A Quilt for the Barn

Ellen Graham is not a woodworker, but she is a quilter. She split the difference when she began making barn quilts, a 4-foot-by-4-foot painted plywood creation that is attached to a barn or other farm building. She now has created six.

“This is pretty easy because you’re just taping off and doing straight lines,” says Graham, Health Care Director at Our Lady of Good Counsel in Mankato. “But as far as free-handing, no. I’m not even good at stick people.”

Her hobby began as she was preparing for “Quilting on the Hill” quilt retreat at Our Lady of Good Counsel Campus in Mankato and wanted to try something new. After she had made her first four, she decided to make one for the “special place” where she works. She found a pattern she liked—named “Amazing Grace”—got necessary permissions and selected a palette of Earth tones and an SSND color.

She said she felt humbled when she got permission from Sister Mary Kay Gosch, Campus Director. “The fact that they would even let me consider it, to me that was an honor.”

She spent the weekend of the quilt retreat making the SSND barn quilt. First she used a Kilz-like product to seal the plywood, then went to work with ruler, paint brush and painter’s tape to create the paint pattern.

According to “barnquiltinfo.com,” a barn quilt is usually a quilt square painted on boards and then mounted on a barn or other building. Most are simple geometric shapes that include large blocks of color.

What would your barn quilt say about you?

For more information about barn quilts: barnquiltinfo.com.
To learn more about retreat opportunities, click here.

Photo credits: Mike Lagerquist