Tanner's Buggy Barn/ Tractor& Trucks Quilt- March to December 2017

 Trucks and Tractors, Oh Boy!

70" X 80"

This is the 'big boy' quilt that I made for my little grandson Tanner for his 4th birthday. What little boy doesn't like trucks and tractors?!
This is a Buggy Barn pattern (called Convoy), from the pattern book called "Those Crazy Kids". I started it in March 2017 and completed the first 3 truck blocks on April 1/17.

Truck Blocks:

I have never done a buggy barn pattern before so this was an new and interesting method. The trucks and the tractors are 2 separate paper patterns.  You start out by tracing the pattern onto freezer paper and label each section.
Each block uses 3 different fabrics in 3 different places. The trucks require 3 fat quarters stacked one on top of the other. The freezer paper pattern is pinned on top of them.
Cutting: Using your cutting wheel and a long ruler, cut along the pattern lines through ALL the layers in REVERSE alphabetical order.
To stay organized, stack all the pieces onto of the master sheet.

(These directions want you to stack NINE fat quarters to cut through all at once, but that seemed pretty daunting to me so I chose to do only 3 at a time. )
Now comes "the shuffle" which the directions state clearly how to shuffle the pieces around so you get three 3 coloured blocks.

Tractor block pieces after shuffling

Stitching: The pieces are then sewn together in Alphabetical order to each other in 6 sections, A to F. Next you square up the blocks.

Truck Blocks: 16 1/2 X 12 1/2"

Tractor blocks: 12 1/2 X 21"

If you want to add an appliquéd bucket on the tractor blocks, you need to add a piece of fabric 6 1/2 to 7 " X 12 1/2 " to increase the size of the blocks. (I put buckets on all my blocks.)

Tractor blocks:

Tractor wheels have been fussy cut and adhered to block with Steam a Seam 2

I continued to make blocks until I had 6 trucks and 7 tractors. I fussy cut the tires and centres of the wheels and the buckets. I used Steam a Seam 2 to adhere them to the blocks. Next I appliqué stitched around all the raw edges.

I arranged the blocks differently than the directions to make my own pattern and sewed green sashing strips in between. I added a blue tractor fabric to both ends of row 2 and 4 to get the correct width. 

Then I added a roadway to either side of the quilt to make it wider, plus a narrow black border on the top and bottom. (2 1/2 " )

I used the left over fabric to make rectangles 2 1/2 X 4" for a scrappy upper and lower border.

The completed quilt top is 70"X 80" inches in diameter.

Then it was time to pin  the top together with the batting and a green "Cuddle" backing. After that I started the machine quilting process.

Machine quilting each block

Machine quilting: I used a complementary colour of thread on the top of each block background. I tried to do different patterns on most of them, squiggles, or loops, or waves or small circles; Some of the trucks got lines quilted on the boxes. It took a few weeks of work to do them all, but I'm happy with the overall quilt and I think little Tanner will get many hours of cuddly comfort under it. :D

Happy quilting!