Barn Quilts With Babs

Over the next few weeks, I may share a few posts pertaining to family things from around the holiday time.  This is one of those posts.  Right before Christmas, my friend Courtney, you know the one that gave me my Scraptastic Award, sent me a message that her mom wanted to make a barn quilt for her quilter aunt (Courtney's aunt with the do die for studio) for Christmas.  My immediate response was that is awesome and let me know if she would like some help.  Courtney's mom, we shall call her Bab's, said she would love to have my help, especially since Courtney would not be able to come in to help.

They emailed me a picture of the block she wanted to create and I went to work figuring out the math.  I suggested that the quilt be painted on a 36" square.  That way we could work with whole numbers and not those nasty little fractions.

Bab's had a good friend helped her nail together some boards and cut it to the correct size.  She primed the square before my arrival.  

Before we started marking the wooden square, it was time to pick a color pallet for the Millstone block.  Babs had this great little basket filled with all sorts of different paints.  I asked her how in the world she got all of them and where did they come from??  Apparently, you can get small paint samples mixed at your local Lowes (I did not know this).  She and her mother use to collect coupons in magazines for them and when they were out she would pick some up.  How cool is that?

She had the colors she wanted to use picked out.

I suggested that we do a sample paint swatch to make sure she was happy with her color selections.  We grabbed an unused paint stirrer and tested the colors beside each other.

After confirming that she was happy with all of the colors and that there was enough contrast between them, it was time to mark the block and get started.  Out with the trusty pencil and yard stick.

After all of the lines had been carefully marked it was time to start applying paint.  We decided to start in the middle and work our way out, marking our lines carefully with painters tape.

After two coats of paint...

and the magic of a hair drier we successfully added the first color.  The paint actually dried much quicker than we thought it would.  But now was the moment of truth, did it dry enough to pull away without smearing so that we could put more down?  If not, the project was going to take much longer than we thought.

It had!  We moved on to the background color around the outside of the block to give the middle of the pinwheel more time to dry.

So onward we went, adding the pink section next and then the blue.  Once we made sure everything was dry, we stopped to admire our work.  Not too bad.  We contemplated stopping and leaving it as is.  We both kind of liked that white.  So we decided to break for lunch (a lovely pepper soup, grilled cheese and gingerbread cookies) to let the blue dry a bit more.

After our bellies where full, it was time to cover up the white with the background color.  Really I think we just wanted to paint some more.

Once everything was dried and the tape was removed we could start touching up a few places that needed filling in or spots that dripped.  All in all, this project went pretty dag gone smooth from start to finish.  The whole project took us around 4 hours to complete.  We even discussed the possibility of making barn quilts to sell we had so much fun.  

It t'was a Christmas of barn quilts.  

Making this larger painted version of a quilt block was definitely a huge contrast to making the mini barn quilts I completed around Thanksgiving. 

Read more about these mini barn quilts here.

For now, my barn quilt craze is over, though I don't know that I will stay away from them for too long.  What's your experience with barn quilts?  Have you ever made one, big or small?  Do you smile when you see them on the side of building?  I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Today I'm linking up with Can I Get a Whoop! Whoop!, and Let's Bee Social.

Mini Barn Quilts

If you have been to my blog before, I don't think that it's a mystery that I love things that are miniature (except candy bars, those should always be supersized).  At barely 5 ft tall, I'm practically miniature myself.   So when Terri Ann over at Childlike Fascination announced her brain child Mini Barn Quilts, I knew that I had to have some.  I have a few people on my Christmas list that I thought would appreciate these tiny creations, so I ordered four to assemble during my week off from work.

The first items of business was to acquire Mod Podge, brushes and wood glue, then sort through my fat quarters (and of course purchase a few more) for smaller print fabrics.  Scale is very important for this project.  Once I decided on fabrics, I could begin using the Mod Podge to adhere the fabric to the wooden pieces so that they could dry overnight.  The next morning, I used an x-acto knife to cut out my pieces.

Before I glued the pieces to the base, I arranged them to make sure everything fit together they way I wanted them too.

Now for a step that I almost missed...or rather almost forgot.  When you take the small wooden pieces out of the bag and begin adhering your fabric, pay attention.  One side is the wooden surface and the other has a paper covering.  You glue your fabric to the wooden side and then peel the wooden paper off the other side before you glue it to the base.  I was so excited to start gluing to the base I almost forgot.

In no time at all I had my four mini barn quilts finished, two Missouri Star kits and two Flocks of Swallows.

So, if you are just looking for a change of pace project or need an idea for a loved one, head over to Mini Barn Quilts and give them a try.

My last thought before I leave...I wonder if I can con someone into building me a miniature barn for my barn quilt?

Come join the party!  Today I'm linking up with Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts, Main Crush Monday at Cooking Up Quilts, Richard and Tanya Quilts and Can I Get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.