Barn #4 Plus Tutorial

I decided to show a little of the process I use when making these blocks.

First, sketch out the design, which may have just the basics. This one is very basic. I tend to add to it later only in fabric form.

(This is a free design that I'm sharing with everyone)

After tracing out the design parts onto my favorite adhesive....say it with me...Steam-a-Seam.....you all know me so well....I then choose fabrics from my stash that best represents what I'm seeing in my head, which is a scary thought, indeed!!

After cutting the pieces out, I press the barn pieces together when at all possible. A tentative  background is chosen and auditioned.

I am not liking this one at all. Hummmmm, back to the stash.

This is more appealing but not quite it, yet.

I like to play around with the slanted options which, in this case, looks like fields in the background.

The blue clouds fabric I'm using is the back side. It's a little more subtle than the right side.

I've turn one corner over so that you can see the difference. I often use the back side of fabrics. A quilter spoke about it years ago. I think it was Mary Ellen Hopkins who did a lecture about the wrong side of fabric. Click on the photo to make it larger.

At this point, I have not pressed anything to the background. I'm looking at it from several angles. I also take a photo of it to see if it needs any changes. You'd be surprised how helpful that little tip is to us quilters.

This is the final version and I've pressed it down. I like it a lot.

I am trying not to buy much fabric this year. Of course there are times that my stash doesn't have the correct green, blue, tone on tone, red, black..... oh, sorry. You know how that goes.

I have one more block to make and then I'm calling it quits. After that, I'll get into how I want to place each barn, what are my filler blocks going to be, will I add something to tie the blocks all together.......woooo, I head is spinning!!!

Four so far