We left off last time with a bit of suspense, about the billy goat, so today I will show you my solution. The more I thought about what that goat could be looking at, the more it occurred to me it was probably something he wanted to eat. Goats are always hungry and they will eat just about anything, so I thought, what about a clothesline full of clothes?! Suiting thought to action, I tried my hand at drawing little clothes, and making a clothesline.
Here are my little clothes all cut out to use as a pattern, and a bit of hemp cord to use as clothesline. My first thought was to just make cloth posts too, but they just looked too flat. Once again I got so caught up in the process I forgot to take pictures, but suffice to say, I ended up using a bit of old brown garden twine and wrapping it around with the same brown wool I had used on the billy goat. I couched it down and it made up suitable clothesline posts. I can't say they delight me, but I couldn't come up with anything else I liked better, so they will just have to do. The little floral dress was one I tried first, but didn't like very much, so chose a different fabric and design, which turned out so much better.
Here is my layout with the paper posts and the paper clothes. I can see that billy goat eyeing it already.
After I made the posts I tied black hemp cord of the proper length to the posts. At first I had the thought of just leaving the cord loose, but after doing it I didn't like it. Seems every step is a process.
It was pretty easy to just couch the cord down with matching black thread, making sure to put a curve in it so it would look like a clothesline and not like an electric fence.
I tried to put my little clothes patterns on the cutest fabric I could find. Fortunately I have a container of fat quarters with tiny print. That bee on the girls dress was a lucky find, because one of the fabrics was printed with it. I just drew the little dress, so the style would incorporate the bee. Then I stitched in tiny little stitches all around the bee to accent it. I gotta say, stitching these tiny clothes was something interesting. I had to put on my stronger reading glasses just to do it, they were so small.
Here it is, all done and stitched to quilt. To give you an idea as to the scale, the overalls on the left are 1 3/4", the apron is 3/4", the dress is 1 1/2", the shirt is 1" and the last overalls on the right are 1 1/2". To give them a bit more depth, after I had blanket stitched them to the top layer of the quilt, I quilted around them through all the layers with a tiny quilting stitch. In fact that is what I have been doing for each new piece I applied to the quilt, as it just makes them look so much better.
You know I think that goat believes I put that clothesline up just for him. He'd better be careful or he could meet the fate of Bill Grogan's goat. Only I don't have any red shirts on the line to save him. Lucky for him there's no railroad track or train on this farm.
I finished this clothesline so quickly, it wasn't long before I began to think, what else does this farm need? Of course, it needs a barn! But how to go about drawing up a barn? I will admit I haven't drawn a barn before, so what could I do to make the process easier?
First I went through pictures I had of barns, and decided on the shape of barn I wanted. This is a family barn I had taken a picture of, and thought this is just the barn I want. Isn't it a beauty, all newly painted and everything?!
I didn't need it to be in color so modified it to a black and white photo and sized it down to the size I wanted in photoshop.
Then I cut the picture up into the pieces I needed to make my barn pattern. At this stage I wasn't sure exactly how I wanted my barn to look? I got this far and decided to change the layout. Sadly once again I forgot to take pictures. As any creative person will tell you, stopping to take pictures or film everything is a right royal pain, and when you are in the groove of things it's easy to forget, so please forgive me.
I thought instead of a barn for tractors and equipment, I wanted a hay-barn like the one on the farm I worked on for years, in my teens. It had a hayloft, and the main floor itself had a large haystack just inside the large open door. We had played in this barn with the farmers kids, when we were younger. We would all get up in the hayloft and take turns jumping down into the hay. Those of us that were brave enough that is. It was great fun! The farmer didn't mind, as long as we raked the hay back up into a pile when we were done, and didn't leave any pitchforks lying about or in the haystack.
Here is the yellow fabric I chose to use for the hay piles. It was just the right shade and muted pattern. The selvage came in really handy later, when I got stumped on how I was going to put trim on the barn?! It was just the right size, being less than a 1/4" wide. The fact that it didn't fray on one edge was an added bonus.
This picture shows how I redesigned the barn, to match what I wanted. So I had to draw it up differently and redo it. Fortunately I did it on paper before deciding on my final design, so no red fabric was wasted. I was really happy with the fabric I found for the barn. It was a scrap left over from a headscarf I had made my eldest son, for a pirate festival we attended. The color and pattern were just perfect. It gave the barn a natural aged look I was wanting. I had as usual attached the barn to the black sheeting fabric, so just carefully cut out the door shapes, turned them under and reverse appliqued them in place. I stitched them down to the outer line of the doorway trim, so that I would have just enough space to tuck my haystacks under the door edges, before stitching them down. For the haystacks I frayed the yellow fabric edge on purpose and stitched it down with random straight stitches of different colored sewing thread to emulate pieces of hay.
I didn't like the choice of the black cloth for the roof, it blended too much into the background. I was stumped for a while on what to do about it, as I didn't seem to have any fabric in gray. I wanted the barn to look like it had a tin roof, not only because of the picture I had taken, but because the barn roof's on the barns of my childhood had tin roof's too.
