Wooden Quilt Square (And A Winner)!

For a long time I've loved the thought of having a Barn Quilt.  (Of course I love the thought of having a barn too, but since we're building a house first the barn may have to wait a year or more!)  We live where there are a lot of barns with quilt squares painted on them.  I never tire of looking at them.



Source

The above pictures are not my pictures - they can be found on numerous barn quilt sites, pinterest, and other places on the world wide web.

  Somehow, I thought it was a new thing - this trend of painting quilts on barns.  I did some research and found out a very interesting bit of information.  The history of the barn quilts can be traced back almost 300 years!!  It is believed that it began in Pennsylvania by European immigrants.  The story goes that it was a great way for travellers to find families or cross roads, as townspeople would tell them what quilt pattern to look for! 

 

Source

The above pictures are not my pictures - they can be found on numerous barn quilt sites, pinterest, and other places on the world wide web.
 

So... the point of this post is that one day recently I was standing in our living room and looking way up to where my husband was working on the scaffolding and I was thinking about the 22 foot high bare wall and thought to myself, "Wow, a quilt would sure look good hanging there" and before I could even follow that train of thought - it came to me: "BARN QUILT"! 

 

 

Doesn't that look like the perfect wall for a Barn Quilt?  (Even though I don't know of anyone that hangs barn quilts in their house!)  So, I mulled it around awhile, did some reading and looking at patterns and enlisted the help of my quilter friend at The Scrappy Appleyard.  She came, we sat and drew my pattern choice and I was off and running.  I started small thinking that if it came out great and I loved it, I would make a bigger one.

 

 

I bought a gorgeous piece of 4 x 4 oak plywood (the most common barn quilt size is 8 x 8), sanded, primed, drew my pattern and started painting.  And hated it.  So, I started over with a new pattern, new colors, smaller size and thought, "this looks like something my daughter would like"!

 

 

When I got it finished, I set it where I could really get a long distance visual of it and I had to admit that as much as I liked it, I didn't love it.  It wasn't the look I was going for.  (I still don't know what that look is but I think it will come to me!)  A few days later my daughter was talking about their recent living room redo and she said, "I need something for that bare wall".  Long story short... my Barn Quilt now has a home in her living room! 

 

 

I still love the idea and someday I will have a barn quilt on that big wall in our living room.  But for now, its just an idea in my head as I'm sanding, staining, and waxing oak vineer that my husband is installing on the huge beam and column in our living room.  The latest on the house is that the pine planking is all up and we love it! 

 

 

And FINALLY we have a winner on the "pick the day the calf will be born" contest!  "Paddy" was born on the 17th and since I had numerous people pick that day I did a random drawing out of those contestants and the winner is Kathy - she's been notified and I'm excited to make her a wooden sign.  And you can be sure I will never do another contest that relies on a calf being born!

 

I hope you'll share your favorite Barn Quilt pattern with me...  it just may be the one I've been looking for!