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| Collage will supersize if double-clicked |
The Henniker Barn
Original free pieced design by Lynne Tyler
Goffstown, New Hampshire
Free motion quilting by Chris Ballard
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| 22.5" wide x 30" long - Shown here before quilting Photo will supersize if double-clicked |
Lynne writes:
The Henniker Barn is based on a real barn
that sits across the street from my favorite quilt shop,
Quilted Threads, in Henniker, New Hampshire.
I shopped there for several years barely paying any attention
to the traditional Early American house with its
attached outbuildings and beautifully proportioned barn.
One day as I was leaving the quilt shop,
I happened to look up and really notice the house/barn for the first time.
I put my foot on the brake and looked around.
Nobody was behind me, so I put the car in park,
pulled out my camera, and took some pictures.
After that, I took the time to study
the house and barn whenever I went to QT.
When Julie asked if I’d make a barn for this Gallery,
I knew immediately that it would be the Henniker barn.
A few days later I drove to Henniker,
forty-five minutes from my house,
so I could take a lot of reference photos.
I love the row of windows above the big barn door,
an almost universal feature found in New Hampshire barns.
I also love the triangular arrangement of birdhouses near the peak
and the graceful cupola and weathervane high above.
The barn and house are painted white with grey trim and a dark gray roof.
The barn door is blue – all of which are very traditional colors here.
I always laugh when I look at the foundation
of the ramp leading to the big barn door –
it is made from solid granite slabs
about eighteen inches thick, two feet tall, and twelve feet long.
After all, New Hampshire’s nickname is “The Granite State."
But the biggest surprise of all is the barn’s west wall.
It’s red.
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| Shown here after quilting - Photo will supersize if double-clicked |
DESIGN NOTE:
Ideas are everywhere if you take time to notice.
Use your camera (or your cell phone)
to capture reference photos because details really do matter.
QUILTING DETAIL:
Refined, elegant stitching suits this classic New England barn to a “T.”
Consider the multiple textures used on the barn’s siding and doors,
the cupola, the foundation, and the granite ramp.
Also look closely at the additional textures used
for the attached house, the road, and the fabulous sky.
Notice that the birdhouse opening details were created
using the small eyelet stitch on Lynne's sewing machine.
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| Collage will supersize if double-clicked |
Pig Farm Barn
Original free pieced design by Lynne Tyler
Goffstown, New Hampshire
Free motion quilting by Chris Ballard
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| 33" wide by 27.25" long - Shown here before quilting Photo will supersize if double-clicked |
Lynne writes:
My Pig Farm Barn is based on a real barn
alongside the road to my Mom’s house in rural Goffstown, New Hampshire.
The most notable thing about the pig farm?
The stink.
The smell was always bad, but much worse on hot summer days
(so bad that my son would hold his breath as we drove by).
The barn faces north, so the sun never hits the front of it,
and for years I never noticed the barn was actually purple.
You don’t see a lot of red barns in New Hampshire.
Most of them are white
and yellow barns are also common,
but PURPLE!?
Getting a good look at the barn was a challenge
because it sits so close to the steep, winding road.
I learned to take a quick glance at it and memorize one detail at a time:
the brilliant blue trim, the broken windows,
the gold of the big doors, and the bright blue-green roof.
Years later the pig farm stopped raising pigs.
A few years after that, I bought a house in the area.
I was working on the white Henniker barn when
I drove by the former pig farm and realized
the purple barn would be a terrific one to make into a quilt.
That night I texted Julie -
‘Right down the road is a PURPLE barn – gotta photograph that!
The purple is asphalt siding and looks greenish in the sunlight.
It used to be a pig farm . . .’
Julie texted back almost immediately -
‘No way re purple barn with pigs . . .
the surprise barn I pulled fabrics for is a purple stripe
with green/pink swirls for the barnyard
and pink flying pigs for the sky . . .
WHAT a coincidence!’
That did it.
I got right to work on my purple Pig Farm Barn.
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| Shown here after quilting - Photo will supersize if double-clicked |
DESIGN NOTE:
Lynne inserted a VERY narrow strip of contrasting color
to emphasize the vertical line
between the barn’s right and left doors.
She used a contrasting bit of fabric to indicate
the single unbroken pane of glass
in the transom window above the barn’s door.
She also saved herself some extra piecing
by using the directional ruler fabric as fencing.
QUILTING NOTE:
Extensive stitching defines each of the purple asphalt shingles,
outline stitching defines door, window and roof edges,
and you can almost feel the damp, late-winter
New England wind as it moves across the sky.
How simple fabulous Lynne! It's great to see that a "grandmother" can do such intricate work!!
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