On the Road Again

Nancy from Blogging Near Philadelphia shared this photo

of BUILD A BARN's Seasonal Sampler

at the recent AQS Lancaster show.

Thank you, Nancy!

Wendy from The Constant Quilter

also shared photos of The Seasonal Sampler

from the Lancaster show in a recent blog post.

Here is Wendy's photo of the name tag

that travels with the quilt.

Thank you, Wendy!

* * *

Two of this year's AQS shows have come and gone

but there are still four more shows on the 2017 calendar:

Apr. 26 – 29 will be Spring Paducah, KY

Aug. 16 – 19 will be the show at Grand Rapids, MI

Sep. 13 – 16 will be Fall Paducah, KY

and

Oct. 4 – 7 will be Des Moines, IA

If you go to any of these shows and see 

The Seasonal Sampler in the Authors' Exhibit,

please take a photo (serious or silly) and email it to me.

Thanks!

More Student Barns from The Folk School

This is Brenda's second barn and her very first silo.

Be sure to double-click these photos

so you can enjoy the details.

This is Sandra's second barn adorned with

hay bales and pumpkins, a dog and a tractor,

and a haymow sign for Farm Fresh Eggs.

This is Sandra's third barn

which ended up being nicknamed

 "The Psychedelic Barn"

The fabrics themselves inspired this one 

and we all enjoyed watching it come to life.

Instead of using the candy-colored stripe in its original form,

it was cut into 4.5" squares and sewed back together 

rail fence style before it was used to light up the sky.

* * *

We had so much fun during our week together!

First Barns

There were three new-to-free piecing students in my Folk School class -

Brenda and Sandra and Marlene.

This is the first barn that Brenda built.

She plans to machine appliqué the chickens, trees,

weathervane, and tractor scene.

This is the first barn that Marlene built.

She's planning to hand appliqué the chickens and tractor.

double click to supersize photo

This is the first barn that Sandra built.

When she laid out her ground fabrics 

she kept saying "they're too straight . . . "

so she successfully added some gentle curved piecing. 

The horse and his window are free pieced.

She brought several barn quilt blocks

she had prepared using Printed Treasures -

this one was framed and then machine appliquéd in place.

The sheep will be machine appliquéd.

* * *

Over the course of the week

a total of seven barns were created.

I'll share three more in a few days.

The seventh barn is undergoing modifications

so we'll wait to share "before" and "after" photos.

The Folk School Experience

I taught a 5-day BUILD A BARN class last week

at The Folk School in North Carolina.

It was a most excellent experience

and I hope to teach at The Folk School again.

Over the next week or so

I'll be sharing photos here of the barns 

that my eager-and-willing-to-go-for-it students created.

So why are there photos of yours truly

and her new felted wool hat

from The Folk School's Craft Shop?

When we arrived on Sunday,

it was sunny and 80+ degrees.

By Wednesday afternoon,

temperatures were in the 40s with cold rain.

Thursday was even chillier with more rain and clouds.

Friday dawned clear and sunny with gusty winds

that made standing in the shade quite chilly.

Hence the hat to keep my head warm.

* * *

People kept telling me the hat needed a flower.

I knew I had this beautiful wool flower at home

that was purchased last fall from a local artist

at the Davies Manor quilt show.

The purple wool hat and the warm red flower

were clearly meant to be together.

So to those who suggested a flower, you were right.

* * *

All of this to say that spending time at The Folk School

as a student or as an instructor is just plain fun.

Sharing Silos

In honor of my book's first birthday,

I'm sharing some recently constructed silos.

If you still need to get a copy of the book,

this link will help --

BUILD A BARN: No Pattern Construction

If you'd rather have an e-book, click here

This sturdy stone silo has a multi-angle top.

This concrete version is typical of so many silos here

with its flat, contrast-banded top.

And this pair features that same flat-top look

but with a tree growing out the top.

I've seen ONE tree silo so far.

(near Franklin, Tennessee)

There's a Flickr album HERE

that shows lots and lots of other tree silos.

There's also a very interesting article

about tree silos HERE.

Because this photo is so wide

you'll need to double-click to enlarge it.

I'll quilt it one of these days,

but for now the silo sampler 

makes me happy just the way it is.