Painting a Quilt

I was fortunate enough to attend a workshop last month given by Suzi Parron, author of two books on barn quilts. Suzi wrote "Barn Quilts" and also "Following The Barn Quilt Trail".

This is Suzi giving us instructions.

I told a few of my friends that I made a barn quilt square, and was surprised that some did not know what a barn quilt is. So, I thought I would explain a bit.

Barn quilts have been around since 2001. A woman named Donna Sue Groves, who lived in Ohio, wished to honor her mother, and had a quilt painted on her barn. The idea caught on near her home, and soon expanded to the state. Other states jumped on board, and now there are "Barn Quilt Trails", in nearly all of our states. You can drive from one farm to another and look at barn quilts. You can find the guides on line at

barnquiltinfo.com

My sister and I were on a road trip in 2011 through northern Indiana when I first had a sight of a Barn Quilt Trail.

Families often put a lot of thought into choosing the pattern for their barn quilt.

I took this photo last summer at the Kansas Little House on the Prairie site. This is one of the childhood homes of Laura Ingalls Wilder. The pattern is called Dove in the Window. Laura mentioned this block in her writings.

Well, I don't have a barn. But, I did make a barn quilt. So, let me tell you about the process. Now, when a REAL barn quilt is painted, it is many times bigger than the one I made. Mine is on a piece of wood 24" X 24".

When we arrived at the workshop, we were introduced to the basics: paint, tape, and the order of painting.

The first thing to do is to choose a pattern. Many people brought their own, but I chose one from Suzi's gallery, called Swirling Star. She told me that this pattern was not too difficult - perfect for me! I wanted to use some very muted colors, and I chose blue, black and gray.

The first step is to draw the design onto the board using a long ruler and light pencil marks.

Then you start taping off the major color of the block. My first color was gray.

Here it is after being painted, and the tape removed. The paint we used was exterior paint. So, there is no sealing needed.

Yay! One color done. Next? Black!

But first... more taping!

What takes the longest is the taping in between the colors, and drying time. We had hair dryers handy to help the drying time along. If we did this at home, and not in a workshop, we might just do one color each day so the paint would have plenty of time to dry.

Time for the last color - Blue!