Patriotic Theme

My wife and her friend Sue have been quilting buddies for about 5 years.  We met Sue and her husband, Joe, about 6 years ago at a country dance bar, Cadillac Ranch, in Southington, CT.  Yes, the four of us have been country line dancing for that period of time and love it!  I've got the cowboy boots to prove it......and I'm not bad on the dance floor!!!!

Well, my wife and Sue usually quilt on Saturday's together, switching back and forth from each other's houses.  Two weeks ago Sue was at our house and was working on a quilt using a pattern that she loves called Hunter Star.  She mentioned to me that she would like a door quilt for the summer, honoring Memorial Day and Fouth of July.  So, being a good listener (of course, my wife will disagree!) I put two and two together and came up with the Hunter Star pattern in red, white and blue.
 

I had thought about doing a few imbellishments within the pattern, but, I like the clean look and lines on it, so I'm leaving it alone.

My first 'Themed' barn quilt

You're probably wondering why I'm calling my latest barn quilt a 'Themed' one.   My brother in law Gary, who lives about 2 miles from me, started making maple syrup several years ago in a small building that was used for storage on his property.  At first, he started boiling the sap in a small pan on his kitchen stove!  Then he progressed to a bigger unit that was designed just for boiling sap.  When he started tapping more trees, 14 in all, he naturally collected more sap.  So, it was the logical thing to do to move the operation to the storage building. 
While reading Suzi Parron's book, Barn Quilts and the American Quilt Trail Movement, which I blogged on recently, I saw a photo of a barn with the maple leaf quilt block pattern hanging on the side.  I had an idea!!  I made a 2' x 2' version of that maple leaf pattern for Gary's sugar house.

When I brought my sap over (I have 2 maple trees tapped) I also brought over the barn quilt, which Gary had no idea that I made, and proceeded to hang it over the entrance to the 'sugar house'.  Now, I'm not bragging, but it looks pretty darn nice on the building!!!

What's nice about the location, is that the building faces the main road, so it should be visible by people driving by.  If anyone is interested in seeing the barn quilt, it's located at 100 South End Rd, Southington, CT.

I wonder now...........Could this be the starting point for a barn quilt trail in Connecticut?!  Or could it be my sister in law, Jean, who is Gary's sister and lives in Brookfield, CT, who has had one of my barn quilts, Log Cabin, hanging on the front of her house for over a year!!!

I would hate to get her mad at me, so I will say that she is the start of the barn quilt trail in Connecticut!!  The location of this barn quilt is 226 Whisconier Rd (Rte 25), Brookfield, CT and it can be seen from the road.

BARN QUILTS and the American Quilt Trail Movement

I have been constantly searching for a book on the subject of barn quilts and the history behing them.  For Christmas in 2010, I received a book by a well known quilting celebrity that had photo's of some barn quilts, but then devoted the remainder of the book to making the barn quilt block from fabric.  Not what I was looking for.  This past Christmas I received another book about barn quilts.  This one had several photo's of barn quilts.  It also had instructions on how to make an 8' x 8' barn quilt, which was OK, but, the book also had, of all things, recipes!!!  Again, not what I was looking for.
My prayer's were answered this past week when I received my copy of Barn Quilts and the American Quilt Trail Movement, written by Suzi Parron from Stone Mountain, Georgia.  I've never met Suzi but have exchanged emails and blog posts with her for the past year or so.    

Suzi dedicated a tremendous amount of time traveling through out the midwest researching, photographing and writing about the many barn quilts and barn quilt trails that had been organized over the years.  What makes this book stand out is the family history behind each of the barn quilts featured.  History that goes back generations!  I am about half way through the book at the moment and find it very hard to put it down.   The stories are very touching and heart warming.  
If you are interested in obtaining a copy of this book, go to www.barnquiltsinfo.com and order a copy directly from Suzi Parron.  You won't regret it!
 

Christmas is over

It is now January 8th, 2012.  Last year at this time we had fridged weather, snow was on the ground.......LOT'S OF SNOW!!!.....with more to come!!!  This year it is completely different.  So far the temperature has not fallen below freezing for any length of time.  I was out in the yard yesterday, in shirt sleeves, with the temperature hitting a balmy 61 degrees!!  It was a great time to put away the outdoor Christmas decorations, take down the Christmas tree's in our living room and sun room and finally take down my barn quilt, Christmas Star, that has been hanging on the front of my house since Christmas 2010!!!!!!!!

