Barn Quilts

The only sewing I did yesterday was to hand sew the binding for Wyatt's World. Ms. Ears was my assistant for this endeavor.

We were planning to head out for a drive. There was a wine shipment to pick up, and we were going to take a Sunday drive on Tuesday to enjoy what might be the last of the sunshine we'll see in 2020. When we were ready to leave, I'd turned two corners, and was bearing down on the third.

Things are looking very "autumn" in our part of the world. We passed by a winery we'd visited with Erik and Mae last month. You can see how the vineyards are turning orange in the background.

And we passed by McKibbon's Barn in Yamhill. I posted a picture of McKibbon's Barn some time ago. There's a story behind those quilt blocks. Mrs. McKibbon added the quilt blocks to the side of the barn in memory of her husband. They were some of his favorite quilt blocks.

Seeing the barn gave me the idea for us to take a little tour of the Washington County Quilt Barn Trail. There are several routes one can take to see all of the barns. Some of the women from my former guild went to a lot of effort to establish this trail. Washington County had a sign ordinance that needed to be changed to allow quilt blocks to be added as "works of art," rather than "signs," which required some kind of fee. I don't remember the whole story very well, but a few women were persistent in their several-years-long effort to lobby for change. Their efforts paid off eventually, and the Washington County Quilt Barn Trail was established. There are now some 60 quilt barns along the trail. You can read more about it right here. We'll do that today since we still have a few days of sunshine left.

And that got me thinking about my next sewing room project...sewing the hand-embroidered Appalachian Memories quilt blocks into a flimsy. Here are all the  blocks:

Here's the cover from the pattern, and you can see how they were set by the original designer.

Okay, so please bear with me while I think out loud in writing...or don't. It's entirely your choice. You can always move along if the smell of the smoke coming from my ears bothers you. (It happens every time I think.)

So, I have this beautiful panel of barns given to me by my dear friend Sharon. We were lucky enough to visit Sharon when we made our trip around the perimeter of the USA a few years ago. Sharon knows I love barns, and so she gave me this panel.

It's been tucked away in the box along with the rest of the supplies for the Appalachian Memories quilt for some time. I was hoping I could figure a way to incorporate the barns into the quilt. Also, I have this panel, which was one of the first regional prints I purchased on that same trip. This panel came from a shop called The Dysfunctional Quilter in Whitehall, Montana.

It appeared in the center of the Shop Hop quilt. You can see it right there in the middle. The scene was long, and so it took up the space of two blocks.

And then, I also picked up this panel at One Quilt Place in Fredericksburg, Texas. The woman working in the store was so very careful cutting this piece so I would get all the blocks in my one-yard purchase.

Here's the information from the selvage edge of this fabric.

Okay, so backing up to the original picture of the Appalachian Memories quilt top...

the center dark portion of the cornerstones is 2-1/2 inches. Measuring the little quilt blocks in my fabric, I discovered they could easily be fussy cut to be that size with plenty leftover for a seam allowance. And then, I got so excited, because I knew exactly how I wanted to set the blocks for this quilt! Does that happen to you too? It was all I could do to not dump everything else from my life and start working on it right then and there.

Sadly, this plan will not include the two panels I mentioned. For one thing, both are too large, and the Appalachian Memories quilt, as pictured, is already 74 x 92 inches. If I add more size to it, I'm going to end up with a quilt as big as all outdoors. But, not to worry, because I remembered this pattern that falls under the PINS category (Projects I Never Started). I'm just about to open up another slot on my hand-embroidery dance card, and so I'll start this "Heartland Barns" project next.

I can figure a way to use both barn panels around the outer border of this quilt. And doesn't that seem like a way better idea than all those "broken dishes" blocks? Phew. That's enough to make any quilter crazy. No wonder I never started this project.

Okay, so I managed to tear myself away from my thoughts and went back to work finishing up the binding for Wyatt's World.

Here's how it looks from the back. Having enough of that backing fabric was a very lucky break. And the binding...another lucky break to have enough to piece together the length I needed.

The little matchbox cars arrived yesterday too, and so this will go into today's mail. I'm hoping Wyatt's dad will send me a picture of little Wyatt with his quilt.

Our sunrise was pretty and pink this morning, and we're expecting another nice day of sunshine.

We're going to head out for another drive today, armed with a map and list of the quilt barns along the route. Pictures to follow. It'll be a nice way to spend the day. I hope you have a good day planned for yourself too.