Where to...

Are you sometimes looking for a new experience? How about trying a new place to visit, where the demands on your time are less, and the quiet is like a renewal, and an uplift for your spirit? This is a blog with a focus on the Barn Quilt (or Quilt Barn), so I went on-line looking for the elusive Barn Quilt Inn. I discovered that there are several places that you can stay that either have Barn Quilts on the buildings where your room may be, or on working barns outside your door to welcome you to a new day. Some of these Inn Keepers don't realise that they have something in the Barn Quilt that is so rare and desirable.

I will list several of these Inns and B&Bs here, and there are more... If you know of one, please send me the link so I can share.

The Barn Inn Bed & Breakfast
6838 County Road 203
Millersburg, OH 44654

Hannah Marie Country Inn
4070 Highway 71
Spencer, Iowa 51301

Ponder Cove B&B
1067 Ponder Creek Road
Mars Hill, NC 28754

On the Windfall
2822 Little Windfall Rd.
Lansing, NC 28643

Valkommen House
3219 - 370th , Hwy 175
Stratford, Iowa 50249

Enjoy

Sign of the times...

I was on my way to hunt for one Barn Quilt when I had to stop and take a picture of another. And then, there it was... the day after Halloween and almost a month before Thanksgiving, I see that it's harvest time for one of the big cash crops in North-Western North Carolina. Loaded on the back of big flat-bed trucks, they have started arriving at one of the many staging and distribution points in the area...

Christmas Trees!

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

Kentucky Quilt Trails and...

There is a lot to be said about the new Kentucky Quilt Trails web site. This is the official Kentucky Arts Council's portal for all of the current (and future), Barn Quilt projects across the state. These folks have done a good job of pulling all of the projects under a single umbrella while leaving each county to work out the details.

Thanks to this new site, I have added several (Ky) counties to the Barn Quilt Memories sidebar. Don't ask me which ones, but I now count 17 Kentucky sites (some are representing several counties).

Here is a tip for anyone wanting to get an early Christmas present for someone special. There is a new book dedicated to the Barn Quilt Arts Movement in Kentucky. It's called Kentucky Quilt Trails: Views and Voices and details of where to purchase is listed on the website and below:

Kentucky Quilt Trails: Visions and Voices Book Release Receptions

Saturday, October 4, 2008
11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. (E.D.T.)
Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea
975 Walnut Meadow Road Berea, KY 40403
(Silas House will be available to sign books from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.)

Tuesday, October 7, 2008
4:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. (E.D.T.)
Kentucky Folk Art Center
102 West First Street Morehead, KY 40351
(Photographer Carol Shutt and Community Scholar Gwenda Lynn Huff will be available to sign books.)

Saturday, October 18, 2008
2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. (C.D.T.)
Museum of the American Quilter's Society
215 Jefferson Street Paducah, KY 42002

Where to Buy

Kentucky Quilt Trails: Views and Voices will be available September 1, 2008. Proceeds from the sale of this book will support community arts projects in Kentucky. The retail price is $9.95 plus Kentucky sales tax and shipping. To order your book from the Kentucky Arts Council, CLICK HERE to fill out the PDF form. (Adobe Reader required to view and fill out form.)

At a Store Near You, Kentucky Quilt Trails: Views and Voices, can also be purchased at the following locations.

Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea
975 Walnut Meadow Road Berea, KY 40403
(859) 985-5449
Hours: 8:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m. 7 days a week

Kentucky Folk Art Center Museum Store
102 West First Street Morehead, KY 40351
(606) 783-2204
Hours: 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Monday –Saturday
1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. Sunday

Museum of the American Quilter's Society Museum Store
215 Jefferson Street Paducah, KY 42002
(270) 442-8856
Hours: 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Monday - Saturday

Wholesale Purchases Wholesale inquiries from qualified retail businesses are welcome. For more information, contact Melissa Nesselrode, Kentucky Arts Council at (888) 833-2787 ext. 471 or melissa.nesselrode@ky.gov.

Support The publication of Kentucky Quilt Trails: Views and Voices is a project of the Kentucky Arts Council made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art.

NTV

I would like to share a short video clip from Nebraska's ABC TV affiliate (NTV), about one of the newest Barn Quilts in that state. By clicking here on the link [NTV video], you should see the story that features Jan Rodehorst talking about her Barn Quilt and the 92 year old barn at Harvest Moon Farms. This bucolic wonderland opens this weekend as a seasonal agri-tourism destination. You can also read the NTV story here [NTV story]

Happy hunting !

It's Friday afternoon... My son's soccer game was called off because there was too much water (rain), and his school dance was called off because there is not enough gas (thanks to Ike). My wife is off to see The Steely Pan Steel Band. If you have a chance, I strongly urge you to check these folks out. Because of the change of plans, my son and I will be snuggling on the sofa tonight with a good book or movie.

Before all of the excitement starts (and I have to fix dinner), I wanted to take a moment to share with you what I was doing last Saturday morning. I was trippin' around Watauga County looking for Barn Quilts. I found eight, and am fairly sure that I know where there are two more. There are a few listed on the Watauga County Arts Council's (Quilt Trails of Western North Carolina), website as "still in process" (and they are not there), so I guess that we need some good neighbors to help to get these blocks finished & hung. Anyway...

I took a few pictures and when I got home, I created a Google Map called Watauga County Barn Quilt Trail. Now Google works good as a search engine, but for some reason you need to be pretty specific in order to find this from their Maps search page. You can click on the link above, or try typing in the exact name that you are searching for. Anyone can create a map. It's free and could save the next guy from driving his tank dry trying to find a specific Quilt Block. I would love to get some feed back, but I will continue to make improvements to this map, and this is just a start. There are more counties, more back roads, more Barn Quilts, and lots more surprises ahead.

Happy hunting!