The Daily Bird Quilt Flew The Coop

Now that I have awoken from my own fog, you need to check out the post from a few days ago on Julie's blog.

Me and My Quilts 

Click on the link to see the whole story on Julie's blog.  She does a whole photo shoot with the little tweeters.  They are famous, darling!

She is doing a class on Lynne's Liberated Birds in St Louis, MO on July 14 (and may have a few spots left if you are going to be in town).  She asked if my birds could fly up there and play with the people taking her class.

But of course!

Two People I Do Not Know - But Who Are Now My Best Friends!

.

The Free Pieced Barn Project 

will continue this fall 

with three public exhibitions of 

the SSOBB gallery of quilts --

first as a Special Exhibit at AQS Chattanooga,

(September 14-15-16-17, 2016)

next as a Special Exhibit at AQS Des Moines,

(October  5-6-7-8, 2016)

and finally at the annual Davies Manor Quilt Show in Memphis.

(November 4-5-6, 2016)

Links and more event details will be shared

just as soon as they are available

* * *

I am so sorry to see my Blog Hop Week end!  I have never felt more important than I have this week.  And I know all that fabric and dog bone bribes that arrived at my door did not influence me in the least!  LOL.  Hey, that is how we do things in Louisiana, right Cher?




I compiled the names for all the days and days and days of the Build A Barn Blog Hop I conducted
  

For the book, I pulled up a random generator and plugged in my  numbers (in Louisiana politics you would have brought your heavy eqipment over and worked on my property) and I pulled:

NUMBER 5 - Alice Turcotte  (are you related to Ron Turcotte - Jockey of the famous Secretariat?)

But then I said, so many people aren't going to get anything.  So I went outside and found Frank (Mr. Quilts and Dogs) or (Mr. QuiltSwissy, which ever way you look at it), and asked him for a number and he came up with 17, the age at which he met and started dating me.  It changed his life, today he says for the better, but yesterday it was not as positive.

So that number belongs to Mary Ann!

Remember that last Cajun  Camp?  NOOOO, you don't get my camp!  But you will get a FQ of that fabulous Fir tree background to add to your barns!

So what do we  do now?

The winners need to send me their emails and mailing addresses to:

 obed101(at)cox(dot)net

Got that?

And the rest of you, in true Louisiana Body Politic, can begin to insert your influence using whatever bribery you can think of to make deals with the winners.

On Monday, go see Belinda's barn story.  And don't forget to continue to play on the rest of the Blog Hops where you can have other chances to win Julie's Book --- and maybe some other stuff!

Monday May 30 – Belinda from Texas

Monday June 6 – Cherie Moore

Monday June 13 – Valerie Levy

Monday June 20 – Cathy Labath  

and 

Lynn Carson Harris 

Monday June 27 – Kathy French

Monday July 4 – Heidi Burkhardt

Monday July 11 – Hilda Bakke

Monday July 18 – Chris Ballard

Monday July 25 – Debbie Voigt 

Monday August 1 - Julie Sefton

Things To Do With Julie's Build A Barn Book

(Pre-Note)  Julie was so excited about the stories of your own barns, she thought it would be fun to see them.  If you want, you can email photos of your favorite barns to her at

  orders@sefton.info and she will put them on the book's blog!

Julie put the work on her award winning quilt into words and photos that are complied into this really beautiful book.  She walks you through making barns from photos (and your head) and assembling them to make a unique quilt.  Whether you make a small quilt or put 12 barns together, you will have a masterpiece.

So rebel that I am, of course I thought what else can I use Julie's book for?

You can use it as a Door Stop.



 You can use it as a Dog Bowl Mat.








It can even be a sofa pillow. (Ignore the dog hair)

But the best way to use it is to READ it!  LOL.

I figured I could use the same techniques Julie uses to make some Cajun Camps.  All good Cajuns here in Louisiana have somewhere they can get away to and do some fishing.  Or hunting.  Or alligator jigging.

