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.

There's Still Time To Sign Up For The Giveaway

Quick!  Quick!

There's still time to sign up for the Build A Barn book giveaway.  Go to my previous post and leave a comment and you will be entered.  You must at least leave your

email address in the comment to be contacted if you win.

I will draw the winner by 10:00 tonight!

Here is a little session I had playing around with another barn idea.  Kind of a Texas version.

Not sure about this one, I had some fabric with a cowgirl, but I just don't know any

cowgirls.

I guess I could pretend "I'm" that cute skinny little cowgirl…..hhhmmm, now that's

a good thought…..being a skinny cowgirl, with long brown hair that I can

flip back and forth…..ha!

( hopefully it won't get caught up in that rope I'm twirling about )

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!!