We've Got a Winner!

The random number generator picked Quilting Babcia who blogs at Amity Quilter as the winner of the autographed copy of Build-A-Barn. Congratulations! I'll contact you soon. 

I'm sorry everyone could not win but if you would like to purchase a copy see 

Build a Barn - the Blog. 

Meanwhile, I just got finished traveling 4 hours across state on Saturday and 4 hours back today and I probably saw literally hundreds of barns.  Barns are everywhere in Iowa - all shapes, sizes and colors. I even saw a Harley Davidson store in a barn shaped building.  

I took along my circles to applique.  This one commemorates my Build-A-Barn blog week! 

Build-A-Barn Will Give You the Confidence to Build More than Barns

I started with a door and windows with lace curtains in a whitewashed stone structure. 

I then added a thatched roof.  I purposely left a loose overhang of thatch that is currently just tacked down with pins. 

I then added a chimney and sky from a couple of different small pieces of sky fabrics I tried to blend into one. I ran into a little problem on one side where those pins are but I'll fix that later.  

I then added a rock wall with plants in it and a gate and some weeds and dirt.

And I ended up with a very special house in Ireland - in Ashfield Demesne, Beagh Parish, Galway to be exact. 

Ancestral Joynt home in Ashfield Demesne (aka Shananglish), Beagh Parish, Galway c. 1959

In the 1860s my great-great grandparents David Joynt and Bridget McDermott Joynt and 9 of their 10 children left Ireland at various times for America.  Their oldest daughter Margaret Joynt Nally was the only one to stay behind in Ireland and in the home and on the land the others left behind. 

The picture above was taken in 1959 and passed down to me, family historian. I was told it was taken by my grandfather's brothers on a trip to Ireland.  Later while doing family research I happened to find a newspaper article that told about that visit.  

...

Newspaper excerpts of visit to house above by my grand uncles follows.

Originally pub in LeMars Globe-Post, LeMars (Plymouth Co), Iowa
Republished in Emmetsburg (Palo Alto Co, Iowa) Democrat

JOYNT BROTHERS TELL OF VISIT TO IRELAND

...Focus of the entire trip was the old Joynt cottage in County Galway, in a
village called Shanaglish. The word Shanaglish means Old Church and it seems
there was an old church there as long as earliest history shows. The Old
Church is still there and masses are read there regularly.

The nearest "Big Town" is Gort, population about 1500. Resisting the
hospitable urgings of the people of Shanaglish, the tourists spent the night
in an inn at Gort, and nearly everybody in County Galway made it a point to
try to meet the distinguished visitors and bid them the top o' the mornin'
or evenin' as the case may be.

The Irish are very friendly people, Dr. R.J. Joynt said, and every mither's
son of them felt he had something important to tell the guests. "They
thought we were big-shots," Dr. Joynt explained, "and we felt that it would
be unkind of us to disillusion them. So we let it go at that."

Living in the old Joynt home is the family of Christie Nally, grandson of
the oldest sister of the Doctors Joynt's father. The rest of the family
migrated to the United States in 1869 [actually 1867], but the oldest
daughter married a local boyfriend and stayed.

The Joynt farm consists of 22 Irish acres, about the same as 28 Plymouth
county [Iowa] acres. It still has a pasture on a high hill, and a peat bog from
which they get their sod for fuel.

Dr. R.J. Joynt said that his father had often spoken nostalgically of a
certain low window in the old stone house, which was easily broken and which
therefore was always stuffed with a gunny sack. The tourists investigated
and found the window, sure enough, and there was the pane missing, just as
in 1869, and there was the gunny sack.

"But it was a new gunny sack," Dr. Joynt reported with a touch of sadness.

The old cottage is built of stone, with a straw thatched roof. Not a stone
has been changed in 85 years, and thatch looked that way.

"How often do you have to thatch that roof?" Christie Nally was asked.
"About once every 14 years," Christie replied.
"How long has it been since you thatched it?"
"Well, it has been just about 14 years."

This doesn't mean that Shanaglish was careless about honoring its visitors,
however. In honor of the expected visit Christie Nally white-washed the
walls, all nice and clean. And Mrs. Nally baked a cake.

Christie Nally made this succint observation: "Yer father [Michael Joynt b.
1851] did well when he went to America!" ...

The same ancestral home in 1976 when a cousin of my Dad visited. 

One of these days the ancestral home I built will end up in a quilt surrounded by the Emerald Isle. (I might even add a piece of "gunny sack" to one of the windows).  

