Quilt Trail--Barn Blocks

Have you ever seen those big (8 foot square) quilt blocks hanging on the sides of barns or other buildings around? I was happily surprised by just that in Lake County, California this weekend--Clear Lake to be exact--where I was giving a lecture on antique quilts.  I've seen these colorful displays on trips to the east coast but I didn't know we had them in California anywhere!

Driving to the local State Park for a little hike, I glanced over and shouted to my husband, "LOOK!!" He knew to stop for a photo! A few miles further and there was another one! I hightailed it to the local quilt shop (Kerri's in Lakeport, delightful!) and she had a map  of 3 dozen quilt blocks around the lake! We saw about 10 of them on our trip.



I've always wanted a quilt block on the side of our house and we have a great place for one. I even know the block I'd use--Bear's Paw. See, my husband is the 4th generation graduate of Cal Berkeley and they are The Bears. You can only imagine how many bears in the form of t-shirts, welcome mats, car stickers, yard carvings, ball caps, etc there are in our house and my FIL's house! What block would YOU choose to hang on your house or barn?



I know this is not exactly design wall stuff but I thought you'd find it interesting. And I didn't think Judy would mind. Head on over to the other talented quilters who've followed the rules an actually photographed their design walls!

Make A Block

Every year for the past several years at our local County Fair, our quilt guild has hosted a quilt block contest. Our guild is in charge of the "Home Arts" building at the fair and we design it and set up in a very attractive way, all the quilts, jellies, pies, clothing, beadwork, and all the other hand-work and food that is entered in your typical county fair. The block contest rules are: make a 12" finished block created with the theme of the fair. This year's theme is "Summer Fun". This is my entry--Sunbonnet Sue at the Seashore. (yes, she does have feet but they're very close to the same color as the 'sand' fabric. It looks better in person. . . .)

What happens to the blocks that are created and entered? Well, first you need to know that the makers don't get them back. They are made into a quilt that at the following year's fair, is raffled off with the proceeds going to pay for the room where we have our quilt show--which is at the fairgrounds! Nicely symbiotic, don't you think?

And, there are monetary prizes for these block entries! Starting at $35 for 1st place and going down by $5 through 6th place--you BET we get a lot of entries! And the quilts we make with these blocks are fantastic!

June Color Challenge

I'm really loving this color challenge Judy offered to us for many reasons: 1) it makes me proud of my extensive stash which I've pulled all fabric from all these months, 2) it forces me to use colors I'm not necessarily comfortable with, 3) it gives me a BOM that will turn into a nice quilt at the end of the year 4) it makes me look at color palettes differently than I might have. (June's block is in the upper right.)

Along the same lines, I've also been enjoying my daily color inspiration email from Design Seeds at www.inspiration@design-seeds.com. No sales pitch, no pop-ups, just 4 lovely, colorful photos each with 5 colors that can be used as a wonderful quilt palette. They're inspiring and make me smile every time!

I think this is going to be the configuration I use for the quilt at the end of the year when I have 12 of these blocks made. Maybe I'll put a star border all around it too. Better yet, I might use one of the great borders from Judy's newest book, "60 Pieced Quilt Borders"!

Have a great quilt-y month!!

Retreat Time!

Just returned from a 3-day retreat to the cool mountains of northern California! The high was 70 degrees and when I tell you that it was 93 degrees when I got home, you'll know how welcome the 40 degree chill at night up there was!

This was a mystery class with Linda Ballard and it was the 12th retreat I've gone on with her along with my dozen quilting buddies. Of course, we bring other projects along and stay up late and get up early to work on them while enjoying WAY too much food and fun !

I really love this mystery quilt and only had to do a little border work after I got home to complete the top. This, I vow, will NOT become a UFO!

One of the many fun things Linda asks us to do on a retreat is make a 9" block for a drawing. This time it was to be "any color batik on a white background". I was the lucky winner of 11 of these blocks! Watch what I do with them in a future DWM post!


Have fun looking at all the other design walls on Judy's blog!

Wool-Work

I've recently been introduced to working with wool and I really, really like it! Using all wool in a project (like this) is very nice but when added to quilters cotton, there's a dimension I really love. I've hand blanket stitched around each of these wool pieces (which is how wool is usually finished), on to cotton squares. Considering how long it takes to prep and hand-applique regular cotton, blanket stitching wool takes a fraction of the time!

I have a project coming up where I'll use these blocks (taken from the book "Flower Festival" by Kim Schaefer) but I can't tell any more about it. . . I need to keep my quilting groups guessing!

Wool is expensive and not so easy to find but I urge you to try it sometime. I've had good luck finding small pieces of wool (5" x 7" or so) at quilt show venders' booths pretty cheaply.

Don't forget to take a look at the rest of Judy's Design Wall Monday participants.

Color Palette Challenge

Here's the block I made out of the colors for this month's challenge. I'm making the same block for each month and will put them together into a quilt at the end of the year. See a couple of my other blocks here and here.

Design Wall Monday

I have 3 things on my design wall this week: two blocks and a little dress. The first block is for Judy's color challenge. I'm making the block each month with the month's colors and at the end of the year, will make a quilt out of all the blocks.

The second block is for a retreat I'm going on in a couple of weeks to McCloud CA. About 15 of my quilting buddies go every year to the mountains of far northern California to enjoy a break from the Valley heat and to bask in the pines. We rent all the rooms in the McCloud Merchantile, a 100-year old (but updated) establishment where each of the wonderful rooms has a different theme catering to historical figures of the area. The enormous workroom is where about 30 quilters gather for 3 days of sewing, eating and fun! One of the fun things we're asked to do is make a block (this year it's a 9" finished made out of any color batik and white), put it up on the wall, then we have a drawing and someone wins them ALL! I really like the way this one turned out.

This cute little dress is for my daughter's best friend's daughter--turning 2 next month. She loves Sesame Street, especially Elmo, and she asked me to make a birthday dress with rick-rack. I asked her measurements: 10" across the shoulders, 19" chest and 18" from the base of her neck to her knees--Hee-hee--how tiny!! I think she'll really like this!

Take a look at what all the other creative quilters are making on Judy's blog.