Design Wall Monday Finally

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Yep, still here, still sewing, still impatient with slow internet 🙁  Hard to have the blogging mojo when the photo editor takes 2 mins to load/refresh/save.  I’ve been told I need to be more patient, not happening so far!

There’s a real mishmash on the design wall right now.  Linking up to Judy’s Design Wall Monday for the first time in months!

DWM 6-13-16Here’s my pole Barn from Julie’s Build-a-Barn blog hop:

Pole Barn BlockHere’s a couple blocks for the First Saturday program:

FS Alt Jun 16FS Alt TestThe block on the bottom is a test alternate block.  Jan, who blogs at The Colorful Fabriholic, created EQ drawings showing the the First Sat block layouts with the original alternate block design and with an alternate, alternate block I was thinking about doing, you know, for an alternative 😉  I’m cracking myself up this morning!  Thanks, Jan 🙂  Here’s the original block layout with 4 bars on the side of the alt block:

QF - Standard VersionAnd here is the three bar alternate block in the layout: 

QF - Cherie's VersionHaving three bars means you won’t have to line up a seam with the star point on the main block.  Turns out, I really, really like this change as it makes the whole thing not quite so busy. 

Happy Quilting,

Cherie

Build-A-Pole-Barn

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Let’s Build-A-Barn!  Here’s the first step…the walls/doors.  Because the doors on most pole barns slide open, I needed to add a “rail” for the doors.  Easy peasy, turn the striped fabric sideways. 

Pole Barn DoorsNext I positioned the peak, with it’s low angled roof line.  

Pole Barn RoofNow to decide on the position for the ground/sky side pieces.

Pole Barn Arranging SidesI went searching for a different sky fabric and, check it out, it’s shirting fabric.  Surprise 😉  Isn’t it great as sky fabric?

Pole Barn FinishedI wanted the silo to be in the foreground so I dropped it down lower than the pole barn.  I repeated the roof line process with the top of my silo which turned out way too stinkin’ cute as Glen would say 🙂

That’s how you free piece a barn for Southern Illinois.  Thank you Julie for such great directions to make a free pieced barn. 

buildabarnIf you want to start building things, and you know you do, then you want to click over to my Build-A-Barn give-away post here and leave me a funny comment.  Good Luck!!

Surprise Build-a-Barn Post

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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.

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

Pole Barn FabricsThe 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.

Blue SilosAs 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.

Thrifted Shirt ShelfI 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.

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

Pole Barn ExampleI 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 🙂

Pole Barn ShirtingsDid 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!

Cabin in the WoodsBe 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.

Build-A-Barn Blog Hop

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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!!

Book cover-AQS imageYou 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.

Wilke BarnRed Barn with SiloPole BarnsThe 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.

Pole Barn FabricsThe 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!! 

The Brave ChickenFor 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