Honoring veterans

There is a new Barn Quilt Loop in Lewis County, Kentucky. Located between Vanceburg and Concord, on the Quicks Run Road, there will be a series of Quilt Blocks honoring veterans. Using primarily the red, white and blue colors, this trail is expected to be completed by Veterans Day 2008. State Representative Robin Webb will be at the Lewis County High School in Vanceburg on Nov. 11, to dedicate the Patriot Trail. The VFW helped to sponsor this trail which includes five, 8' Barn Quilts representing the five branches of the United States Armed Forces

Elkhorn, Wisconsin

BARN QUILTS OF WALWORTH COUNTY COMMITTEE

What: Planning meeting

When: 6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2008

Where: Walworth County offices, 100 W. Walworth St., Elkhorn, Wi.

For more information: Call Peg Reedy, Walworth County's UW Extension office, (262) 741-4961, or e-mail at: peg.reedy@ces.uwex.edu

Wilkes County Quilters

There is more than one way to quilt a barn... Last weekend I had a few hours to explore the neighboring North Carolina county of Wilkes. I knew that they had begun a Barn Quilt project, but was I unable to find the location of these barns until recently. I managed to find several, and I have posted these on a new Google Map named the Wilkes County Barn Quilt Trail.

The drive, the weather, the barns and Quilt Blocks were all wonderful. I was struck by how lifelike they had managed to make these images. Anyone of us who has painted a Barn Quilt Block knows that there is a lot of work involved. I find the best results for me has been to stick with single colors without trying to add texture. I started taking a closer look at what I was finding, and these images were not painted on the barn, and they were not painted on plywood sheets. While most of these Barn Quilts were the 8 foot x 8 foot size that I expected, they are appearing to be thin sheets of metal or plastic... they are also showing stitches and texture, and it dawned on me that these were not painted at all.



The images are quite striking, and well done. The selections are interesting, but I wanted to know for sure how this was done, so I wrote to the people responsible (the Wilkes County Quilters), and they were kind enough to reply. These are in fact printed on thin sheets of plastic and screwed directly onto the barn. I am still not sure how much money was saved. My experience is that there are many hours of labor involved to paint a barn quilt (not to mention the fun of watching paint dry), and to be sure they saved on the installation labor involved. There is nothing wrong with this way of presenting your work, but it is different than the other Barn Quilt projects that I am familiar with.

I do like the idea of working together as a group to plan, paint and install a Barn Quilt. I like the sense that a community working together to create art, is somehow similar to that old fashioned quilting bee, when everything was done by hand, and the bonds between neighbors were strengthened with each stitch. That should not take anything away from this alternative approach. The ladies of the Wilkes County Quilters are celebrating their art of the quilt (their 10th year), and sharing this with the community. Maybe the next Quilt Block in Wilkes County will be plywood sheets that are primed and painstakingly measured, taped and painted. If not, these are still fun to see and enjoy, and will bring many new friends together in a celebration of their work and shared history.

bkwdayton

For a limited time I want to share with you a collection of Barn Quilt images from Miami County, Ohio. If the images do not appear after a few seconds (or if you would like to see a larger image), go to the bkwdayton's photostream on Flickr. Technology... Ya gotta love it!

Ashe County Barn Quilt Trail Map

Here is a link to the beginning of my Ashe County Barn Quilt Trail Map on Google. There is a map on the Ashe County Arts Council website. It appears that it was last updated in May of '07, and it does not have some of the features that Google has. I am not displaying the map here because the size of the map when inserted in Blogger presents some problems.

I have not visited all of the Barn Quilts in Ashe County yet. If anyone would like to send me pictures of the missing barns (or blocks), I would be glad to add them.

View Larger Map

This is called Stars and Squares, at 2821 Hwy. 221, North Jefferson, NC.
Artist: Meghan Minton