And that leads me to how I went about building my home: 

Julie Sefton's book Build-A-Barn walked me through the process of first free-piecing a barn and that experience then gave me the confidence to try free-piecing my ancestral home.  Believe me, if I can do it so can you. I'm more of a left-brained (logical) than right-brained (creative) person.  So I guess that means I'm rarely in my right mind but Julie and her book set me straight. 

For a chance to win an autographed copy of Build-A-Barn leave me a comment telling me what you would like to build. 

 I'll draw a winner late Sunday after I return from an out-of-town wedding. (Winner will be drawn by random number generator from comments left on this post and my previous post about building a barn. So you have two chances to win if you leave a comment on each post.) 

If you don't win you will have to buy a copy! (Yes, you do need a copy. Really!)

I Built a Barn. You Know You Want To.

In December 2014 Julie Sefton  who blogs at Me and My Quilts - Exploring the Possibilities  invited several ladies to join the Secret Society of Barn Builders (SSOBB). What did that mean? That meant we would all read Julie's process notes for a book she was writing  and then build our own free-pieced barn.   At first I thought she had the wrong person. Me? Free-piece? Yikes? I was honored to be invited to the club; however, I really hadn't free-pieced anything ever before except for a few wonky letters so I was nervous but accepted the challenge. 

I decided to piece the barn out in my back yard (above).  You can't see part of it on the right because a big cedar tree is in front of the added on section where the roof starts to slope. 

This is what I ended up with. 

How did that happen? 

I read and re-read Julie's process notes before I even took one cut into a piece of fabric.  Then I followed along step by step with her notes. 

(By the way, I actually had all of these fabrics in my stash so I guess I was destined to build a barn some day).

I started with the "pass-thru" area which is kind of messy in real life. It leads out to flower gardens, orchard and a pool. The ladders lead up into a hayloft where I used to hang flowers for drying that we sold at Farmer's Market.  Now I'm afraid to go up there as I think some raccoons have set up household up there. And I've seen some bats in the rafters. Yucky. 

In my fabric barn the pass-thru leads out to pigs and pastures. Actually, there are pastures on either side of us and way, way, way, out past our flower gardens and orchards and wood lot is another one of our pastures but you can't see that via our pass-thru.   And we did raise a pig once in the back of our barn. It ran through our yard, the kids caught it, we asked every farmer around if it was theirs, it wasn't, so we raised it.  And then we butchered and ate it.  Yummy!

 There's metal siding over the barn wood where the addition was added on.  The part behind that Cedar tree.  And on the other side of that is a field. 

I used striped fabric for the metal siding. And there's chickens in there because for a number of years we did raise chickens in the barn.  We are thinking of doing it again after I retire. 

I added lots of other personal details... 

...like cats because our barn is a cat bed and breakfast for all the strays everyone brings out to the country and lets loose...like mushrooms because my daughter and son-in-law are certified mushroom foragers...like shamrocks because of my Irish ancestry. 

I sent it off to Julie when I was finished building my barn and then she had Chris Ballard quilt all of our barns.  If I remember correctly the barns are all touring with some AQS quilt shows now. 

I didn't go into specific process details because I followed along with Julie's notes. I accepted her challenge and in return she gave me the confidence to free-piece.   If you would like to know the process details and so much more you will just have to buy the book or win one.  

I'll be giving away one autographed copy of Build-A-Barn.  I'll probably draw a name Sunday, June 26, when I get home from an out-of-town wedding.   You will have two chances to win. Add a comment to this post and then come back Wednesday to see what else I've free-pieced (thanks to Julie's excellent book) and leave a comment on that post. 

You've all probably heard the phrase, "close the door...were you born in barn?". Well, I know you probably weren't actually born in a barn; however, if you had, what animal would you have been?  Leave a comment and let me know.   

Were You Wondering?

Were you wondering about the button that appeared one day on my sidebar? 

Surprise! Surprise! I'm a charter member of the Secret Society of Barn Builders!  

"The Secret Society of Barn Builders was established in late December 2014

by fifteen women from across the U.S., Canada, and Germany -- 

some with extensive free piecing experience 

and others new to the technique -- 

who agreed to “test” the process notes for Build-a-Barn 

by creating their own original free pieced barns."

Build-a-Barn 

No Pattern Construction

by the Master Barn Builder Julie Sefton 

who blogs at Me and My Quilts - Exploring the Possibilities

Expected delivery date April 2016

(P.S.: I was one of the "others new to the technique" and rather apprehensive but Julie's process notes were enough to help me build a barn almost like the one in my backyard. It will be revealed later this summer.)