Buggy Barn help....

Let's start at the very beginning...
a very good place to start

in this case we start with a freezer paper pattern

All of these crazy buggy barns patterns start with you tracing a full size pattern

here is mine....for star crazies optional setting

now comes my first mistake on my first attempt of this pattern some years back

The pattern says to cut out along the outside rectangle on the freezer paper pattern. Ok. I did..

Then you put all of your fq's right side up and iron the pattern to your stack of fat quarters.

so far so good

THEN...i added another step

a step NOT included in the pattern

I cut along the entire outside of that pattern and trimmed all that extra fabric off

DON'T DO IT

your fat quarters should look like this after you have followed the pattern
and moved the top background pieces to the bottom.

he he.. i had on my radio and i was dancing to the tunes..

hey, see that little parenthesis up there on the top left..

that's one my leader/ender pieces that i lost and didn't find until i was downloading the photos...lol

Do you use leaders and enders? If not, this pattern is a great time to start cause there are some very sharp points coming up. and you all know what leaders and enders are right?

Just a little scrap of fabric folded in half and you sew through it after you finish a seam.
That's an ender...then when you sew your next seam it's still there holding your threads and it becomes a leader... got it.. it keeps those sharp points from getting
sucked into that little hole in the sole plate..


and yes, I use my left foot on the foot pedal. and yes, i am right-handed.
but i use my right leg for my knee lift and if i am using my knee lift sometimes i would
hit the foot pedal and my fabric would sew all wonky..
so i learned to use my left foot
really!
it's ok

So now we are going to sew the first two pieces together

those two that the hand model is pointing out

i don't remember her being there, but it has to be a model cause

my hands surely aren't that old looking...

I picked up the two pieces and and have off set the seam by 1/4 inch

Offset (verb) which means that the ends of the two pieces are not even. the top one is 1/4 inch down from the end of the bottom one. See that?

geez...here's a better photo...for those old eyes we all seem to acquire before we even
realize it..

see the little 1/4 there on the left? (don't look at the hand models lack of manicure, I really
need to do more interviewing..)

Now I have sewn the seam and pressed. It doesn't matter on these patterns which way you
press... really it doesn't ...
cause you aren't EVER matching seams, like EVER...

but gosh...look at that... it's not a straight line there on the right..

let's fix that...

trim so it is all even..

this is all i had to trim off

now, let's add the next piece

and again it is offset by 1/4 inch

(i got fancy and used my wingdings on my camera software and it kind of looks like an arrow)

sewn, pressed and now needs trimming

easy peasy

and the third piece

and press and then trim..

yada, yada, yada.
I did it a bunch of times..

sew, press, trim
sew, press, trim
sew, press, trim
sew, press, trim

and ta da...

only one seam left to sew

and here is the finished block

and here is the next block..

did it help?

and next time...i promise to get a better hand model..
you know you get what you pay for

and she didn't get paid

but i might need a manicure

Nancy

please tell me this helped SOMEONE... cause it took like freeking forever to stop to take these photos and get them all in the right way and try to type and everything...