New barn quilt additions

I have been quite busy over the last several weeks completing and hanging my barn quilts.  I truly enjoy drawing the quilt design on the board, deciding which colors will go well together and then painting the quilt block pattern on the board.  However, seeing my creation displayed for all to see is the most rewarding feeling there is.  The first barn quilt is the Double Aster.  I made this one for my neighbor and this is hanging on her storage building.  I will be able to enjoy looking at this one everyday as I will be able to see it from my sunroom.

The next barn quilt was just hung today at my house.  I now have three hanging on the house.  This one is on the rightside and is visible from the street.  I really like to Mariner's Compass and this one is my version of it

This last barn quilt was a challenge.  I made this one for my sister in law.  She told me that she likes the Log Cabin design, however, she gave me no guidance as to the colors she wanted.  She was going to leave it up to me to figure it out and said that she would like whatever I came up with.  So, this barn quilt is the result.  After painting all the strips I wanted to do something unique for her.   As you can tell from the photo each color strip has some type of pattern to it.  I bought some stamps from A. C. Moore Craft Store.  On the green strip I stamped maple leaves, oak leaves and aspen leaves and painted them a dark green.  The blue diagonal stripes were created by first painting the strip navy blue, then applying painters tape over the entire strip, removing every other tape, then painting light blue over the dark blue, which then created the stripes.  The white polka dots over the red was created by using wire nuts to dab white circles then filling them in with white paint.  The smaller dark blue strip was dabbed over with white paint using a wadded up paper towel. The pink strip was stamped with honey bees then painted.   The yellow strip and a sprinkling of light green paint flecked on it.  This was acheived by using a wire brush, dipped in green paint, then touching the yellow strip with the brush.

 

I purchased another 2'x2' board today and will begin to plan another barn quilt.  I'm not sure what block pattern I want to do yet.  I do have two 1'x1' boards already primed and will probably work on them this coming week.  One will be the Friendship Star and the other will be Card Tricks.  I hope to have photo's of these for my next blog post.

Vermont Quilt Trail

 I want to share this link with everyone regarding a barn quilt trail in Vermont.

http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=13107205

My wife and I went to a quilt show in Essex Junction, VT last June.  With my new interest in barn quilts I did a Google search for barn quilts in Vermont.  I came up with an item in the Vermont Travel Planner of a lady in Sheldon, VT who had formed a group to paint and install barn quilts in her area.  After the quilt show we took a ride to Sheldon, which was only about 10 miles away from Essex Junction, to find these barn quilts.   The first barn quilt we saw, the Mariner's Compass, was attached to the front porch of a house just outside of Sheldon.  We stopped to talk to the homeowners, who were outside working in their flower bed, only to find out that it was Fern Mercure, the organizer for the barn quilts.  We had a very nice chat with her and she gave us a brochure showing the locations of all the barn quilts in the area.  Below are some of the barn quilts that we visited in Vermont.

Welcome to my blog!

I hope that everyone will bear with me as I become familiar with blogging.  I've seen several blog site's that are set up very nicely and I hope that I will be able to create the same.

My wife, Sandra, has been quilting for several years now and has become quite good at it.  She saw an article describing quilt blocks painted on plywood and she asked me if I would be willing to make one for her.  She thought that a smaller version would look good on our house.  The article had mentioned that the barn quilts were 8' x 8' in size!!  Much too big for our home.   So, I scaled it down to a 2' x 2'.  A lot easier to work with.

My first one was a Lamoyne Star painted in red and white with a navy blue background.  I have it hung by my front door.  I truly enjoyed making this barn quilt and I was instantly hooked.  After I completed the Lamoyne Star I made a second barn quilt in the Daisy Rose pattern.  To date, I've made four 2'x2' quilts and two 1'x1' quilts.  One of the 1'x1's is hanging on the front door of a friend of ours. 

As far as I know there are no barn quilts in Connecticut.  I hope to change that  by making and selling my smaller versions to homeowners here.  I will keep you posted on my progress and will add photo's of all the barn quilts that I make, with their locations and start a barn quilt trail in CT.