Once Upon A Barn

You may have noticed the Build-A-Barn button on the side bar of my blog, if you don't know what that is I am here to tell you today. The uber-talented quiltmaker extraordinaire, Julie Sefton, has written a book! You may know her better as quiltdivajulie  she has an exceptional blog: "Me and My Quilts-- Exploring the Possibilities". Julie is extremely creative and super organized at the same time; traitst one might think are exclusive of each other, they're not in Julie's case! Julie is always sharing her creative process through her blog posts. Step by step, post after post, she shares her inspirations, her thoughts, her notes and her unique quiltmaking successes as well as those things that didn't quite work out as well as she had imagined; she is most generous in every regard. I only know Julie through blogging. Over a year ago she contacted me, as well as a few others, about helping to proof the process notes for this book. From there the SSOBB was born; there's a link for the Secret Society of Barn Builders on my sidebar too; you can read more about this "sorority" there. So, fast forward to now. The book is out and available, it is published by AQS; if you can't find it in your LQS you can order it directly (but tell your LQS that they really should carry it!). My copy arrived a few weeks ago, as soon as I had it in my hands I read through each word of each page, it was exactly like visiting with Julie through her blog, I was immersed in each and every step of her pattern-free, improvisational barn building techniques. Suddenly I had a thought! I had a barn drawing that I could pull out from a long-ago quilt class; I could use Julie's technique and make a 2016 version of my 1993 class sketch!

I had no problem finding my notes and sketches from that class that I taught twenty three years ago! But, where are the sample blocks that I constructed way back then? I have no idea. That's okay-- my mind is racing and I am launching on a new adventure, using a new method, through this inspiration on aging, yellowed paper!

With my sketch in hand and Julie's book opened wide I have begun to pull fabrics to bring the old barn to life!

Join me in this adventure. I will share my progress along the way. I have enlarged my original drawings so that I could envision a central panel in actual size, approximately 24" X 12". Stay tuned for updates, this is going to be fun! Thank you, quiltdivajulie, for inspiring me in oh-so-many ways; let's see what happens along this path!

Life is Good!