Hollyhocks Around the Barn

Last weekend, I managed to finish a quilt-top. This pattern is by The Buggy Barn.

I grew up on a farm in Northern Wisconsin. Our barn had dark weathered wood like the gray batik in this quilt-top. A few weeks ago, I had a dream about Hollyhocks, so I thought it might be a sign to start working on this quilt again. I started it last fall at a Retreat and put away for winter.

Even now in my yard, the Hollyhocks can grow wherever they like--and they do seed themselves around the yard. They bring cheer, beauty and height to the garden--and bees!

As for the quilting plan, I'm thinking about chickens and roosters against the gray barn wood, in some bright variegated rainbow (green-red-yellow-blue) thread. I'll have to be on the look-out for the right outline. I'll have to work in a bee somewhere, too.

It will probably be another year before I get it quilted and finished ... I still don't have a long-arm quilting machine, nor do I have the space for it. But I'm not especially looking forward to struggling with this puppy on my little machine either--although it might not be too bad as it's not a huge bed-size quilt.

Another plan might be to "rent" time on some else's long-arm. A few people in CinC and the Quilt Guild offered to let me test-drive theirs sometime ...