Barn Quilt Love

I'm not real sure when my love of barn quilts began, but I know I usually scream out 'BARN QUILT!!!' every time  I spot one on a road trip. I even see them around the suburbs here in the cities, like when I drive out to my son's place in Chaska, I spot a few here and there and I love them! And now that I know where they are, I look out for them. On our way to St. Louis last spring, our drive to market went a little quicker with the spotting of some barn quilts. So when my friend Lynn asked if I wanted to take a barn quilt class, I jumped at the opportunity to make one! The instructor offered three size boards to work on, and 8' x 8', 4' x 4' and a 2' x 2' . We opted for the 2' x 2' board. A two foot board is pretty frickin big..... I must have had a one foot board in my head because when I arrived at the class, I thought the instructor made a mistake.  No... it's a big board.... a couple of brave classmates made the four foot boards... they were just huge.  Lynn tells me that the eight foot board is actually two sheets of plywood... I can't imagine doing one that big. Someday we hope to have a big ol' shop for the hubby. I imagine making four, two foot barn quilts and then put them 'together'. I think that would be adorable. The class was four hours long... and let me tell you, you need four hours to complete a smaller barn quilt. This includes speeding the paint drying process with hair dryers. There was no time to dink around... especially if your barn quilt used several different colors.

Our instructor took time to draft out our designs that we sent her for the class onto graph paper. This I'm sure saved tons of time and gave us more time to draft our block onto our board. She also painted all of our boards with a basecoat of white beforehand.

I took a few pictures to show you the process. Using frog tape, we tape off sections to paint the different colors. This gives nice crisp lines. 

Here you can see how I taped for each color... I have the cream, white and green sections painted. I'm taping off now my red areas. 

Lynn is working away on her design... can't wait to see it complete!

My Barn Quilt

Lynn's quilt

Mom's quilt

Ann's quilt...

I love how my barn quilt turned out. It was a lot of fun to do. I plan on making a couple more for gifts this Christmas. I've got the designs all picked out... just need to make the time to do them! My quilt will eventually be mounted on our garden shed this spring. But for right now I am enjoying it in the house. They're not just for barns!

My barn quilt fits nicely on my fireplace mantle... the colors are perfect.

To find out a little about the history of barn quilts Click HERE.

The next time you are out and about, be on the lookout for barn quilts! They are making a comeback!

Hope you have a great day!

Happy quilting,

Cindy

July's Block!

Cocoa, coffee, cappuccino, cookies and cake.... all good things start with the letter 'C'.  This month's block celebrates winter and our wintertime drinks. I love to sit in my favorite comfy chair, by the  fireplace with a nice hot cup of coffee, (or hot chocolate) on those cold, snowy Minnesota nights. A good book or a project to work on is an added bonus! This month's block is called 'Toasty Mugs'. It's a bigger section of the quilt. So I have an extra special giveaway for July's block. It's an awesome prize but I won't be announcing until the 15th of the month.

You can make all the mugs with the same fabric, or mix it up and make each mug a different color. My mugs are all red but I used different fabrics for each one. In November, instead of a block, I will be giving you some embellishment ideas to sew, add or applique onto your quilt. So keep that in mind as you work on your mugs. I have also given you two 'steam' designs, you can choose to use one or both. It's up to you. I have used both. I have also decided to make the background scrappy using several blue fabrics of the same hue. I must confess, when I first started this, I bought two different blues thinking I would use a light and dark. I have decided for mine, to use only dark snowy fabrics. Well, here's the dilemma.... I don't have enough.... so I scramble to stretch what I have originally bought with fabrics from my stash. The up side, I love the results I have so far.

 The 'Toasty Mugs' pattern can be found on Craftsy. The pattern is free for the month of July 2014. If you missed Chilly Silly Snowmen, Cozy Cabin or Big Tree, Sparkling Stars, Fir Tree or Northern Hockey Skates, it's not too late to get the patterns. They can be found for a small fee on Etsy and Craftsy.

I have my pattern printed and my fabric chosen.

I have decided to make my block scrappy using fabric that
I have set aside for this quilt from my stash.

