Mini Barn Quilts with Amanda

Hi, I’m Amanda! I’m the Assistant Operations Manager at Cotton Cuts, and the guest blogger for this week!

I’m lucky enough to be able to share my love of quilting with my Mother-in-Law (who also taught me how to sew 12 years ago), and one of our favorite things to do when we are on a road trip is to look for Barn Quilts.

If you’re not familiar with what a Barn Quilt is, it is a large piece of wood that is painted to look like a quilt block. These are usually hung on the exterior of a barn, but can also be hung on a shed or garage, or anywhere, really!

Last summer I painted a barn quilt for my in-laws to hang at the winery that they own.

I decided that I really liked the look of it, but had nowhere to hang one at my house… so I decided to make little ones that I could hang inside!  Generally a barn quilt is a flat piece of wood with the quilt block painted on it, but I thought it would be fun to cut the actual pieces out and glue them into the frame. I really like the texture and detail that it gives to the wood. Around that same time, my husband bought me a fantastic present for my anniversary - my very own bandsaw!  It was a perfect time to start working on the little barn quilts.

I found some really great wooden frames at the craft store, and set out to pick which quilt designs I wanted to make. I had some thin wood at home, and also grabbed some furring strips from the hardware store. The furring strips were great because they’re about a half inch thick, so they’re easy to cut.

I found a few simple quilt designs online, but also picked some out of a Block Tool book that I bought at a garage sale several years ago. It tells you what shapes and sizes you need for each block, and how to make the block in different sizes. 

After cutting out the pieces and painting them, I used wood glue to put them in the frame. Just like when quilting with fabric, I had to pay special attention to make sure that the pieces lined up and the points matched together. A little bit of sandpaper definitely helped to coax all the pieces together.

After painting a few, I felt that I wanted to make them a little different. I LOVED the fabric that we used in the Fall 2020 PMQ “Labyrinth”, so I had the idea to Mod Podge the fabric to the wooden pieces instead of painting them - and I loved the way it turned out!  This is a perfect project to make with a Snippet bag! Adding the fabric creates a world of possibilities for your project!

My barn quilts range in size from six inches to ten inches, and I am looking forward to finishing the ones that I have started so that I can start a few more to give as Christmas gifts. Who is someone in your life that would love this as a Christmas gift?