Wednesday 15 June 2016

Barn There, Raised That...

Let's see...what else came out of my Secret Society of Barn Builders adventures?

Well, last fall I took part in a swap with my guild and made a pretty cool quilt for my lil friend Linda that was modeled after her families fish store in Prospect, Nova Scotia.  I'll share the process pictures here again but won't rehash all the details about it because I blogged about it in this blog post that tells the whole story...it was a very special momento for my pal and she got a little misty. It was so hard not to spill the beans about the book at that time! Knowing how much she would love this made the building of it so much more exciting...sometimes the connection is the really special part of a gift like this.





In the picture above you can notice that I made the door on the left really short. Why? I have no idea...it's not like the folks of Prospect are all little people...I guess I was just not really paying attention. Linda recently consoled me after one of my seemingly frequent stunned-as-me-arse moments by saying, "Don't worry, at least you're cute!" When I noticed my mistake, I just added on a chunk to the bottom and made it bigger. That's the beauty of free piecing! Add more on, take some off...do what makes your heart sing!



This building is just a bit fancier than the 2 that went to Julie for the gallery...this one has more dimension as it's not viewed straight on. For Ale was only marginally more challenging to build...I just had to consider the angles of the left side so that the perspective would be right. I am still loving the fabric choices with the bird laden sky and the fish infused water under the wonky wharf stays (that's local wharf rat speak for poles). Here in our oceanside villages the gulls are a dime a dozen, they are ever-present. The fish? Not so much...but it is still pretty commonplace to look down over the side of a wharf into the water and see some pollock swimming around.



And then at Christmastime the SSOBB decided to do a Secret Santa Swap, I got paired up with Julie. I'm so over-the-top busy in December with hairdoos that she graciously agreed to do our little exchange after the holidays. So right after, I got to work building her something special.

My regular readers by now have a pretty good idea that I am typically unimpressed with the amount of snow fall we've had the past few years; I have come to call this fair province Snova Scotia and am admittedly jealous of Julies less than frigid, open winters in Tennessee. So, I just knew I had to send her some snow...

I did a little scrounge through my stash, because at that time The Stashpocalypse had come upon me and I wasn't fabric shopping. I found lots of treasures and potential bits and pieces kicking around to put into play. With these in hand and a rough sketch on the table I was off!




See that little angled empty area under the door? It was a big gap left in my free picing fury. When I stepped back to take a break I decided I didn't really want to cut off the bottom of the building so I very carefully set in the ramp piece...measure twice (don't forget to account for your seam allowances), cut once! Those Y-seams are sometimes tricky but if you're careful you can put them in lickety-split.




In another of my stunned-as-me-arse moments I penned the date on the label 2015. I suppose the whole swap started then so that's why my "cute" lil brain defaulted to 2015...but I made this thing start to finish in 2016 and by the time I noticed my blunder I couldn't exactly scratch it out. (*Sigh... Sorry Julie.) Maybe one day I'll be not-quite-so-cute...but what then? Just stunned? Dog help me.




Free pieced barns and letters...what could be better?

I thought she'd be able to use it with her seasonal decorations on a table somewhere, but she liked it enough to hang it in the cozy spot where she does her writing.

How about you? Have we inspired you to attempt building a barn of your very own yet? Let me know with a comment below about a barn that might have tickled your fancy enough to give this barn building gig a go and I'll enter your name in a random draw to win a signed copy of the book so you can get started!

Leave a comment before the morning of June 19th to be included...I'll draw for it while I'm partaking in my weekly, bleary eyed Sunday morning ritual of brown holy water, a lap full of springy things and Johnny Cash on the airwaves.

20 comments:

  1. As usual I love your stuff. This is awesome. And I'm proud to say that when Julie was asking me for names of quilters who might be interested in testing her process notes, you and Kathy French were the first names that popped into my head. I knew you'd knock it out of the park, and you did.

    You continue to do so. I'm proud of you.
    Lynne

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  2. Funny -- I didn't even think twice about the 2015 date since that was the Christmas we swapped. Made perfect sense to me!. And yes indeed -your wallhanging lives in my studio year round! SO very glad you started your blog so you can share your work with all of us! (The SSOBB had something to do with that blog-starting thing, yes?) Sending hugs from now hot-humid Tennessee.

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  3. Val, this is the best one yet. Girl you amaze me with your talent. My husband's passion is old barns. We have loads of pictures of prairie barns. How I would love to learn to free piece and make some art.

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  4. How amazing is that door fabric? Talk about cute, it took me two readings to notice the sign said, For Ale and not For Sale! LOL.

    funny how we have that saying in our family too. We would always explain things by saying, well, good thing he is cute!

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  5. Two great barns and lucky you to find perfect fabrics in your stash. There are great barns about an hours drive south where so much produce is grown, strawberries, garlic and artichokes. Yes, I see free pieced barns in my future.

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  6. This is amazing! What great fabrics you used, and an interesting process. Would love to try this free piecing process.

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  7. I really love the no farms no food that sky i just the it...And then again i love the Barn one too...great doors.... happyness04431@yahoo.com

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  8. I don't think you really know just how much I adore my "For Ale".

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  9. I love old barns and have been known to ask my hubby to turn around so I can take a picture so yes I would love to try this method ! Love your work , you are awesome .

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  10. I love old barns and have been known to ask my hubby to turn around so I can take a picture so yes I would love to try this method ! Love your work , you are awesome .

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  11. I love your barns!!! The house I grew up in had a red barn (both are still being used) and was therefore zoned as farm land even though we were "in town". For my twelfth birthday I got a horse, a real live horse, so I spent a lot of time there. I love barns, maybe I will win the book and be inspired to 'build' me one.

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  12. My brother lives in a rural area, so it is easy to find a barn to replicate in fabric. His is a simple one that would be easy to make. I think it is the red barns and the fancy ones with curves and such that get my attention.

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  13. Love your barns and the stories behind them. Lucky recipients!

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  14. Your barns are awesome! I'm not totally sold on free piecing, but you do inspire me to keep an open mind.

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  15. Wow, you're stories are wonderful, and you're quilts are inspiring. And you're the first that makes me want to delve into this barn madness. As for barns that tickle my fancy, hubby and I spent a long weekend in Ohio Amish country. Beautiful, picturesque barns all over the place there!

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  16. I love the old bank barns with stone foundations and weathered boards, I just wouldn't know how to begin to construct it with fabric. Thanks for the inspiration.

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  17. LOVE the Barn Swap you made for Julie!! Thanks for a chance to win a copy of her book. Pick me, pick me!!!

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  18. I love to read your posts. I can hear you talking through your words. I always dreamed of living in a barn. I spent 3 years visiting the World's Biggest Bookstore in Toronto always checking to see if a hard cover picture book called "THE BARN" was on sale. The regular price was $99.00. I finally bit the bullet & bought it. There's something so magical about what a barn holds & protects. It's the perfect place to want to live. I'll have to figure out a way to get my barn that's been in my brain for years on paper so I could transport it into a quilt piece. You inspire Purple Boots!

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  19. I made a wee barn this year and have plans for another one. Paper pieced mind you. Barns are part of the NS landscape and even more so in upstate NY where I spent so much time. Barns feel like home. Thanks for sharing your process. Love to se how you work!

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  20. I made a wee barn this year and have plans for another one. Paper pieced mind you. Barns are part of the NS landscape and even more so in upstate NY where I spent so much time. Barns feel like home. Thanks for sharing your process. Love to se how you work!

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