Reverse Engineering

When I taught my free pieced barns 

at JCCFS in 2017

I made this sample in class as a demo, 

including several things NOT to do.

(like not having the right fabrics

and having to work without my stash)

At home, it went into the box

because my idea for a sunset sky

looked more like a raging wildfire

and I was in no mood to deal with it.

A few weeks ago the bordered barn block

with a new appliquéd roofline

was pin basted for quilting.

I still didn't love it but figured it would 

be the starting point for conversations about

thinking ideas through before executing them.

And then I decided I just could not stand the piece

the way it was - as a what-not-to-do example or not.

So I started taking it apart to be reimagined.

(Why?  I really like the green of the barn

and the barnyard with grazing cows - 

they deserved better)

The barn door was the wrong color,

 too narrow, and much too tall - so it had to go.

Ditto for the haymow opening

and that overly-intense orange sky.

One seam at a time

things were carefully unstitched.

After an hour of playing around with various fabric options,

this mock-up shows what I chose for the remake.

The lower story would be shortened with a wider barn door;

the upper story's roofline would be corrected,

the haymow would get a new cow-related look;

and the sky would become this happy blue batik.

(I pulled out that leftover binding

as a "maybe" option for later)

A few hours later I liked the untrimmed remake, but . . . 

. . . it really needed that something extra.

(shown here laying on top of its future backing)

After adding a colorful 2" border

I declared this to be much MUCH better.

I was going to appliqué the balloons and pin baste the flimsy

after dinner -- but the cheese grater tried its very best 

to reimagine the knuckle of my right thumb.

So once that big boo-boo heals far enough,

I'll get those hot air balloons stitched in place,

get the top pin basted, and get this barn quilted/finished.

* * *

For those who may not know -

I wrote this book about making free pieced barns.

BUILD A BARN has its very own blog

with LOTS of tabbed pages including

pages for each of the gallery quilts made by 

the Secret Society of Barn Builders.

CLICK HERE for the blog's main page

and have fun exploring!

Quiltdivajulie

Reimagining Partly Sunny

I finished this flimsy last year 

and it has been hanging in the closet

waiting to be quilted ever since.

I absolutely love the quilt top's scrappy back

but I do not love the top - which is undoubtedly

why it is still hanging in the closet.

A week or so ago I was talking to Lynne 

and she mentioned this top and how 

she preferred the original layout.

I agreed with her - I liked it better, too.

I told her I was going to take the flimsy apart

down to the HST level and re-make the top

more like my original layout.

Unstitching definitely takes time 

but it also feels good when it means 

the quilt will be what it was meant to be

instead of something far less.

Quiltdivajulie

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"Let yourself by silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love.  It will not lead you astray."
Rumi