My wife came home, several weekends ago, from a visit to her local quilt shop to inform me that she saw a 8' x 8' barn quilt hanging in front of their quilt shop. Wow, another barn quilt in Connecticut and it's not mine?!?! I just had to check it out. So, I stopped by today, with camera in hand, to look at it.
The design pattern is called Lone Star. I was told that the barn quilt was made using floor underlayment, which is usually a very thin material. According to the owner's husband, who made the barn quilt, said that the underlayment was ease to work with and handle. The next photo is a closer view of the barn quilt.
This is the first 8' x 8' barn quilt that I know of in Connecticut. If you are in Connecticut and would like to stop by to see this barn quilt, it is located at Lisa's Clover Hill Quilts, 27 Webster Hill Rd, Berlin, CT. With any luck, there will be more quilts like this appearing around the State and we could have an OFFICIAL Barn Quilt Trail!!
I finally made the big time!!!!!! Well, sort of........ I received an email last month from a lady in Albany, IL. She had see my blog with my last posting from the beginning of the year and she was wondering if I was still making barn quilts, as she was interested in having me make one, so she could give it to her mother for Christmas. I wrote her back stating that I was still making them and would make one for her. She, her name is Becky, told me that she would look for a quilt block pattern that she liked and would email me a photo. About a week later, I received this photo.
My first reaction was, "OH MY GOD!!", she wants this entire pattern duplicated on a 2' x 2' board!! Well, I figured if that's what the customer wants, I couldn't refuse. Besides, MY barn quilt would be going to Illinois!! After receiving the photo, I emailed her and, to my relief, she said that she just wanted one of the star patterns duplicated. Phew!!! Becky would leave it up to me to use whatever colors that I suggested. I told her that I would email her photo's showing the progression of her barn quilt. The next photo that I sent was to show her how the pattern would look on the board.
She approved the pattern layout and I commenced with applying the colors. I'm going to let you in on a little secret. When these boards are cut, they are not a true 24" x 24" square. One side my be slightly off by 1/8th of an inch, due to the thickness of the saw blade that is cutting the board. What I will do is draw the border lines from the edge of the board inward is such a way as to create a true 23" square. I then calculate and plot out my design pattern using the 23" square.
The next photo that I sent Becky was showing the colors on the board. If you notice, I don't have the border painted on yet. I usually paint that on after the pattern is painted.
After receiving Becky's approval, I told her that I would like to add some embellishment's to the pattern to make it unique. I gave her some of the idea's that I had in mind. She left it up to me to do what I wanted! The following photo's are a result of that.
Using some everyday household tools, I created the spackling effect on the corners. What those tools were, I will leave to your imagination. I shouldn't give out my trade secrets!! The lady bugs are from a rubber stamp.
I had a lot of fun making this quilt. Actually, this is the first one that I've done using an actual photograph of a quilt to work out the pattern and not just a line drawing.
For the past week I've been going bat-ty, as you can tell from the photo of my Halloween Pinwheel. It took me several evenings to complete the painting of the bat's, as well as, the pumpkin's. I bought a set of halloween themed rubber stamps made by Martha Stewart. I stamped the impressions of the bat's and the pumpkin's on the barn quilt and then, using them as a templated, painted over them. All in all, I think that it came out quite well, if I do say so myself!!
The next photo is a closer shot of the bat's and pumpkin's so you can see the detail. I left the lighter pumpkin color untouched, to give a break to the pattern and not make it look too 'busy'.
I had fun doing this one. Now, what to do next. I would like to make a barn quilt for all the holiday's. So, I guess that the next one I should do, will have a Thanksgiving theme. I'll start looking for patterns now.
