Come Join The Barn Quilt Trail

Have you heard about the nationwide popularity of Barn Quilt Trails? It was in 2003 that I spotted my first Barn Quilt while traveling through Tennessee on my way back to Virginia. . .A quilt block painted on the side of a barn. . .I thought what a unique idea some crafty lady came up with. . .Then I saw the second. . .and the third. . .and I was hooked. . .I wanted to see more. . .I wanted my own. . .but at the time all I had was a townhouse in Williamsburg. . .No barn, outbuilding, garage, or shed to place one on. . .So I tucked away the Barn Quilt photos in my desk. . .but they were never forgotten. . .In fact, it seemed Barn Quilts were springing up all over the country.

The credit for Barn Quilt Trails appears to be a result of  Donna Sue Groves's desire to honor her mother's quilting expertise by painting an Ohio Star quilt block on their tobacco barn in Adams County, Ohio. There was so much interest that Donna realized what seemed to be a simple project had wide appeal and could benefit her community aesthetically and economically. In 2001, she worked with local people to create a 'clothesline of quilts' as many others joined in with their painted blocks. The first quilt trail was born. Now there are 43 states with quilt trails. It's become a movement that I think surprised many people, but then, who doesn't love the soft comfort of a handmade quilt and the memories they bring?

As in other parts of the United States, quilting has almost become a folk art of the past, but I did witness our Delta ladies piecing and quilting very early in my childhood. . .It began my lifelong love of quilts. In fact, I pieced my own first quilt when I was 3 years old.

Mr. and Mrs. Turner were a lovely couple who lived in a small, two bedroom shotgun house on my Grandmothers property. . .and only footsteps from our back door. . .I dearly loved them and visited almost everyday. . .She was an excellent quilter. . .Usually there was a quilt top in a frame above the kitchen table so she could work on it in odd times. . .Her husband also quilted. . .I had never seen that before. . .a man quilting. . .but I was young enough that I thought men were suppose help. . .and wondered why my own Dad didn't quilt, too. . .

Most days I found Mrs. Turner piecing the beautiful patterns found in newspapers or borrowed from other quilters. . .She was either cutting or hand-sewing the little pieces. . .One day I decided it was time that I tried my hand at piecing. . .I wanted to make my own quilt and I wanted fabric and scissors to do just that. . .She wouldn't allow me to use the scissors but she did pull out the Sears Roebuck catalog and showed me how to tear the pieces from that. . .Then she helped me paste them onto a sheet of paper. . .Unfortunately, I don't have that first quilt. . .and I wasn't as satisfied with it as much as I would had it been fabric. . .but at the same time, I knew I'd have quilts in my life from that day on. . .I have made my own quilts, but mostly I began collecting them. . .I've hung them on walls as art. . .I've displayed them on quilt racks. . .I've used them in an obvious place--the bed. . .I've given workshops on how to piece. . .I've given programs at various organizations. . .I've written a booklet about my Grandmother Duncan's quilts, of which I am now the proud owner. . .I have been published twice in quilt magazines with patterns of my own design. . .I participated in several national quilt shows. . .In other words, quilts have surrounded me. . .enveloped me. . .kept my interest. . .for most of my life. . .Barn Quilts were a natural next step. . .

By 2005, I no longer lived in a townhouse. . .I suddenly found myself to be the owner of two barns, three outbuildings (at that time--there are more now), a farm shop, an old country store building, and the manager's home. . .Although it took me three more years before I began painting Barn Quilts, I was gradually adding photos to my quilt stash as I traveled through many states. . .They seemed to be everywhere. . .and by 2008 I proudly displayed six Barn Quilts on our property. . . But time and weather took their toll within a couple of years. . .All but two were sent to the barn storage bins. The two remaining were displayed on our home, under the porch roof where they would be protected. In fact, one became our logo for the Widner-Magers Farm Historic District and Duncan Farmstead which has been photographed many times by people who happened upon it.

Our Cotton Boll Barn Quilt has been a hit with so many 

and continues to be pinned on Pinterest.

It was while adding POPS OF WHIMSEY at our two shotgun houses, I decided we should use the barn quilts again this year. . .We needed to bring color to the drab gray buildings. . .Once we finished the LITTLE CHAPEL IN THE FIELD, I pulled out two of our badly weathered Barn Quilts from 2008 and gathered the paint buckets. . .This time I made sure I used exterior paint to guard against the weather.

The term Barn Quilt implies that an entire quilt is painted on wood. . .but that's not the case most times. . .Normally, only one quilt block is selected. . . The size of the block is also left up to the creator.  I decided on 4' X 4' plywood squares for our outbuildings. . .A standard size for blocks displayed on a barn is 8' X 8'. . .The easiest quilt block patterns to paint are those comprised of simple geometric shapes, such as triangles, squares, and rectangles. Simple shapes and vibrant colors for these two updates assure that they are easily seen from far down the road.

AMISH CROSS

NINE PATCH

Once we displayed our quilts on the houses, I thought 'Wouldn't it be great if we had our own Barn Quilt Trail right here in Northeast Arkansas?' . .There are plenty opportunities. . .Barns, sheds, garages, outbuildings. . .Viewers would follow a map printed from the internet and read about each one as they drive through the countryside. . . It's happening throughout the United States with a wide variety of people creating the blocks. . .not only by individuals but quilt guilds, schools, churches, and 4-H clubs have participated across the country. . .Why not here? . .Quilts are a part of our heritage, too. . .

