Barn Quilt Square

We recently had a Barn Quilt installed on our old tobacco barn. The pattern is "Flying Swallows" . I chose it because my studio is "Birdsong Studio" and the farm is "Birdsong Farm" and, ta da, because we have lots of Barn and Tree Swallows swooping all over our summer skies.
I sponge painted the blue background squares. I wanted them to reflect the blue sky and white clouds that are behind and around the barn.  It works great.
The quilt square was installed by "The Woodford County Quilt Trail".  Ours was the 4th square they have installed. They hope to put up 30 squares.
Our square is 8' by 8' so it really stands out. We have had neighbors stop and wave who have never noticed us before, strangers stop and take pictures and yesterday, a family stopped and asked my husband about out barn "sign". He gladly told them that it is a quilt square, the pattern name and everything else he could think of about the whole project.  They seemed very happy to learn about the quilt pattern and the quilt trail.

Here are some pictures of the quilt square in progress and as it looks on the barn.

 Sponging the blue background with some help from a friend.

 Installing the quilt square. It took a lot of volunteer labor and about 1 1/2 hours on a very cold day.

 It's beautiful and fun to look at.;-)


I am wondering if these quilt squares will help to ignite new interest in traditional and modern forms of quilting.  I hope so. I'd love to see some younger people getting involved in quilting again. Also, as much as I love art quilting, we really need to be sure we keep the heritage of traditional quilts alive.
Happy Quilting,

Karen

Words of Wisdom

Never open the cover on a dehydrator while there are rose petals in it and it's still running. Talk about a rose petals carpeting the floor.

"Analysis Paralysis"  don't let it stifle your need to create!

More Butterfly Cloud pictures

 For some reason, all of the pictures did not post in my previous post. Hopefully, here they are.
apparently, the previous post is now archived. Click on Butterfly Cloud under the archives button.

Butterfly Cloud

There was an amazing event in my garden the other day.  I was going into the garden to pick black-eyed peas and found myself in the midst of a Butterfly Cloud.  Butterflies were everywhere!  I've never seen anything like it before.  I just stood there feeling taken in by the beauty of it. I did finally think to try to take some pictures. They fall far short of the real event but I did get some of the butterflies sitting on flowers. 

I think a quilt titled" Butterfly Cloud" just might be a result of this experience.

Making art for art's sake,
Karen

Quilt Extravaganza

Here are some photos of some silk/rayon fabric that I have just finished dyeing. The pieces are really luscious and I can hardly wait to do more of them and, of course, use them in a quilted piece. In the meantime, I will have these pieces for sale this weekend at Quilt Extravaganza in Berea.

Here is a link to for more information about the Quilt Extravaganza.http://www.bereaartscouncil.org/?p=1170

Hope to see y'all there!

Karen

First Post

I just noticed that somehow I created an "About Me Page" that is empty.  I'm hoping I'll soon get the hang of using this blogging site.  I had planned to be in the studio working on some new ideas for beaded beads but the weather is keeping me in the house. We desperately need the rain, so, I'm taking advantage of the time to catch-up on office work.

It is a conundrum of being an artist that we have to spend so much time not doing the stuff that supports our creating and not creating.  That said, I have  lately been spending a lot of my time in the garden and putting up food for this winter. That's time well spent and it will allow me to really get involved with my work later in the year.

In the meantime, I am working on a long running commission that I hope to finish this fall, and creating  small angelina and tyvek  projects that will go into my booth at the Quilt Extravaganza on August 4,5, 6 in Berea, KY.

For more about me and my work, go to  http//moourl.com/BirdsongStudio

Aspire to Inspire Before you Expire,
Karen