Inspiration for a quilt often comes from the simplest of things around us.
My Barricade pattern was from one of those simple things - a roadway barricade at the Biltmore Hotel in Scottsdale, Arizona.
I had wanted to go to the Biltmore Hotel for several years now - I had to see the stained glass window Frank Lloyd Wright called "Saguaro".
On the visit to the hotel, my cellphone camera was working overtime. The architecture inside and outside of the hotel is stunning.
Everywhere I looked I saw rectangles, rectangles and more rectangles. I finally used my cell phone to measure one of the blocks of the hotel - it was 2 cellphones high by 3 cellphones wide.
Hasn't everyone measured something in "cellphones''.
Oddly enough, I was so mesmerized by my surroundings, I almost missed the stained glass window.
The window is described as a stained glass window, but not in the sense of a true leaded stain glass window.
It is more like pieces of glass glued/affixed to a flat piece of glass. The window is located in a dark room, so it is hard to get a good picture of it. I am disappointed with my picture of the window
The furniture, light fixtures, railings and doors in the hotel are all Art Deco and would be described as pieces of art.
When I stopped to take a picture of this barricade, Bruce (my husband), thought I had lost it.
On to the pattern,.....
Barricade was designed to use those special larger prints that we can never resist buying only to find you don't want to cut them up into small pieces.
There are two different larger print fabrics in this quilt. The fabrics in my cover quilt were found by my quilt buddy, Armiel, on one of her many quilt shopping tours. You know the ones - you get a text with a picture and caption that says "How many meters am I buying for you?" I am eternally grateful for these texts and look forward to receiving many more!
The blocks are rectangles. When I was making the cover quilt, I had four blocks left over - I'll make a pillow! That thought translated into an alternate layout for the quilt.
The pattern has a baby, lap and queen sized quilt for the alternate block layout above and a baby and lap sized quilt for the big block layout.
Ask for Barricade at your local quilt shop. Quilt shop owners, can order the pattern from my distributor - Erie Quilt Art in Calgary, AB.
So dig out those larger print fabrics you have in your stash or the ones you have been eying in your local quilt shop and make a Barricade quilt for that someone special.
