In the mountains of western North Carolina there is a wonderful
movement to place quilt patterns on old barns across the landscape. These are painted and
range in size from 8 feet x 8 feet to a smaller 2' x 2' depending on their placement.
Artists recreate some of the vintage patterns and tie them into the wishes of the landowners.
Sometimes folks want a custom pattern that reflects their family or lifestyle.
It was the latter that inspired me to see if I could create a pattern of my own.
You may remember my grid and planning I did killing time on an airplane:
I had decided to use the shapes of wine bottle and birds as those represent two of our
favorite deck 'activities.' Everything must be gridded as if you were to plan
a pattern for straight line pieceing of materials.
Next I had to transfer this pattern to a canvas carefully marking off a similar grid and sticking to the formula. The pink color has nothing to do with my plan...it was paint used to
cover up a painting-gone-awry so I could recycle the expensive canvas. I painted in the "muslin" color to get me started in visualizing where I was going with color.
Slowly and carefully I painted in each square, or portion thereof, and later I went back and did some of the background "fabric" in a slightly different tone just so it would have the look of cloth.
Obviously my canvas was not square so I had to fill it in and write the name of our home as well as the name I gave the pattern on the space below. It took about 2-3 coats of paint over everything.
And ta-da! It's not on a barn for sure but it is in the mountains of western Carolina.
I think we will enjoy knowing that our "Bottles & Birds" can be added
to the quilt tour...in our neighborhood at least.
