Building plans

I read this week that spring is running 20 days ahead of schedule for the Mid-Atlantic states, which is where I live.  I believe it, because the hubs and I made a quick trip last weekend to celebrate our grandson's second birthday (!!!) and when we got home, I noticed that there were already weeds growing in the lawn.  How can this be? It seems impossible, but there it is!

Since we are racing to spring, I thought that I had better get started on a "winter" project before we're well into planting and all that.  Remember a bit ago I made a free-pieced version of the Joan of Arc chapel?  I said then that I wanted to make a seasonal sampler of different churches or chapels.  With winter ending I'd better get started on the winter church, don't you think?

Here's the church I've chosen for the winter panel:

That center tree is going to need to be edited out.

This is St. James Episcopal Church on St. James Church Rd. in Stanton, near Wilmington, Delaware.  It may not look like much in the pictures, but it is an awesome church! The people there are very nice, of course, but the building is very interesting.  The congregation itself was founded sometime before the land for a church was purchased in 1714. The first church building was built in 1716 and was replaced by this building in 1821.  The church is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and still has an active congregation that uses the church all the time.

Well, that will be a challenge to construct!

There are a lot of colonial-era churches in the area, but I'm drawn to this one because of the asymmetry of the building and the interesting setting, right there in the middle of the cemetery, with the fieldstone walls right at the street.  (The first grave there is from 1726, and many of the stones are still readable.)  I think this will be good for the winter piece because it has an almost monotone quality in the winter.  The church itself is a little more yellow than it appears in the picture, but almost everything is a shade of the same colors.  Plus, once the trees leaf out the building itself is hard to see.  It's beautiful with flowers, but not for my purposes.

So, with all of that, what am I going to do for fabrics?  Well, here's what I have so far for the areas surrounding the church:

The main color here is going to come from the sky fabric, and all of these blues are wrong.  I want a brilliant blue, but the darker one here is too bright and the lighter one is too light, so I guess I'll have to go shopping. (Gosh, I hate it when that happens!)  The tans are for the grounds, which don't show too much in the photos, and the greens are for the evergreens and tree trunks.  I admit that there will not be a lot of color here, but I think that's a plus.

For the building itself, I have these so far:

The grays are for the gravestones in the cemetery, which have more variation than you'd think.  I might need a darker gray for some parts, too.  The greens there are for the low fieldstone walls in front of the property, which are very weathered and have been capped off with weathered copper (which ages to a green patina).  The yellowish beiges are obviously for the church. I'm drawn to the one in the center top, mainly because it has splotches on it and looks weathered.  The one at the top right also looks good, but those figures in it are leaves, so I'm not sure how that will look.  Experimentation is in order.

So, there we go! I'm ready to make the first sampler panel.  (Why, no, I haven't quilted the first chapel yet!  What are you implying?)  I'm open to suggestions and ideas for building. Pretty sure I'm going to have to applique the bell in the tower, unless someone has a great piecing idea to share!

Hope everyone is having a good week!  For anyone who's interested, the birthday boy was delightful, and his twin brother and sister are adorable.  Who knew this much happiness was possible?

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