We decided to look forward to fall and harvest time and do some blocks that fit the season. We loved the “Canning Season” block with its little canning jars full of yummy goodness. We are trying to use scraps for this quilt and except for the massive amounts of white and a few tiny purchases of very small quantities, we have been succeeding. Between the two of us we usually come up with what we need. Team ShaRee went with a traditional red gingham for the silo and a lovely dark blue print for the barn that really made the canning jars pop!
Team Sue fell in love with that cute ladybug silo fabric and chose barn and window fabrics to complement it. She also broke with tradition and didn’t use a yellow or gold fabric for the window, so we are still debating if that frees us up to do windows of any kind now. Hmm. Thoughts?
Planning for the “Canning Season” blocks required a field trip to our local quilt store, Just Sew, because neither of us had any gray or silver for the canning lids in our stash. Huh? We decided to look ahead and see if we needed to buy anything else. We chose the “Patchwork Pumpkin” for the next session and as we were deciding what fabrics to choose, we made a decision. On the whole, we have not followed the designer’s example when choosing fabrics because we are using our stashes and we have different ideas of what we want. But in this case, we both fell in love with the orange pumpkin set in a weathered gray barn. So we had to buy some more grays. Sue had several oranges from a monochromatic block quilt she’s working on, but felt we needed a couple more choices so we also purchased a couple scant 1/8 yard oranges. So fun to have a quilt group field trip! We restrained each other from going berserk on purchases in the store so that was a plus.
These blocks are very similar since we both loved the gray, but we have our variations. We both loved the silo fabric so one small piece worked for us both. Team ShaRee went with a geometric design and green roof to match the pumpkin leaf. So cute!
Team Sue went with polka dots on the barn and roof because, well, she just loves polka dot fabric! It’s also interesting that both used the very same 30 small squares for the pumpkin, but differences in layout of the squares makes the pumpkins look quite different. That’s what has been so fun about this project: we are doing the same project but in our own way. We love quilting!
We also decided that with 7 of 12 blocks finished, it was time to make some design decisions for the overall quilt. We had originally decided to do nine barns and three barns w/silo, but those barns w/silo are so darn cute, we decided to go halfsies. So Team ShaRee folded two pieces of paper into twelve squares, then unfolded it so we had a grid to work on. Retired kindergarten teachers are the smartest! We laid out our respective blocks on the floor and started working up a layout on the papers of where barns and barns w/silos need to go for a nice visual layout, plus a good color arrangement. So now we have an overall plan for the last part of the project. We also decided that since neither of us love the barns that surround our “Postage Stamp” blocks, that block is going on the back and we chose another block to replace it. We thought those stripes would have an architectural feel, but they just don’t look good. And we aren’t putting in anything we don’t love!
Look for more barns to come!
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