Free Pattern to Celebrate Your Family

June 22, 2017June 22, 20177 Comments

Every family has its quirky side — why not honor that uniqueness with a thoroughly modern quilt banner?

Sew up this quilt quickly and take it to display at this year’s summer family reunion. It could make you the most popular person in attendance. Sandy and I will be rock stars at our family reunion next month!

family2

We wanted something bright, modern and of course quilted! Pinwheels are a favorite of ours so we decided to play around with pinwheel layouts. The pink and white blocks evolved and well, we love the results!

family5

We used scraps we had on hand. We just selected a few coordinating scrap colors and used the hot pink for accents. You can download this pattern by clicking on the link below:

Family Wall Hanging 06 22 17

I (Cindy) learned a new technique while finishing this quilt. I watched several on line tutorials about how to add a quilt binding at a 45 degree angle (instead of at the usual 90 degrees). My favorite tutorial is by Marci Baker and you can link to it here. Marci does a nice job of showing the step by step process of adding quilt bindings at different angles.

While I was attaching this binding, I had my laptop right next to my sewing machine. I would watch, sew, pause, watch, sew and pause until I had this binding sewn on just right. Full disclosure–my seam ripper got a real work out that day!

family1

We will also be posting this pattern to FaveQuilts.com as this is our “GO TO” site for free quilt patterns. You will be sure to find many quilt designs, no matter what your quilting style! Give it a try for lots of summer quilting inspiration!

family3

Be sure to send us pics of your “FAMILY”!

Big Block Tree of Life

May 8, 20174 Comments

Several years ago, “oldest” sister asked me to make a Tree of Life wall hanging for her. The cover of a book written by Nancy Johnson-Srebro titled “Big-Block Quilts by Magic” captured her interest and a helpful quilt shop owner worked with her on fabric choices.

I remember thinking one of the fabrics for the leaves was “slightly” less than beautiful. BUT after sewing everything together, it actually became one of my favorites. Smaller pieces can bring beauty…lesson learned!

DSCN7711

This was one of my first attempts at machine quilting. She requested minimal quilting so I did a “stitch in the ditch” with clear thread.

DSCN7712

I like how the blue wall brings out all the bright colors of the leaves on the tree.

DSCN7708

As I was preparing to write this blog, I looked through Nancy’s book again and found several patterns I’m going to try with some of the fabrics in my stash. You’ll be reading about Big-Block Quilts by Magic again here at Gray Barn Designs!

Can You Say Cheese?

January 27, 20178 Comments

Cheddar and blue are not just names for cheese! These cheddars and blues compose one of my all time favorite reproduction fabric quilts–well it’s really a wall hanging.

The contrast of colors and fabrics is yummy! Sorry, I just can’t get past the food analogy!

dscn7595

Here’s a bird’s eye view. My quilter, Ms. JM, did a lovely quilting job, don’t you think? Oops, how did my feet get in the picture?!

dscn7493

I used Thangles to make my tiny half square triangles –they made piecing so much easier!

dscn7508

Right now this quilt is hanging in my sewing room. It makes things warm and cozy for winter sewing.

What’s hanging on the wall in your sewing space?

Debut–Gifted Times Three

October 10, 2016November 22, 20162 Comments

Sandy and I have been working on a new quilt pattern for most of the year. The pattern for this wall hanging is finally complete, ready for you to use–and we are celebrating! You can download it for free gifted-times-three-gbd.

We wanted to find a new way to celebrate milestones and events in a completely new way.

The quilt depicts a tower of presents and a shower of confetti to up the fun factor for your gift. Another unique feature of this quilt is the three dimensional bow at the top. The bow is really a girl’s hair clip but we decided it would look great on this quilt! We’ve had so much fun hunting for just the perfect bow for each quilt.

Bonus: the bow adds some pizzazz to the quilt and it can be removed for washing.

It took us a while to figure out the best way to add our messages. Finally, we settled on a template made with a Cricuit(r) machine. They we used embroidery paint to fill in the template. I think it would be totally cute to embroider or free-hand paint a message for your quilt.

After Sandy made her quilt, I had to be a copy cat! I made one for my son and his fiance for their wedding shower. It turned out fabulously (she said modestly) so we hung it above the gift table! Their wedding colors were sea foam green and coral, a nice combination for a wedding wall hanging AND I was fortunate to find a hair clip in just the right color. This quilt is now hanging on a wall in their apartment above the kitchen table, way to score big with the mother and mother in law!

Tim and Morgan’s shower quilt was so elegant.

Instead of a solid white background for the wedding shower quilt, I used a white tone on tone polka dot fabric. It added some nice visual texture with the other colors and patterns.

But wait, there’s more! I also decided to use up some scraps and make a third wall hanging out of some girlie prints that were left-over from another project.

THEN I found the most amazing hair clip to add–makes it look even more sweet and girlie, don’t you think? All the static in the air almost makes it look like an octopus or something, but it’s really a feather boa type hair clip! I just love the colors in this one!

We hope you have some occasions in your life you can commemorate with this quilt. We’d love to see yours, send some photos on the Gray Barn Designs Facebook page or on Pinterest.