Sewing corner to corner to form my triangle blocks... 

Following the block layout for Toasty Mugs
I have one of the blocks laid out all ready to sew...

Sewing the block together using 1/4" seam. 

Tracing the steam for the mugs... 

Cutting out the mug handles...

Using dark brown thread I machine applique a buttonhole stitch
along the edge of the steam.

Toasty Mugs
July's pattern

Block layout so far!

Remember to post your finished Toasty Mugs strip onto the Flickr account for a chance to win the prize at the end of the month! If you blog about it, please email me a link so that I can attach it to the Pinterest Board I have going for the BOM 2014. I hope you have fun with this section of the mystery quilt. It can easily be done in a weekend. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's mugs! As you can see with the quilt layout that the quilt is coming along nicely. There's still some surprises! 'll be announcing the prize for this month's block around the 15th and the winner will be announced on August 1st, when the next section is out.

Happy Quilting,

Cindy

Congratulations!

Tami Chaulk

Tami won a $20 gift certificate from The Fat Quarter Shop! 

Spring Fling

Welcome Spring! (which is arriving late to Minnesota... we have snow and are forecast-ed for more snow over the weekend) Wilson and I love to watch the birds on the feeders and in the birdbath, so I designed a bird block which I named 'Baby Birdie'. A cute, little, fat rolie polie baby bird. I made my bird look like a blue bird. Have fun and switch up the colors to be any type of bird that you would like! I had a lot of fun putting this block together and hope that you do too! You can find the pattern FREE HERE and also on my Craftsy store  I've seen some of the blocks to come and they are wonderful! All of these blocks made up would made a delightful spring time quilt! I hope spring arrives soon to Minnesota.

After I printed off the pattern, I cut the pieces out. Two of the pieces need to be taped together to make the 'A' section. I use my window to line up the lines, I don't have a light box.

I just use scotch tape to tape it together.

I went through my fabric stash and pulled out three fat quarters (Hoffman's Bali Handpaints) and some cream for the background.  For the bird's beak I only need a tiny little scrap of yellow.

I cut all my blues into manageable strips to work with for paper piecing.

Sewing on the lines....

Shown here are all of my sections, they need to be trimmed up before I can sew them together.

Here I am trimming my sections....

All ready to piece together...

'Baby Birdie'
I sewed two little seed beads on for the eyes.
10 1/2" x 10 1/2" (including seam allowance)

In addition to the prizes that I donated to Soma at Whims and Fancies for the hop.  I am also hosting a giveaway. Wilson and I will be giving away 2 PDF patterns of Thumper to two lucky winners! I'm trying out Rafflecopter for my giveaway.... you have three chances to win... leave a lovely comment, like the Quilt Doodle Facebook page, and be a follower....Wilson and I will pick a winner on the 30th.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thumper

Have fun hopping around!

Happy quilting,

The Designers -

1. 04/01 Teri Emerson, handiwerx

2.  04/02 Barbara Cain, B’s Modern Quilting

3.  04/03 Ruth Davis, Ruthie quilts! And quilts…

4.  04/05 Marissa Nichols, MKissa Creations

5.  04/08 Cyrille, Bubblestitch Quilts

6.  04/09 Gaya, Le borse di Gaya

7.  04/10 Vicki Ruebel, Quilting Lodge

8.  04/11 Lilja Björk, liljabs.com

9.  04/12 Cindy, Quilt Doodle Designs

10. 04/15 Jennifer Ofenstein, Sewhooked

11.  04/16 Caroline, Trillium Design

12. 04/17 Sandy in Buenos Aires, Peek a Boo !

13. 04/18 Lynn Provencher, Thimblemouse & Spouse

14. 04/19 Jessica, Plum Patchwork

15. 04/22 Aalia,  Joy Of Stitches

16. 04/23 Michele Foster, Quilting Gallery

17. 04/24 Amy Gay, ButterflyAngels Quilts

18. 04/25 Soma Acharya, Whims And Fancies

19. 04/26 Michelle Thompson, misha29

20. 04/29 Regina Grewe, Textile Landscapes