Camps in Cocodrie in Terrebonne Parish

Generally, a fishing camp is a bare bones structure that will
accommodate 2, 3 or 4 testosterone filled, bearded men armed with an array of barbs, sticks and firepower.  Sometimes there are bunks in a room or two, sometimes there is just a corner to throw down a couple of sleeping bags.

Some camps, however, are nicer than my house! 

From Bayou Ducks' page

 The first one i did was the duck blind. I put a duck on top.








My duck blind has a leaning cypress tree nearby so you can tie up your pirogue.  But you have to watch out for the cypress knees, they can wedge your pirogue in and you will be stuck.

Watching out for snakes that fall from the trees is always important as well.  I always told Frank, the minute  snake comes  in this boat, I am out of it.  Luckily it never happened.  Because logically, there are probably more snakes IN the water then the boat.




Most camps are sitting on pilings since they are in the swamp.  Much of the area below I-10 are alluvial soils and thus filled with water which creates swamps and low areas.

If you drive between my house and Charlene's house in Lafayette, LA you will have to cross the Atchafalaya Swamp. (Remember the serial killer who was dumping bodies in Whiskey Bay?  That is the Atchafalaya.)  But most of the Cajuns back in there are good people.



This camp started out as my houseboat block.  I was never happy with it.  I need to make a flat bottomed boathouse.

So now it is a taller camp.   but you really don't need much floorspace.  Just somewhere to toss your sleeping bag and clean your catch.

The grey roof is tin, so it will need to be quilted with ripples!




The block I did today  is interesting.  I can tell you how I made it.



I found this great tree fabric, we don't really have huge fir trees here in Louisiana, but the fabric is cool.








I cut a square of muslin and am going to use it for a base upon which to build my structure.


And I found a fat quarter of woodgrain fabric I have been hoarding saving.  It was tough, but I used it.
 



I cut the woodgrain and a second darker piece to add some interested to the boards.

My glue stick was useful in helping the strips to stay in play while I worked. 


I laid out the boards in a pleasing fashion.  When I quilt it I will sew down each board and add some work on the wood grains maybe.






 All the pieces of the block itself are cut out and ready to be sewn.


Things always look better with some appropriate seam-age!







Here are the four Cajun Camps together  I am thinking to add some flying geese in between the blocks.  And do some paperpieceing like an alligator and maybe a pelican block.

Once you have the book, you can brainstorm so many different things you can do with it.  Or you can make barns!


This is the last day you will be able to leave a comment and get a chance to win an autographed copy of Julie Sefton's Build A Barn book.

How about:  Do you have a stash of materials to Build A Barn?

Barn #2 - Build A Barn Book

OK, we spent Monday at the hospital, Carrie's second surgery.  Everything went well, so we are happy, but exhausted.

Back to barns.  NOTE:  If you are a no reply blogger, PLEASE make sure I have your email address if you win!  I will choose someone else to win if I can't contact you! 

Again, if you comment about barns on today's post you will get an entry into the drawing for your own Build A Barn book by Julie Sefton!  Can't beat that with a stick!

 Spend some time looking at my other barn.  I called it Crow Morning.  the impetus was the fabric with crows sitting on a fence.  I love that fabric!

I got it from my mom's stuff when we moved her from Laplace LA to the assisted living place here in Baton Rouge.  She was in the midst of Alzheimers Disease and she was not being cared for by Stan's kids.  And they were stealing her money by taking her to the bank and having her sign things over to them.

She no longer knew what was happening.  It was a traumatic move for both of us.

I am known as a fabric hoarder.......but that was one of the special pieces.  And I never wanted to use any of the "special" pieces.  I remember when she bought it and I loved it then.  We were at Hancock's in Metairie, LA at the time.

So when I put the second barn together, those crows begged to be included.  I gave in.

The process notes were from the Autumn section of the book.  I guess that is why the crows and the colors look like they do, sort of Autumn-y!

And again, strictly from my mind, I had no photos for this one either.  Although, it is a pretty simple barn, there was a lot of thought that went into the different parts of it.  Julie's book walks you through the process so you end up with a good barn.

These photos really showcase Chris'  quilting.  She took all of the barns, segmented pieces and styles, and gave each one individual treatment.  They would have been an amazing quilt all put together.  wouldn't they?

