The town of Lewis, Iowa is a quiet community located on a hill top overlooking the Nishnabotna River Valley and the Lewis Cold Springs Lake. A population of 444 people enjoy a rural location with a rich historical background, surrounded by abundant agricultural endeavors and a vibrant community organization. Active church groups, a great school district and goals to improve the looks, pride and housing in the area make for continuing motivation for a thriving environment.
They currently have over 30 Barn Quilts in Lewis... with only 444 people living in 0.5 Square Miles! I have not found a Cass County Barn Quilt Trail, but if you get to Lewis I don't think you will have trouble spotting one. Check their website at: http://www.cityoflewis.com/
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Lewis, Iowa
Friday, February 5, 2010
NJ & NC & Ky
The Garden State (New Jersey), has been listed on the side-bar as having one web-site. There does exist enough information to list several of the individual counties. The Barn Quilt Association of New Jersey is a program of the New Jersey Museum of Agriculture. They are off to a fine start and have created their own 2010 calender. The New Jeresy counties now listed are Middlesex, Sussex, and Warren. Efforts are being made in a few more counties, and I will try to keep my eyes out for them as they come on-line.
From the Asheville Citizen-Times: Barbara Webster, executive director of Quilt Trails of Western North Carolina, accepted a first-place award in the category “promotions” for the Burnsville Quilt Trail at the recent Small Town Main Street 2010 Awards. They are also hosting a "Secret party for the ladies..." on Thursday February 11th. Visit their website for more information (www.quilttrailswnc.org)
Breathitt County (Kentucky) Museum Director Janie Griffith writes on the breathittonline.com/blog that : A very exciting workshop, designed to promote our quilting heritage, is being planned for Wednesday, February 17th. The event will be held at the newly renovated county extension office on Main Street in Jackson. Mrs. Martha Yount County Extension Agent for Family & Consumer Sciences is in charge of the workshop which will take place at 12 noon. Members of the homemaker club and others interested in creating barn squares are invited. The workshop is being presented by Perry County Family and Consumer Science Extension Agent, Ms. Glenna Wooten.
Ms. Wooten’s Kentucky Quilt Trail lesson will begin with a brief history of how quilt trails first began, and how the movement has spread across Kentucky. Included is a PowerPoint slide presentation showing quilt blocks from various counties. During the class, participants will receive handouts consisting of existing trails guidelines and will learn how to set up guidelines for a trail in Breathitt County. Funding for this project will also be discussed.
Recently, quilt trails have been organized in Perry and several other area counties. In 2006, Ms. Wooten received a grant for the quilt blocks in Perry County. Since that time, volunteers have painted and mounted around 30 quilt blocks throughout the county. Ms. Wooten’s lesson was made possible through a joint effort of the Kentucky Arts Council and the Kentucky Extension Homemakers Association through a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities. During the month of February, Ms. Wooten will travel through eight neighboring counties, teaching the lesson to other homemaker clubs and interested individuals.
The February 17th meeting in Jackson will consist of a light luncheon, followed by the quilt trails presentation. After the program, participants will visit the Breathitt County Museum to view first hand examples of barn squares during various stages of creation painted by museum director and local artist Janie Griffith.If you are interested in joining in and becoming part of this exciting project, be sure and attend this special workshop. Mark your calendars for 12 noon, Wednesday, February 17th and be at the extension office prepared to roll up your sleeves and get started on a bright and colorful Kentucky barn square!
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Barn Quilts are Art
http://www.artlex.com/elitism and elitist - The belief that certain persons deserve favored treatment by virtue of their superior artistic or intellectual accomplishments, or because of some other real or perceived status. People and things reach various levels of achievement, of success, and for better or worse, people judge the qualities of other people and things. But elitism is a tendency to codify levels of artistic sophistication into a hierarchical system that some would call pretentiously exclusionary, and others realistic. Elitism is the sense of entitlement that follows from this attitude, and the control or dominance by a group of elitists — the people who take this view of their position. Elitism always elicits aesthetic questions about defining art, who is an authority about it, and what that means for people who aren't.