Just when I had about given up, my son came in to help me look. I was going through every stash bin I had and still no luck. But he took up one of my smaller containers and opened it, and wouldn't you know, inside were a couple of pockets from some gray garment I had modified years ago. I couldn't believe it! First of all I could barely remember where the scrap came from, and secondly I couldn't believe it hadn't fallen victim to one of my fabric stash purges. I was so thankful I could have yelped with glee. I maintained my dignity tho, and thanked him profusely. It was just the bit I needed. To top it off I found I had gray embroidery thread of the exact same color. What a boon! I soon had them stitched and couched down on my barn. Didn't that make a splendid difference? I thought so! Things were moving right along.
My next task was to begin cutting to size and stitching down all the white trim pieces. I had already stitched down all the vertical lines with black thread to emulate the plank siding. Boy was this going to be a challenge!
This bit wasn't as harrowing as the tree's had been, but it was surely a lesson in patience and persistence. It also took some very precise angle cutting with fine scissors, which I can't say that I'm used to or even great at. The angle cutting I mean, not the scissors. But since the idea here is to make an aged barn, we will say it has just become wonky with age. How's that for a good excuse?! lol As you may notice in this picture, some of the trim looks dirty gray and some very white. Which brings us to the next picture.
I don't make a habit of recommending products, but I am making an exception for this one. Bic's Intensity set of 36 ultra fine permanent markers is a great addition to any creative craft persons collection. Unlike other brands I have tried, they do not had a strong smell, and do not cause my asthma to kick a fit. They also work like wonders on fabric. I used a shade of gray to take the white barn trim down a notch, to give it a more aged look. I also used it on the roof to make the grey a bit darker along the seams to give it more depth. I used the black pen to shade in the white fabric edges once I stitch a new piece down to my quilt too, because some pieces I want to have a bit of white edge showing for contrast, and others I just want the black showing, for the same reason.
Just at the last, when I thought it was done and ready to come off the embroidery frame, I got to looking at it and thinking, this needs a little something more. I remembered some fabric I had in my stash that had funky fall decor in tiny print. I thought maybe a pumpkin, or an old crock, or something like that would do. Instead I saw this blackbird and thought, that is just the right size for what I need. So I cut it out, added small legs, a yellow beak, and a few little red stitches for its comb, and turned that blackbird into a chicken. And there you have it, a banty hen, standing in the haystack! I think she has just come from the back of the stack, where she has hidden her nest under the milk barns manger.
All I had left to do was pin the barn in place on the quilt, and stitch it down. This was so satisfying, and one of my favorite parts of this project. Even the billy goat looks pleased. He now has an option other than eating the clothes. Which he wouldn't mind so much, but the buttons and buckles tend to stick in his throat, and that can be a real pain. Best to stick to nice wheat straw or hay.
These by the way, are not really hay stacks in the sense of feed for the animals, but are straw stacks. Every year at wheat harvest we cut the wheat, then went back over the field with a Swather. This machine cut the wheat straw into piles in rows, which was then processed through a large machine that chopped and blew it into a big enclosed trailer. This trailer had a conveyor belt which ran down the middle of the floor. When the trailer was backed into the barn, the conveyor was turned on, and as the trailer left the barn, it unloaded the straw into a huge pile in the barn. This we forked into the horses and cows stalls for bedding. Folks keeping goats or sheep in their barns did the same. Alfalfa hay for feeding was cut with a Swather into rows, allowed to dry a bit, then baled up in the fields with a Baler. It was then picked up and put onto a trailer using what was called a Welch Ferris Wheel Bale Loader, for the smaller barn, similar to the barn I have pictured here. At the barn we sent the bales up into the hayloft on a portable conveyor we propped against the wall leading up into the hayloft. The hay bales were stacked in the loft until needed, and were then broken open and pitched down to the cows and horses for feed. The alfalfa hay meant to be sent to the huge open hay and cattle barn for storage, was picked up with a big machine called a Harrow-bed. It collected the bales off the ground as it was driven along in the fields, configuring the bales in rows on the machines bed. It then lifted the bales into a stack, called a tier, and shoved them to the back of the machine. Every third tier had to be reconfigured by hand to make what is known as a tying tier, before lifting, so when the stack was unloaded in the barn it wouldn't fall apart. When the Harrow-bed was full it was driven into place under the roof of the big barn, where it would tilt up like a dump-truck and deposit the stack of hay bales as it drove away. All of this was very hot sweaty itchy work and I spent many a summer and autumn day moving hay and straw in just this way. I am thankful for the memories of it tho, because I never did it alone. This was a group effort, where many hands made for lighter work.
Here is the barn finished in all its glory. I am really happy with it, and am glad to combine the real barn that is still standing, with the one from my childhood, that sadly burned down many years ago. That old barn had a milking parlor and hayloft, and yes, the chickens did like to hide their nests in there. The blackbird turned chicken, was such a find, it just finished it all off nicely and gave the exact feeling of scale that I wanted.
This is the end of my posting for today. I hope you have enjoyed the clothesline and the barn. It has been a lot of work, but has also been so rewarding. I never thought I would ever do a thing like this and am so happy I did. But there is more to be seen, so stay tuned for the next episode of the funny farm quilt.
God bless you all and I hope you have a wonderful day!
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