Nettles, Treadles and Love

A barn quilt?

What’s that?

Good question.

On a drive through Sierra county last fall, Sean and I came upon some interesting art on the buildings of the small town of Sierraville.  Brightly colored geometric shapes painted on a square piece of wood hung near the doors of the local café and Mexican restaurant.  You can see some of this local art here.  Driving through the farmland on the way to the next town we saw a very large square painted in bright geometric colors on a barn.  Quite a striking sight.  At the gas station in the next town I asked the attendant about the art, wondering if it was by a local artist?  She said no, that they were made by different people and were part of a barn quilt trail.

A Google search clued me in to a robust folk art movement that began in 2001 in Ohio.  Barn quilts started off as a community arts project spearheaded by a woman, Donna Sue Groves, who wanted to honor her mother who was a quilter.  It was also a way to honor farms and farming, women’s work and contributions, and to revitalize depressed farming communities through tourist attraction and community beautification and pride.  The idea caught fire and spread all across the nation and up into Canada.

Suzi Parron was a fan of the movement and has dedicated many years of her life traveling and interviewing folks along the barn quilt trails, getting their stories, taking pictures, and writing two books on the subject.  Her Barn Quilt Info site can be found here.

Well I pretty much immediately wanted to make one.  So I did.

My Aunt Amy had given me an old quilt a few years ago made by the women in my family.  I chose a quilt square from that blanket.

One of the easiest to acquire and cheapest materials to use to make one is called MDO Sign Board.  It is a plywood with a smooth surface on one side.  It comes in 8′ X 4′ panels.  A full size barn quilt is usually 8′ x 8′.  I bought one panel, had the folks at Freidman’s cut it in half, and then cut one of the halves in quarters, so I had one 4′ x 4′ square, and 4 2′ x 2′ squares.  I made some mini barn quilts to hang outside on my house and to give as gifts.  I would like to use the 4′ x 4′ panel to make a barn quilt to put on one of the barns on the cattle ranch I live on.  We’ll see what the owner thinks.

I first put three coats of primer on them, then drew the pattern with pencil, then used frog tape to tape around each area I wanted to paint a particular color.  I bought the least toxic outdoor paint I could find.  Unfortunately the frog tape did not work as well as it claims.  Paint did leak through so the lines were not as perfect as hoped.  I was painting outside, then bringing them in at night, so the temperature changes might have effected its functionality.  The precise taping was definitely the most labor intensive part of the process.

Then three coats of paint, fully drying in between.  Step by step, it was a process, but with a simple pattern it was pretty easy.

Joy is a barn quilt on your house.

#barnquiltlove