Hello, October!

Yep, another calendar page has been turned. "Hello, October" really has been replaced in my mind today with "whatever happened to September?" Sigh. Time marches on! I read an excellent article yesterday morning, sent to me by a dear friend, which helps put life into perspective. I am linking to it here for your reading enjoyment. It helped me to savor the day, simply for the pleasure of being in it! Rather than analyze my daily accomplishments; or rather, my lack of them, I sipped my tea and reflected on all that I had to be thankful for. There is profound peace in doing that. Our oldest granddaughter is eight years old today! She is a blessing to all of our family; she is smart, funny, loving and a pure joy to be around! I made a trip to the Capital City earlier last week for a sew-a-thon at our daughter's home in preparation for Lucy Ann's "American Girl" slumber party on Friday night. We stitched pajama shorts for four little girls and matching ones for their dolls. Our daughter-in-law created vinyl iron-on monograms for blank T-shirts too, completing the sleep ensembles!

Lucy Ann and her sleepover friends. 

They were a huge hit! There are no words for how cute this is!! Our daughter did report that not a lot of sleep happened though. 😉

Mr. Goodneedle and I made a return trip to the Capital City on Sunday afternoon to watch Mason play soccer and to celebrate Lucy Ann's birthday a few days early.  Her birthday wish was for the American Girl remote-control car for her dolls to ride in. She was super excited to open it! (It appeared that her brother was equally excited to see what was in the big box!) Sadly, it did not work! 

After many attempts to remedy the situation (the boys gave it their all!) the decision was made, at long last, to send it back and get a replacement. Lucy Ann was extremely gracious and understanding. I do believe that we were much sadder and disappointed about the non-functional car than she was. The new car is already on its way. Hang on, birthday girl, your kiddos will be riding in style very soon!  Yes, October has arrived; we're in the final quarter of the year, days are once again growing shorter. I, for one, am focusing on living each day deliberately, reading life like a book, and sharing excerpts right here! 

Life is Good!

 

A Barn Is Born

"Harvest Barn" ~ 21" X 34"

Welcome to the barn! At long last, the Harvest Barn is a reality. Hatched from my imagination, and sketched on paper back in 1993, this barn of my dreams exists today thanks to no-pattern construction outlined and followed, step by step, straight from Julie Sefton's Build-A-Barn book. Click here for the back-story, a previous post. You can have your own barn too: if you can dream it, you can build it! Let me share my progress, through photos, to give you a glimpse of the process. At the end of today's post you will have the opportunity to win a copy of Julie's fantastic Build-A-Barn book.

Working from my sketch, the first thing that I did was go to the stash and pull fabrics that I thought might work for the various elements: sky, ground, barn, windows, doors. I labeled my selections.

Following the directions in the book I made a section of scrappy ground strata; I wanted lots of oranges to depict an overall image of fall leaves strewn among an abundant pumpkin patch. From the ground a barn structure began to emerge. 

My original plan was to applique the "X" door braces but I changed my mind. Using Julie's method I inserted strips for the cross-timbering, I love the results; I also decided to add a spit-rail fence to the left using an easy step-by-step approach as outlined within the pages. 

From that point on it was all details. The originally selected sky fabric proved too vibrant, at least it did to my eye, (lower left in the photo above) but the reverse side of that same fabric worked perfectly (lower right). And so, the sky fabric was used on the WRONG SIDE; which seemed just right to me! I found a very old piece of fabric in the closet which contained enough pumpkins of exactly the correct size and scale (or so I thought) to pull the piece together. 

Using fusible web and sharp, tiny scissors I loaded the barn scene up with pumpkins galore; pinning the elements in place on the design wall before pressing them into place. I left it there a while to ponder and change things around as I saw fit. Mr. Goodneedle walked by and after only a quick glance suggested removing the three gargantuan pumpkins as well as taking everything away from the front of the barn doors. "No self-respecting farmer would ever pile things in front of a door that's being used." Right.

I shifted a few things around just so. Then, the machine applique began-- the tree, the sign, the weather vane and the bumper crop of pumpkins! Oh, I almost forgot-- a few bushels of apples too.

Harvest Barn: quilted and ready for binding. Can't you just hear the excited squeals of every preschooler who's ever visited a pumpkin patch in October?

As the binding was applied I was able to sit quietly with my barn and reflect. I am SEW excited to report that I couldn't have been one bit happier with the results of this project. Working from my own mind with the benefit of tried and true techniques from the book I was able to complete my very own twenty three year old dream barn in a way that far exceeded my wildest dream. Are you ready to Build-A Barn of your own?

Leave a comment on this blog post for a chance to be entered in a giveaway to win an autographed copy of Julie Sefton's book.  Be sure that as a commenter you're able to be reached via e-mail. If we can't contact you we won't know where to send the book. That would be sad. A winner will be selected on Saturday, July 30. If you're not the lucky recipient, fear not: Julie's book is available via the link above as well as bookstores and through your local quilt shop. If you can't find it, ask; they can get it for you!

Life is Good!