Barn Quilt – Carpenter’s Star – No Math Involved!

Design Inspirations:

Find inspiration for your design from traditional quilt blocks, geometric patterns, or create your own unique design. Pinterest and quilt pattern books are great resources. I have loved the Carpenter’s Star block for a while so I knew that was the pattern that I wanted for this barn quilt.

Painting Techniques and Tips:

Before painting, sand your board smooth if it’s not smooth already and apply a coat of primer. This helps the paint adhere better and ensures a longer-lasting finish. My base coat is primer and paint so that will work as well.

Start with a base coat of your chosen color. I used a color called chalk gray. Use a foam brush or roller for even coverage. Let it dry completely before moving on to the next step.

Design Execution:

Sketch your design lightly with a pencil. To mark out the design, first you need to make a grid. Draw a diagonal line from corner to corner of your board to make an X and find the center point. Then draw a line in the middle of the board from the center mark vertically and another mark horizontally.

Use a long ruler like a drafting ruler, yard stick, quilting ruler or anything you have on hand to mark your line. At this point, you will have 4 equal quadrants. Because we want to get to 16 blocks, we need to break the quadrants down even further.

Find the middle of each quadrant and draw a line like shown in the video above. Now I need to mark the grid for 64 blocks. Follow the same process by finding the middle of the block and drawing lines through all the blocks. The video will show what I mean further.

I darkened the lines in the photo below so you can see what I am talking about when I say draw the lines in the intersections.

Detail Work:

Draw your pattern on the grid using the design that was chosen. It’s better to print it in black and white so you can see where the lines will need to be drawn on the grid to come out with the perfect design.

When you have drawn your lines, my best tip is to paint a faint line with the color that you want to make an outline inside the area that you want to paint. This way you won’t forget where the design should be placed.

Taping and Painting:

Now for the really fun part! This step will make everything all come together nicely.

Using Frog Tape, tape around the outside edges of the areas that need painted. You might not be able to tape off all of the areas that will have the same color because the tape overlaps the design. It’s best to take it slow and just do as many areas that you can, wait for it to dry completely and move to the next areas.

To get crisp edges that don’t bleed, I have a few tips for you. Paint around the inside edges with your background paint and let dry completely. This will make sure that your tape is secure. After that is completely dry, start painting the areas with your first strokes being in the middle of the area so most of the paint is brushed off before you get to the outside edge where the tape is. You don’t want much paint at this stage, just a light brushing.

After that is completely dry, paint 2 or 3 more coats, depending on your preference. It’s okay to have more paint on your brush at this stage because the edges should be completely sealed.

Let that dry completely before pulling up the tape. This took me a few days but it was definitely worth it not to have bleed through.

Sealing:

Once your paint is dry, apply a water based sealer to protect your barn quilt from the elements. If using only exterior paints, you can skip this step.

I used Minwax Water Based Polycrylic sealer. Another good one to use is Varathane Ultimate Spar Urethane Water Based sealer. Using water based will prevent the barn quilt from getting yellow like it would with oil based sealer.

It’s best to read the directions on the can to apply the sealer but I brushed a thin coat, waited to dry completely and then followed the steps with 3 more coats.