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.