as many strips as I could get from each tube. You will have extras for the placemats if you do it this way, you can incorporate them into your table runner if you want (make it longer) or keep them in case you mess up some of your cuts. 

Once you get your strips cut from your tubes you are ready to break out the seam ripper. **Note** It is important to follow the diagram here no matter what pattern you are using.  You want to remove the seam between the top square and the bottom square of each row.

This is row 1 for the placemat pattern.

As you are picking out seams make sure that all your seams are ironed in opposite directions like shown in Part 1.  That way the seams will nest.  See how the seams below go in opposite directions?

Lay out your rows as you go, checking the pattern.

Pull row 1 and row 2, layer them right sides together with row 1 on the bottom and row 2 on the top. This will make the seam come out on the correct side.  Sew a 1/4″ seam.

Do this again for the next row.

**Important** – make sure you are checking the pattern constantly when sewing your rows back together.  It is really, really easy to mess up at this step.  Want to see how I messed up?

I didn’t notice my mess up until it was quilted!! Don’t make the same mistake.  

Sew your rows together. Because you pressed your seams in opposite directions your intersections should nest perfectly as they go through the sewing machine.

Continue piecing your rows together following the pattern.

Your placemats should look like this when you are done:

Cut and Piece together the rest of your placemats and table runner following the same steps above. 

Follow the same steps above to piece together the table runner paying close attention to the pattern.

When you are finished press your top(s).  I chose to iron all my seams the same direction.

Part 3 will show you how to finish your project.  I’ll show you some different quilting options!