Hayloft Doors (with Barn Quilt)

Hay Loft Doors (with Barn Quilt) © July 2018 

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Barn Quilt

Actually, I wasn't familiar with barn quilts until Mrs. Shoes mentioned them in a comment on my "A Cupola For the Goat Barn" post. Quilting was my very first fiber love, so of course I had to look it up. After seeing hundreds of photos of beautiful barn quilts, I knew I wanted one too.

Barn quilts aren't quilts in the traditional fabric sense; they are quilt patterns painted on barn doors or walls. Most of them are large and can be seen from a distance. I think they give a wonderfully decorative touch to a barn and apparently they have quite a following. There are barn quilt trails, tours, and books available around the country.

My first step was to decide on a pattern. I got out my 849 Traditional Patchwork Patterns (republished as Classic Quilt Blocks: 849 Inspiring Designs), and began to consider possibilities. My finished quilt was going to be 4x4 feet, so I wanted a pattern that was a multiple of four squares. To further narrow down the possibilities, I decided to choose a block pattern with a nature theme, something with leaves, trees, mountains, or birds.
 
I also wanted a pattern that would incorporate the X pattern on the milking room Dutch door. Those criteria narrowed my options, which helped a lot because I love all the patterns.  

I made a short list of possibilities, got out some graph paper and colored pencils, and played around with several that I thought might work well.

Delectable Mountains

Crow's Foot

Crow's Foot variation.
Are they trees or fish?

From looking at photos of dozens of real barn quilts, I observed two things. Since they are usually viewed from a distance, the pieces need to be large enough to see the pattern far away. Too small or too busy, and the pattern is indiscernible. It needs to be large enough to make visual sense from, say, the road.

Also I observed that there needs to be good contrast in the colors. If the colors are too close in value (same depth of lightness or darkness), then the pattern becomes hard to distinguish at a distance. The best examples of barn quilts uses good contrast in their colors and kept the block pattern simple.

That meant paint samples.

I bought quarts of yellow, blue, and green, but colors never look the same on large areas than they do on the sample cards. I wasn't entirely satisfied, so I did a little mixing on my own to explore more options.

Once the pattern and color decisions were made, I drew the pattern on my plywood and taped it off.

I'm using two 2x4 foot pieces of sanded plywood because the finished quilt will become part of the hay loft doors. It should be ready to hang soon. Looking forward to that!

Barn Quilt © June 2018 by Leigh 

at http://www.5acresandadream.com/