How were the barn quilt patterns and colors chosen?
The quilters group recommended that primary and secondary colors be used to make the barn quilt designs bright and bold. That was a good move; the barn quilts really catch your eye, even when driving down the road at the speed limit. Drawing the patterns on the wood turned out to be much easier than the quilters had thought. They used a quilt pattern data base called Blockbase (Electric Quilt Co.) to select the patterns. They searched the data base for quilt patterns based on key words like farming, agriculture, animals, etc. They selected patterns with only straight lines and patterns that had some connection to agriculture or rural life. The program allowed them to print out a line drawing of the block in any size. The outside dimensions of the barn quilts were determined by the size of the plywood. Two sheets of plywood created an 8-foot square block. The quilters decided that all the barn quilts would have a 3-inch border all the way around. That left 7 1/2 feet for the pattern its
