Father's Day Present

"We should make my dad a barn quilt!" was the exclamation I bombed my husband (D) with exactly eight days before Father's Day. Why it hadn't occurred to me before, who knows. Barn quilts are all the rage around here right now and driving 20 minutes in any direction you will probably see about five.

D and I quickly decided this was not a project we could surprise my dad with. This was no necktie or fishing lure that could be added to the stash and never looked at again. This was a moderately expensive, time consuming project. (Go big or don't bother, right?) My dad told us the relative height on the barn and we decided an 8'x8' barn quilt would be best. D and I picked the pattern, and let my parents okay it and decide on colors.

We decided on the largest pattern pictured above, with orange, yellow, and blue.

Do you have any idea how big 8ft is? We used two 4'x8' pieces of plywood, and had each cut in half for ease of transport/design. The pieces were still huge at 4'x4', and much too heavy for my chicken arms to maneuver alone.

Please keep in mind that when a big project comes up, I absolutely forgo things like cleaning (or pretending to have a clean house just for pictures). Also, we live in about an 1100 town house apartment, so there's not a whole lot of room to move things around when four 4ft squares take over. It is all about the PROJECT, people!

Everything translates more clearly in my head when I can see things step by step. For this project, I graphed out an 8'x8' square, then realized the simplicity of painting each quarter. I penciled in a dot grid each piece of plywood, and was able to paint lines by lining them up on the grid. The final result looks like the bottom left design.

Prime time.

Painting the first design. If you look just under my right arm, you'll see where I had already messed up. First and only big mistake, I'm happy to say.

For a straight edge, I used the 1"x3"s we bought to frame the back.

Kept the pattern closeby at ALL times.

One coat down, one to go!

We only had a week to do complete this, because I wanted to get it done by Father's Day. And we managed to squeeze it out in just enough time. It was dry enough that we took it over to my parent's house and D framed it up. It was not, however, dry enough that they were able to get it hung on the barn. The paint label said it needed to dry 48 hours before being exposed to the elements. Stay tuned for the barn hanging pictures.The hanging won't happen until this weekend, but I plan on being glued to the camera for all the action.

Why Hello There!

What started as the dream of two friends is now available in blog form. We are two crafty, overexcitable Southern Belles who often are the only two people in the room laughing at a joke no one else finds funny. This blog is going to burst at the seams with tips and tutorials, and will serve as our online brag book for our projects. We love to sew, paint, and dream up huge projects to watch them come to fruition. If you need anything from a wreath to a barn quilt, we are the girls for the job. Stick around! We're starting off with a bang. :)