I suppose that you could call it laziness on my part that it stayed up all year, but the truth is this is one of my favorite patterns.  So, as a result, it remained on the house.  My wife mentioned about a week ago that it should come down and replace it with her favorite pattern, the Lamoyne Star.

This is the first barn quilt that I painted and it was hanging on the front of our house until I replaced it with the Christmas Star.  Usually, this star pattern is not hung on point as this one is.  My wife liked it this way, so that is why it is hung on point.  In May 2010 my wife saw a picture of a barn quilt in a quilting magazine and asked me if I would consider make a smaller one, 2' x 2', for our house.  I told her that I would give it a try, but I wouldn't promise anything.  After a few trial and errors this picture is the result.  My lines weren't very good and each paint color was seeping into the other colors, as I hadn't perfected my taping abilities.  There was a lot of touching up done to get the colors segregated and the lines as straight as they could be.  When I was done, I showed it to my wife thinking that I was done and I could hang it on the house.  But, my lovely wife said that it would be really cool if I could paint stitch lines, to give it a look of a real quilt!  Are you kidding?!  Stitch lines?!?!  Being the good husband that I am I made the attempt to paint stitch lines!  Although time consuming the painted stitch lines came out quite good!

I was definitely proud of myself and what I was capable of doing.  The rest is history and Barn Quilts by Dave was born!  Since then my taping skills have improved and I spend less time touching up. 
They say that practice makes perfect and I'm constantly practicing!

   
 

Reflections on 2011

As 2011 comes to the end and we ring in 2012, I would like to reflect on the past year.  I started the year with good intentions and enthusiasm about continuing to make barn quilts.  I did start the year by making the New Year's barn quilt.  This was a challenge presented to me by my friend, Suzy Parron from Stone Mountain, GA.  I have a link to Suzi's blog here on my blog.  I finished the New Year's barn quilt in about a week. 

 

I thought that it would be a neat idea to make a barn quilt to comemorate all the holiday's of the year.  If you've been following my blog, you will see that the idea never materialized and I went into dormency (for a lack of a better word).  Other activities came up through the course of the year which didn't help.  To be honest, that really isn't a concrete excuse.  I should have found time.  When autumn came I told myself that I had to get back into the game.  Halloween was coming up, so I made the Halloween Pinwheel.

This project got my creative juices flowing again and I was looking into what to make for Christmas.  In the meantime, I received a much needed adrenaline boost from a lady in Illinois who wanted me to make a barn quilt for her mother, as a Christmas present!!  I couldn't believe that one of my creations would be hanging on someone's house, out of state!!!  As of this writing I'm awaiting photo's from Illinois of the barn quilt hanging.  When I receive those photo's I will post it on my blog!

I now had to think about what to make for Christmas.  My thoughts were answered by a good friend of our's, Sue Messinger, who I had made a door quilt (1' x 1') back in 2010.  Unfortunately, I don't have a photo of it to show.  Sue wanted me to make a Christmas door quilt for her.  I didn' take long to come up with a pattern!!

Does it look familiar?  That's right!  It's the same block pattern that I used for the Illinois barn quilt.

Now that the creative juice's are flowing, I ordered new business cards AND door magnets for my pickup truck, so I can catch the attention of all the lovely quilting ladies traveling on the roads to their favorite quilt shops!!!  I've been commissioned by a lady who I work with to make 2 barn quilts for her.  One for her summer cottage in New Hampshire and one for her home her in Connecticut.  So, hopefully, 2012 will be a great year for Barn Quilts by Dave!!

I want to take this time to wish all of you a happy and healthy New Year!!

Door quilt update

Several posts back I featured my latest 'door' quilt (1' x 1') that I made for a friend, Sue Mesinger.  She already had a door quilt that I made for her last year, but wanted something with a Christmas theme.  She sent a photo of the door quilt that is now hanging on the front door that I recently made for her. 

It's amazing how the colors pop out at you using a dark colored door as a background. 

Traveling Advertising!

Connecticut is blessed to have a large number of quilt shops around the State.   Just ask my wife.  She has visited everyone of them.........and more than once!!!!  I've been to several of these shops with her and I was amazed at the steady number of customer's that come in and out of these shops.  So, how do I take advantage of this customer traffic?  The online printing company that I use to print out my business cards, also offer door magnet's.  Fantastic!!!  I had them make up two for me to put on my pickup truck, so that the quilting ladies, traveling the highways of Connecticut, hopefully will take notice and give me a call.  Or, traveler's who have no idea what a barn quilt is may just call me, or visit my website, to see what they are.   Should be interesting!!