   I wanted to try  barn with one of those Barn Quilts on it!  Perfect, right?


The woodgrain fabric was the perfect match to the brick base on this barn. 

Julie was the one who had the tough job of deciding what fabric backings complimented the barn fronts.  Think of that task.  Knowing that all those quilts were made by somebody else and  YOU have to make the right choice!  LOL.  Somehow she did!

Did you know that the barn quilts are now touring the US attending AQS shows?  Yes!  How exciting is that!

I would love to be somewhere the whole of them are displayed.  If you happen to see it, send me a photo!

Comment for a chance to win the book on Friday.  Barns, talk about barns!

Build A Barn - No Pattern Consruction by Julie Sefton

The books are finally here!!!  And it is a beautiful book!!!!!

Perfect, we all know I love buildings, industrial sites, and yes, even barns.  hen I saw the quilt blocks Julie was making a few years ago, I began following her blog story at Me And My Quilts.

As a child we had taken only one vacation.  We went to Washington DC and stopped in Rock City.  I vividly remember all the barns we passed along the way with See Rock City painted on their roofs.  (Yes, I actually looked up the plural of roof and it said rooves was accepted but was the "old" way of doing it.)

Julie created block by block and I would always comment, you need to write a book!  Well, she did.

Really, I do take full credit for that.

Really.


I can't keep track of how many awards See Rock City has won, but it is a lot.  So many others loved it too.

When Julie decided to take my advice and put together a book, she asked a bunch of her friends to form a Secret Society of Barn Builders or the SSOBB as we were affectionately called.  We used her process notes to test the pages making Barns of our own.  Those Barns grew into individual small quilts and now are traveling into some of the show circuits.

Could not get photo flipped!  Later will fix it

I know Julie will be in Paducah at the Author's Showcase.  She probably told me what time but since I can't remember, you will need to look her up there.  And I want you to tell her you know me.  She thinks I might be normal, but you need to assure her I am just as crazy as she is.

So we do have a blog hop.  Mine will be in May and I will have a give away of one of her beautiful books.  you will want to follow the progress of all the blog hops and get more chances to win.

Check out the blog Julie set up for the book.

Free Pieced  Barn Project

If you go there you can see the individual quilts made from the process notes.  they are pretty spectactular!

And mine can be found at:   Glenda Parks

And I have a project in the works, I am tweaking Julie's Barns a bit and making it quite my own.  But that is what this book is all about.

Go get it, you will love it.  ( I get no royalties or kickbacks, but maybe the Bad Basset Boyz will get a bone if  my followers buy a lot of them.)

Secrets

I really have a hard time keeping secrets.  I just love to talk about stuff.  I get that from my mother's father.  My grandfather told "Shaggy Dog Stories".    According to TV Tropes those are detailed stories that have a huge build up and complicated twists only to be resolved with a anti-climax that makes the story part useless!

That said, Papa's stories were more like long, long humorous stories.  And I take after that part.  If you have read any of my "situations" you would be familiar with them.  And this is not a Shaggy Dog Story, by the way.

But I digress........

Secrets.

For the last year I have been a part of the Secret Society of Barn Builders.  SSOB.  Wait, there is another letter in there somewhere....

OK...SSOBB.

You can see what the book cover looks like on the top of my blog sidebar.  Fifteen of us were invited by Julie Sefton to participate in testing her process notes.  For years I have told her she needed to write a book about her amazing quilt See Rock City.  And now she has!  (click there to see the whole story about her amazing quilt.)

She has won a ton of awards on this quilt, by the way.  Quite impressive.  And click on You Did WHAT With Your Quilt to see it with Julie on a John Deere!

The exciting thing, for me anyway, is that our little barn quilts will be hung in three quilt shows and featured two international magazines after the book comes out! 

I was so excited about being a part of this amazing group, and so lucky to be included.  I will be doing a post about my two barns some time after the book comes out in April.  Actually May.  There will be a blog hop.

So that kind of went into a Shaggy Dog Story, right?  Started out with meaningless chatter that was not on point?  Yep, Papa would be proud!