Wisconsin love: barn quilts!

Happy Monday, blog friends! You might have noticed the new school year starting threw off my posting schedule (or my everything schedule!) but I am back at it today. ArtPrize officially starts on Wednesday so you know I will have a lot to say once I get out there and see all the crazy, amazing, wonderful, inspiring art that I can feast my eyes on. 

Today I am going to share my photos of barn quilts! These are specifically from Door County, a skinny little peninsula of Wisconsin that stretches out into Lake Michigan and creates Green Bay. I am quite sure they are in other places in Wisconsin but there is only so much barn-quilt-gazing one can expect out of one's husband and children! I am thinking it might be a midwest-specific phenomenon though.

Most of these photos were taken as the sun was setting and were were heading back to our campsite after a very full day of exploring Door County. The light was golden and the quiet farm field were a glorious green blur out the window. Even though I am city girl I sure can see the appeal of all that peacefulness stretching out before your eyes. Makes me curious if my tree-loving self will appreciate the open space out west when I visit there someday.

A heartfelt thank-you to the artists who painted these beauties and the people who put the effort into hanging them up on the barns.

I made art: family portrait mini-quilt

So way back in 2014 when my oldest was 6 she came home with an adorable family portrait done in marker on a piece of white cloth. That piece of cloth was stapled to another scrap of gray fabric. I loved everything about it – the stick figures, the eyes carefully done in appropriate shades, and the misspelled "familey" across the top. In my mind I thought it would be so cute if I made it into a hanging quilt square. I clipped it up on the clothesline in my art room and there it has been ever since.

Fast forward to this summer where my husband noticed I had written "Quilt Week" on the calendar. He suggested that perhaps I did not need any new ideas and that I should just go work on the ideas I already have. He was right (of course!) and this project was the result.

So a couple of things I love about this:

1. I experimented with the quilting.
I did concentric rectangles, I outlined squares, and I even followed along with the curving leaf pattern of a particular fabric. It was fun for me to try something different.

2. I used scrap fabric.
I did not buy anything for this project. That doesn't surprise me but that's because I am quite aware of what I have stashed in the art room! At any rate, that's always a good thing.

3. I had fun with the composition.
So choosing colors and balancing a composition is something I am good at naturally. I am sure that my graphic design education from Ferris State University also sharpened my skills as well. So taking those little scraps of fabric and arranging them here and there and building the blocks around the drawing was pure joy for me.

The lesson in all of this is that when you spend time making art art gets made! So obvious but seemingly out of reach for me so often!