A favorite part of my vacation last week, was discovering that we were in the area of part of the Kentucky Quilt Trail! Throughout the state there are barns and buildings that have large quilt blocks on them to celebrate the heritage of quilting. Most of these pictured are in Meniffee County and they call their area "Clothesline of Quilts".
I took close-ups of each block we saw, but figure that most of you will enjoy the barns more than the quilt squares :-) My wonderful husband was very good at stopping and turning around everytime I yelled, "There's another one!!" It was like being on a treasure hunt.
I took close-ups of each block we saw, but figure that most of you will enjoy the barns more than the quilt squares :-) My wonderful husband was very good at stopping and turning around everytime I yelled, "There's another one!!" It was like being on a treasure hunt.I don't know the names of all of the squares, but had a map that labeled some of them.
Katney very kindly helped me out with some of the names. This one is Dove in the Window.
Card Trick
Road to Paradise 
Sunburst.....this one is on the barn at Gladie......
.....and in the visitor's center was the quilt it was based on!
Don't know this one
Calico Cat.....some were in hard to photograph places as you drove by.
Crazy Quilt
Blazing Star
Dresden Plate....this was at the Folk Art Museum
Hummingbird! It says this one was painted by a birdwatcher :-)
Log cabin........
......located right next to the real thing!
Maple Leaf
Schoolhouse block.....on the side of an old schoolhouse that is now a house. It had an ice cream shop next to it with swings to sit and eat your ice cream......one of my favorite stops :-)
Scrappy Star
Twinkling Star
Star Over the Mountain
Sunflower
This was a wall in the town of Frenchburg near many of these barns.Lemoyne Star, Carpenter's Wheel, and 2 uncertain ones
Double Wedding Ring
I think this might be Whig RoseI really enjoyed these! There are more in Kentucky and also in Ohio and Iowa. I don't know why Indiana doesn't do this! I think I will paint one for the end of our chimney.....but we aren't on a road where it will be seen.
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24 comments:
Such a nice thing to do to plain old barns. You were in your element there Mary, right up your street.
Woah! You got to see a lot of those!
Great idea!
Cheers, Klaus
Love the barns and the decorations! Great post.
You were right about barn photos; it was fun to see all of these!
I would love to see the quilt barns, but lacking that, I can research some of the block names for you.
The very first one is Dove in the Window--pattern published by Ladies Art Company which was active from 1895 through sometime in the 30s.
You've IDed Card Trick, Road to Paradise, and Sunburst.
Can't figure out that next one, but I will keep on it.
The Calico Cat is interesting, and I love Crazy Quilts.
That next would be a Blazing Star, thought he Blazing Star in my reference has the same color in the center star of it.
I think that one after the Scrappy Star is a Kentucky's Twinkling Star--appropriate.
The muiltiples are, from left to right, a Lemoyne Star, A Carpenter's Wheel or Carpenter's Star. there are several that are similar to the third one over. The closest seem to be Calico Star or Oriental Star. The last one has me stumped, though.
Thanks for the barn tour. I lovbe the Whig Rose, too.
Thanks everyone!
Katney: Thanks for the ID's! I should have known a couple of those, but couldn't think of them. There are so many cool quilt block names. I started some writing once based on stories from my own life and the names of quilt blocks. It will eventually be a quilt "life story" (if I don't die before it gets made). I've only made a few of the blocks so far, but every once in a while I start working on it again.
Mary
What a wonderful thing to do. A quilt trail. I've never heard of such a thing, but with my love for old barns I would go crazy trying to photograph all of them. What a patient hubby you must have too.
A marvelous post !!
What fun! A great combination of scenery, preservation, and craft.
I think somewhere my mother has a quilt with the wedding ring pattern in it - I'll have to find out wher she's keeping it.
That is so interesting Mary!! I've never seen anything like that! Fun!!
Mary, I sure enjoyed these! Thank you for taking the time to get them and post them!
What a neat idea! What a fun tour!
My Sweetie is always good at stopping and turning around too ... for my photo ops!
Becky: Mike was sometimes better than I was for spotting them first! His real patience showed off in taking a route we hadn't planned in order to see a bunch of them :-)
Wren: Old quilts are wonderful. I didn't even know that my grandmother quilted until after she was dead and have only one small runner that she did. Very frustrating!
Eve: They are a lot of fun! I don't know for sure how many states have them, but I read somewhere that it started in Ohio.
Rose: I knew you would enjoy them, since you are a quilter! I may see if my guild would like a slideshow of the pictures for a meeting.
Cicero: Isn't it wonderful to have a patient and accomodating husband? He knows if he wants me to travle when he retires, he had better find things like this for me to see :-) He enjoyed them, too. It became almost a game spotting them.
I would loved to have been on that drive with you! What a grand idea, to mark a trail like that, and what a sense of community it portrays in the area. I love old barns and the beautiful, colourful quilt blocks makes them all the more attractive!
ann
Ann: It is pretty amazing that one woman started all of this. It really is a nice salute to the pioneer women of our country. When I started looking on the internet for links about it, I was surprised at how many quilt barns are out there and how many states had some! Next time I head east, I will be looking for more! I wish there were better maps for finding them.
I've read no other comment because I'm so very excited to see these! HOW wonderful! So glad you captured these and I truly hope I get to see these in person someday.
Just lovely!
Annie: Drive across Kentucky or Ohio or Tennessee and you probably will see them :-) Some of those links I provided give locations, but I found it difficult to find maps. I have a map of the county where we saw most of them with the locations marked. There were 45 in the county and we only saw about 12. The quilt barns have been written up in some magazines, too. I was very excited to get to see some of them.
I think it's pretty interesting that they hang those colorful quilt patterns on the old barns. They really stand out against the weathered wood.
John: I think so too. I'm sure there are people who would rather just see the old barn, but quilting is an important part of our heritage, too and for the most part, I think they really look great. Maybe it will keep them from tearing down all the old barns.
Some beautiful patterns Mary and I love the old barns too.
Joan: Thanks! There are 1000's of quilt patterns and it is interesting to see which ones people choose for something like this.
Mary what a fantastic tour and i'm glad you're husband is a good sport like mine is...Wow I would have loved to have drive through these places!!!
Wow! These are Fantastic!
Sandy: Yes, I'm very fortunate to have a patient husband who stops when I want pictures of things :-)
Kerri: They really are and I hope to eventually see and photograph more of them. There are lots of pictures of them on those web sites I included links for.
I have seen this on the internet before. How long is the quilt trail?
Great photos.........
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