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!

Here is a wonderful Barn Quilt (4 x 8 hanging on a fence), with a great story. I am not sure if you can see this from the road (Hwy 90 & Grey Gap Rd), but the Yellow Ribbon Trading Post would be worth a look-see if you are passin' thru Marrowbone, Ky.

My Quilt is named Trail of Tears...My family on my mothers side (Vera Franks-Ambroselli) is from Choctaw descent. Most of her trible had to leave Kentucky during the removals of the 1800's and were moved to Indian Reservations in Oklahoma. My Great Grandfather lived on the Indian Reservation in Oklahoma until age 3 then his family became workers for a share cropper and the children were Americanized by attending special schools for the Indians they had to wear uniforms and the boys had to cut there hair. The meaning of the colors in my quilt are: Blue-For the rivers, lakes and sky (Stands for sincerity and Happiness) Green-Represents the earth, the hills, trees and mountains (That provide food and substance. Red-Stands for War-(Long before the white man we lived upon the land for countless moons, in harmony with the Great Spirit, honoring all life around us) Black-stands for Power, White symbolizes the skies and spacious heavens. Our quilt is located at the Yellow Ribbon Trading Post.

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

Graveyard Quilt

There is a recent news story in the Herald-Dispatch in Huntington, West Virginia about a new Quilt Block. Across the river (actually around the bend from Huntington) is the town of Ashland, Kentucky that has a new Quilt Block adorning the Ashland Flood Wall, thanks to the ABC (Ashland, Boyd County and Catlettsburg) Quilt Alley. Ashland is on the banks of the Ohio River, (across from Ohio), a stones throw from West Virginia. In 1839, in Lewis County, Kentucky, Elizabeth Mitchell created a quilt that depicts the graveyard of her two sons, whom were buried in Ohio. She was absorbed with grief when she designed this walnut dyed, tan and calico quilt, and it depicts the Mitchell burial plot with small coffins. There is a book (which I have not read), written about this quilt, and the original quilt still exists. The Kentucky Historical Society has an image on line of the Mitchell Graveyard Quilt. It does not appear that the flood wall image is a copy of the original. That seems as if it would be a little morbid.