Unless you live under a rock, you are probably well aware that barn quilt blocks have been the latest rage in showcasing a non-quilted quilt block design on barns.  Folks are having contests to get barn quilt block designed, there are maps in various counties who show where all of the barn quilt blocks are in their area, etc. etc.

I spent a couple of weeks in Iowa the past two summers and, since I believe I read that barn quilts originated in Iowa, we definitely saw a lot of them!  Even if they didn’t originate there, they have taken off like a hot potato and MANY barns have barn quilt blocks adorning their structures.

In case you do not know what a barn quilt is, here is an image of one:

(image credit)

It got me to thinking about how much fun it would be to cruise the gravel roads and highways and design a quilt based on the barn quilts I saw along the way – sort of a memory quilt (although I can sketch while riding in an auto, I would never remember where exactly I saw the barn quilts at).

So, let’s make an actual barn quilt – not a block to put on a barn, but a quilt that has the barn quilt blocks on it!  And if you have taken photos or drawn sketches of barn quilts, you can use those designs to create your own.  I was the driver the last time we were taking a road trip through barn quilt country so was unable to do either – so, my barn quilt will be based on traditional designs set in a shoo-fly quilt block pattern:

The following is the quilt I’ve put together for you.  Please note, if I could have photographed the many barn quilts we saw in Iowa, I would be putting THOSE designs in the center.  Since I was unable to do so, I have designed the following quilt:

Stay tuned for the fabric requirements and patterns for each of the blocks used in this quilt!