Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!!

We have a winner for the Build A Barn book drawing!

She was the VERY FIRST COMMENTER!

Annie O said:

Stunning, just stunning! What a lovely tribute to the "barn that was" and your neighbor. Love the windmill and party decor!

Congrats Annie and THANKS to you and all the other entries for your kind

and thoughtful comments about my barn!

This barn really existed.

  

It belonged to Mildred and Marvin.  

We used to sit out on her brick patio and gaze out at her barn 

while listening to the exciting stories she told us

of parties and barn dances she and Marvin used to put on.  

We heard stories of friends, neighbors, politicians, 

and all kinds of important people who attended their events.  

Mildred LOVED this barn and kept it updated, 

including a whole new roof, 

but after she and Marvin died, the land was sold.

  

My husband and I watched 

on the day the new landowners bulldozed 

this fabulous barn down along with Mildred’s house.  

The new owners wanted cleared land they could put a large crop sprinkler system on.

It was especially sad because 

Mildred had been raised in an orphanage 

and hubby and I both knew how very important her homestead had been to her. 

This quilt is my interpretation of Mildred’s big red barn all decked out for the holidays.

These great photos of my barn quilt were taken by Julie Sefton and her hubby.

Build A Barn Book Review Blog Hop

It's my turn to share my barn and involvement with the new book

Build a Barn

by Julie Sefton

her blog

Me an My Quilts-Exploring The Possibilities

W-a-y back in Dec. 2014 ( yes, it takes a while to create a book ) Julie asked about 14 of us to do a test barn using her notes, photos and instructions on how to Build a Barn using

her no pattern construction method.  We became charter members of the Secret Society of Barn Builders.  Emphasis on the "secret" part!

So~~I finally came up with an idea about a barn that used to be down the road from me.

A quick sorta sketch to get the idea going.

If I dig in my stash long enough I can usually come up with the fabric that will work.

I chose a winter party type scene.  LOOK, music fabric, must be a barn dance taking place.

Using Julie's instructions I began, starting with the barn first.  See, it's done in sections.

Sky and background auditions next.

NO! Yuck sky!

NO!  Sky too plain!
Audition~Audition~Audition
See, at the same time I'm also auditioning some other extras to add like maybe a tree.

Since I didn't have any sky type fabric in my stash I had to create sky by mingling in a variety of different fabrics by cutting them into smaller sizes and then sewing them all back together, yep, that's the definition of quilting isn't it.

Oh Yes…my sky is finally coming together!

Backgrounds can include any extra 'cuteness' you want to add.  Trees, windmills, stars in the sky or animals.  I just keep on auditioning different fabrics and ideas during the whole process.  Julie's book will show you how!
I'll be having a drawing June 5th for a free giveaway of Julie's Barn book.  Be sure to leave a comment on this post before then.

And from here, everything just fell into place ( well, not really, there was more agonizing, standing and staring and switching and swapping…ha…you know how the routine goes ).
Ta Da!
This is the final result I submitted to Julie to go on from here to be quilted by her friend Chris.
Finished quilt measures around 30 inches.

Click HERE to read...MY barn has a true/real life heartfelt story.  See it all quilted and gussied up!

Julie's Build A Barn book is so helpful and makes creating your own little barn SOOO
easy!

There is nothing scary about free pieced quilt/block construction.  If fact, it's very freeing!
You can't make any mistakes. Anything goes!

Go HERE and see……read up on everyone's barns.  You don't want to miss out on
some super CUTE fun barns!!

"SNAP OUT OF IT!!!"

Do you remember that movie Moonstruck?  The one where Cher smacks

Nicolas Cage across the face and screams to him to

"SNAP OUT OF IT!"

LOL

That's what I'm trying to do….just snap out of this 'slug' mentality I've had lately.  Even though I've been quiet on the blogging scene, I HAVE been busy…..well, sort of…..at a snail's pace.

Here's some of what's been hanging around on my various make shift design walls upstairs.

Determined to use from my stash I finally chose some dots and stripes to piece together a backing for the quilt top laying there on the ironing board.  Maybe I'll just cut a bunch of big squares and sew them together.

This is my "taking forever and ever" log cabin.  It IS all sewn together… BUT…yep...there's that BUT... there's ALWAYS a BUT with me!  I decided it needed one more row, you know, just to make me TRULY happy with it.

Yesterday I sewed more blocks and all I need is 5 more to have enough.

Here and there with blocks of time I have put together these free pieced little cuties.  I have planned this for a 'real live little cutie'…….hhmmm, I hope she doesn't turn into a 'big' cutie before I get this finished.  I'm constantly mulling over how I want it all to come together.

NO pattern here…..just me and my constant brain churning…..sigh.

Of course my MAIN project for the past year has been my FRIENDS OF BALTIMORE hand appliqué blocks…Sue Garman's pattern.  I thumb tacked some flannel up in the hallway so I could admire them as I pass through.  Red bird on the bottom is the current 'in process' one I'm stitching on.

Only 9 more blocks…AND 4 most tedious borders to go.

Speaking of birds, you should go Here and see Lynne's oh so creative birds and quilt
she has sewn.  Yes, go NOW…I'll wait.

A-N-D

T-H-E-N

I succumbed to THIS TEMPTATION!!

Can you guess which one it is?

Darn it…..I'm so weak and easy…..sigh.

 …..and my little helper who's always close by...IS NEVER impressed.

Now that we're all caught up it's time for me to get back to the sewing machine.  I think I've

'snapped out of it' for a while and I'm quite amazed I could still spell all these words.

p.s.  If you live in Canada you should go HERE and check out this NEW quilting book Brenda is
giving away. It's Julie Sefton's new Build A Barn book….good stuff!

Nancy is having a giveaway too!

Do You Own A Hammer?

Do you have some nails?

If you do, that's super great….

BUT

You won't need them in order to do this kind of building!

Yep…

My friend Julie Sefton's new "how to" on constructing your own CUTE quilty BARN is

Hot Off The Presses! 

She is super excited and so am I!  Yes, I did the happy dance when my specially

autographed copy arrived in the mail.

Clapping! Clapping! Clapping!

GO HERE to read more about it.

IT'S HERE! IT'S HERE!

Finally!

Oooouuuu and Aaahhhing….

Happy Sigh….

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now, I'm inspired

To

Get this one quilted!

~Sewn back in Oct. 2013~