I’m popping in for a surprise build-a-barn post….I do know it’s not Thursday 😉  Read about my turn on the Build-A-Barn blog hop and leave a comment to win an authored signed copy on this blog post.

I was working a bit with the fabrics for my pole barn and thought I’d share why I’ve selected them.

The green and light blue are obvious, green crops and blue sky although I’m not totally sure about the blue……may have a look see for something I like better.  The royal blue and white are for a silo like these which we see around here.

As you may, or may not know, I have an extensive thrifted shirt collection……this shelf is all thrifted fabrics 🙂  It’s a beautiful sight…..I know you’re jealous, lol.

I love the hunt of finding a cool shirt, love the $0.89/lb price (Goodwill Clearance Center), love de-boning them (yes, I love this part, I find it soothing and rewarding), and am in love with the variety of stripes, plaids and prints that are different from what everyone else is working with…..well except for the other thrifted shirt quilters, LOL 😉  For my Brave Chicken quilt, I used shirtings for the sky.  I wanted colors that gave the impression of turbulent skies. I think the plaid with the shot cotton achieved that.

For my pole barn, I wanted stripes that would kind of, sort of, give the corrugated steel feel. 

I wanted two of them so the doors would be different, although not all pole barns have different colored doors.  So I went digging in my shirtings and came up with these two.  I think they’ll do nicely 🙂

Did you know chocolate brown shirts are hard to come by?  Bonnie Hunter mentioned this a looooong time ago and I never, ever pass up a chocolate brown shirt 🙂  That’s how I was able to make this 100% thrifted shirt log cabin!

Be sure to comment on this post for a chance to win an author signed copy of Build-a-Barn No Pattern Construction by Julie Sefton.

It’s my week to share Julie Sefton’s Build-A-Barn book with you.  (If you would like to win a copy, read to the bottom 😉 )  Julie’s book will entertain you with See Rock City advertising history, inspire you with the beautiful photos, encourage you with her story of “Meh” and teach you how to make your own free pieced barns.  Seriously!!

You know how when you buy a new car, and all of a sudden you see them everywhere.  The same thing happens when Julie Sefton invites you to join the Secret Society of Barn Builders (SSOBB).  You start seeing barns everywhere and I do mean everywhere 😉  These are cell phone pictures of barns around where I live in Southern Illinois.

The white and red barns in the picture above are pole barns.  They are utilitarian and not too interesting but they are very prevalent around here so I’m going to make one….but I’ll have to jazz mine up a bit using the fabrics below 😉  Check back on Thursday for the Pole Barn reveal.

The Build-a-Barn cover quilt, See Rock City, is a fan-tabulous, awesome, stupendous free pieced barn quilt which I got to see in person at the 2014 AQS Paducah quilt show.  At the time I had no idea I would, in a small way (a secret, oh so hard to keep secret SSOBB way), participate in it’s journey to a book.  See my SSOBB page here.  It was an honor and great fun!! 

For a chance to win an author signed copy of Julie’s Build-a-Barn No Pattern Construction book, leave me a funny comment.  I’ll draw the winner on Saturday, June 11th.  Make sure I have your email address 🙂

Happy Quilting, 

Cherie