Elitism in the art world is the insistence that art is somehow out of the realm of common experience, that its pleasures are not available to everyone. It has become increasingly necessary to read texts (artists' statements, wall labels or plaques, articles of art criticism, etc.) in order to understand certain works of art, but this is what great contemporary art does: It advances through ideas, by engaging our minds. Art galleries, because their offerings are commodities, are invariably commercial enterprises, but they are among the only places where the public can see art free of charge. Museums serve comparable roles as a community's storehouse of art, exhibiting works to their visitors, educating visitors to the works' significance, garnering support in ways unlike the galleries'. Wherever encounters with art occur, they always demand the viewer's attention and receptivity. Failure to embrace those opportunities are at least, simply that: losses of opportunities, significant as those can be.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Easton, Md
January 28 at 1:30 p.m. at TCVAC (storm date Feb 4)
"Barn Quilts are public art that celebrates the place people call home. They make people feel good about themselves and where they live."- Donna Sue Groves, visionary of some of the first Barn Quilt Art in Maryland.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Random happenings...
I want to share with you all, several items of note. I will be out of town for a few days which often means out of web-sight.
When you have time, visit Jen Buettner's blog: http://www.cre8tivequilter.blogspot.com/. Jen has this wonderful Barn Quilt Block of the Week going. She is a talented quilter (& EQ artist), photographer and blogger.
Watch the Barn Quilt Trail video from The Old Mission Peninsula at: http://www.mefeedia.com/watch/27868944. Enjoy the stories that go with the barns...
I was fascinated when I stumbled across the following: CSA (community supported agriculture) farm - Crown Point Ecology Center - in Bath, Ohio (between Akron and Medina). They are celebrating the 100th anniversary of their barn with a quilt block contest. The winning block will be painted on their barn. You can read about it at http://www.crownpt.org/. You can even enter, if you wish The center donated over 30,000 pounds of organic food to the local food bank last year. Amazing!
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Kentucky Quilt Trails
Here are some new (new for me) Quilt Trails from Kentucky. I am sure there are more, and I will be glad to add them to the side-bar as I find them (or you send me the link :-). In no particular order...
Madison County
http://ces3.ca.uky.edu/madisonquilttrail/trail.html
Henry County
http://www.henrycountyky.com/extension/barnquilts.htm
Georgetown County
http://www.georgetownky.com/barnquilt_web_pg/indexquilt2.html
Hart County
http://ces.ca.uky.edu/hart/node/69
Breckinridge County
http://www.visitbreckinridgecountyky.com/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=7&cntnt01origid=15&cntnt01returnid=63
Washington County
http://ces.ca.uky.edu/washington-files/WASHINGTONCOUNTY_BARN_QUILT_TRAIL.pdf
Harrison County
http://www.harrisoncountybarnquilts.com/
Grayson County
http://www.graysoncountytourism.com/quilts.htm
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Thursday, January 7, 2010
Illinois
And...
In Illinois there is one other county that has Barn Quilts (or Quilted Barns), and that is McHenry. Also, the pictures at http://www.mchsonline.org/ will remind you that there are warmer days to come. Meanwhile, McHenry County Historical Society’s Executive Director Nancy Fike will hold a brainstorming session at 10 a.m. Jan. 14 at the historical society’s museum, 6422 Main St., Union. This is about the creation of a would-be quilt trail in McHenry County. For more information, call 815-923-2267 or e-mail info@mchsonline.org.
BTW
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There is news from the South. The Southern Quilt Trail which had its start in Powder Springs, Georgia, has now partnered with the Rolling Hills RC & D (Resource Conversation and Development) Council. I am told that there are now 22 Quilt Blocks in Cobb County and 5 surrounding counties (Carol, Haralson, Paulding, West Cobb, Heard) with 4 other counties (Coweta, Douglas, Floyd & Polk), ready to get started.
BTW
I questioned the size of the Amish Postage Stamp Quilt Blocks on John's Butcher Shop in Nappanee, Indiana. There has been a note added explaining that each of these are actually 8' x 8' and painted by the local artist Jeff Stillson. Thanks Sonya. Please visit: http://www.quiltgardenstour.com/
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
The answer is Nappanee
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Nappanee, Indiana
The good folk of Nappanee (Elkhart County), don't have a Barn Quilt Trail (yet), but what they do have is a Quilt Garden Tour... that includes more than few large painted quilt blocks. I think that to enjoy the Quilt Gardens of Elkart county, you need to time your visit to the season and the community volunteers. These painted Quilt Blocks can be enjoyed year-round. See more at http://www.amishcountry.org/QuiltGardensTour2010
The picture above was taken from http://www.amishcountry.org/ . The blocks are on the side of John's Butcher Shop in downtown Nappanee and I do not know the actual size of them. One of the interesting things about the Elkhart / Nappanee Quilt Blocks are that they have been painted onto lumber rather than plywood. Look closely at the photos on their website.
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Where have you seen these ?
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