Barn Quilts and Quilt Trails - are a relatively new American tradition. If you are not already familiar with these wonderfully artistic additions to our rural countryside, you may have heard of them on television or social media, or perhaps you saw one along a country road and wondered what it was all about. Or perhaps this is entirely new to you. In any event, here’s some background.
A barn quilt is typically a large piece of wood that is painted to look like a quilt block. Even though the name implies that an entire quilt is painted onto the wood it generally is only a single quilt block. ... After they are painted, these blocks are hung on the exterior of a barn, house, garage or other building.
Wikipedia explains a quilt trail as “a series of painted wood or metal, hung or free standing, quilt squares installed at various locations along a route, emphasizing significant architecture and/or aesthetic landscapes. Currently North America has quilt trails in 43 of the United States as well as in three Canadian provinces.”
It further states “The first official quilt trail was begun in 2001 in Adams ounty, Ohio. Donna Sue Groves wanted to honor her mother, Maxine, a noted quilter, with a painted quilt square on the family's barn in Manchester, Ohio. Though many believe that the Groves farm is home to the first barn quilt, that is not the case. The first barn quilt was an Ohio Star which was unveiled as part of a community celebration at a nearby herb farm. The Groves farm later became part of a trail of 20 barn quilts that formed a driving trail throughout Adams County. Although an emerging concept, a U.S. national quilt trail has rapidly spread across Ohio to Iowa, Kentucky, Kansas, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, North Dakota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Maryland, Michigan, New York, Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois, Texas, Minnesota, Nebraska, Colorado, South Dakota, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Oregon. Across the border in Canada, British Columbia has developed a trail, and barn quilts also exist in Ontario as well as in Kings County, New Brunswick.”
Each of my barn quilt art tiles is based on a traditional quilt block pattern and is personally glazed by hand. Each one is one-of-kind, while some may feature the same traditional quilt block design, the color pallet and pattern is always unique for that particular design making no two pieces ever the same. With each one personally signed these are truly unique, one-of-a-kind works of art. Some are single tiles and others are multiple tiles forming a single quilt block. They range in size from 6” x 6” to 12” by 12” and can be displayed framed or unframed. As they are kiln-fired ceramic tiles, they can be displayed outdoors and will not weather and their colors will remain bright and beautiful year after year. They are small in size and designed to be displayed indoors or outdoors, on a porch, along side a doorway, in a kitchen or any room of the house. They look great displayed independently or as part of a collection.