BARN QUILT BEAUTY

Zee
by Zee
When we first contemplating building another barn at Hawk's Creek, I knew I wanted to have a barn quilt on the entry wall. These quilts are well known in the Mid-West, where I grew up. Not so much here in Texas.
PERFECTION
This is the finished project beautifully hand painted by our talented son. Pictures following will show the process he used.
FINISHED WALL.
Ruby Lou looks aloof but I think the finished wall is just what we wanted.
BLANK CANVAS
Start with a high grade heavy 4x4 piece of plywood. You can use a larger piece, but for our project we chose a 4x4.
After drawing the design with pencil, tape off first areas to be painted.
TAKING SHAPE
Remove tape after paint has dried. Re tape next section and keep doing this until design is complete.
ALMOST DONE
This process takes some days as you want paint to be completely dry before moving on to next section.
DONE EXCEPT FOR FRAME
After painting color add several coats of clear coat. We used Helmsman's Spar Varathane. Since we used outdoor water based color, we had to use a water based clear coat.
FRAME
Tape once again after frame is added. We painted the frame and added clear coat to it also. We wanted a simple frame to finish our quilt. Some people do not add a frame.
RIGHT ANGLE
We decided to hang our quilt at an angle. We liked this better. We will do another piece for the front of the barn. This next project will be an Indian blanket design.
Zee
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
Go
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
  2 questions
  • Dorothy Horner Smith Dorothy Horner Smith on Dec 14, 2015
    where do you get your patterns from.?
  • Duv310660 Duv310660 on Dec 15, 2015
    You are obviously The Queen at masking and painting and NOT getting paint bleeding and/or peeling under your tape! Although I have many talents, this is NOT one of them. I've tried frog tape; someone said to try wetting the top and burnishing it down; I've heard of using electrical tape; PLEASE what is your technique??? BTW I was California born and raised, and a quilt on a barn makes Perfect Sense to me!
Comments
Join the conversation
2 of 38 comments
  • Heje Heje on Dec 12, 2018

    This is a big inspiration for me to use for our family farm. Thanks for the pictures and the steps to use.

  • Jeannie Scott Jeannie Scott on Mar 08, 2023

    I'm interested in learning how to build the frame around the barn quilt. Thanks so much!! Jeannie Scott

Next