How do you join in? . .Simply by painting and displaying a Barn Quilt of your own. . .Then EMAIL us with a photo and where the Quilt is located if you would like to be placed on the Delta Quilt Trail map for all to see. 

We would also appreciate you sharing information with us that could be added. . .about your family. . .your memories. . .why you chose that particular block. . .anything you would like to add. . .This isn't required but would mean so much to everyone. . .

This PDF will get you started. . .

MAKING YOUR BARN QUILT PDF

There are many other ways for painting and displaying these quilts, but the above link will give you the basics. . .You can see more techniques at my PINTEREST BOARD. . .You'll also find numerous barn quilts from across the country for inspiration there. . .And. . .if you have any other questions. . .EMAIL US. . .We'll be glad to answer your questions. . .

Soon I'll repaint the other four quilts and display them. . .adding to the Delta Barn Quilt Trail beginnings. . .Hope they inspire you to paint your own. . .It would be a way to give back to our community, just as Donna Sue Groves did for Ohio years ago. . .

Let's put our beautiful land and barns on the map. . .

our own DELTA QUILT TRAIL map. . .

OTHER RELATED LINKS:

THE DELTA QUILT SERIES: WE MADE THEM TO KEEP WARM 

Check out more Posts of the Delta Quilt Series at the bottom of the page.

COTTON PICKIN' WOOL APPLIQUE

HEART TO HEART: A FOLDED HEART PATTERN

DELTA QUILT SERIES: 'We Made Them to Keep Warm' The Untraditional Southern Quilt

 



LAZY GIRL VARIATION--source



"The descriptive words improvisation, strip pieced, multiple patterns, brightly colored and rhythmic were all true of African American quilts. But these features are also traditional in a number of white communities. The style is ubiquitous in the American South. Historians have found it to be a product of economics, not race, used by both blacks and whites to quickly make warm quilts out of whatever they had."

 

HOUSETOP



Most  rural Southern women had a difficult life. . .working from sun up to sun down, caring for their family in what was often a meager subsistence living. . .They did the best they could with very little. . .One of their challenges was providing warm coverings for the family beds.

Rural quilts were made for everyday use out of necessity. . .Warm blankets were expensive and fabric was scarce. . .The economic culture that these women were raised in taught them that everything had a use. . .so Southern women made quilts from scraps of fabric, discarded clothing, feed and flour sacks. . .Their make-do attitude reminds us that unimportant, trivial, and meaningless things can be made useful.

 



QUILT by CATHERINE SOMERVILLE



Traditional quilt making was slow and labor intensive, often taking months to complete. . .Southern women helped to speed the process up by improvisation and using the most primitive of quilting stitches to sandwich the layers together. . .At the same time, the aesthetic wasn't lost. . .There is something within women that they aspire to find beauty and purpose in the most mundane of tasks. . .and so it was with their piecing. . .They made quilts that were not originally created as pieces of art. . .as many are considered today. . .but they were pleasing combinations often compared to JAZZ. . .being described as exciting. . .improvised. . .vibrant. . .movement. . .  



COTTON WORK PANTS, Ga 1940s

 

Before learning about rural Southern quilt characteristics, I saw the old tattered pieces for years at yard sales and flea markets, thinking them of no consequence. . .just a rag-tag bunch of coverings. . .giving them no respect. . .never looking closely at them. . .How many I passed by still haunts me. . .It wasn't until I ran across the quilts of Gees Bend that I gathered a new admiration for the common 'utility' quilt. . .I suddenly had a new perspective for the rural Southern technique of piecing. . .



GEE'S BEND, Alabama

The African American quilting traditions definitely influenced that technique. . .There is no question about it. . .The best known source for documentation of African American quilting are those quilts made by the women of Gee's Bend, Alabama. . .They have experienced many recognitions for their particular style that has remained relatively unaltered. . .They were pretty much cut off from the world, so quilting styles were passed down from mother to daughter. . .friend to friend. . .without outside influence for well over 100 years. . .Because of their isolation, history tells us that this quilting knowledge remained fairly 'pure'. . .documenting the African-American technique without outside influence.

 

 

 

Their creations are distinctively different from our familiar Euro-American styles. . .They are irregular in pattern, color combinations, and fabrics. . .Experts for years called such quilts as 'mistakes in workmanship and design' or deem them as 'unlovely quilts'. . .Only in the last 40 years have these quilts come to be accepted for what they are--not mistakes but distinctive in their own style and loose set of techniques. . . Yet, Gees Bend quilts were not the only ones found in the South . . .My eyes were opened to other similar quilting styles while attending a Regional Farm and Gin Show in Memphis, Tennessee a few years ago, where I met an African-American artist from South Carolina by the name of Floyd Gordon. . .In several of his paintings and prints I found similar quilts to those of Gees Bend. . .

 

 

 I asked Floyd where he got the inspiration for the patterns of his painted quilts.

His answer was, "From my childhood and what I saw growing up."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I realized these South Carolina women probably never met anyone from Gees Bend, and here they were sharing the same traditions. . .This revelation certainly opened my eyes to the possibilities. . .It seemed apparent  that,  although Gees Bend quilts are the best known, the type of quilt making found there represents many Southern quilts found in other states. . .The use of symbols, asymmetry, bright colors, and vertical piecing are techniques that are found throughout the South. . .in white, as well as black, communities. . .I also found as I researched the cotton plantation lifestyle, that the piecing style took the same western route of cotton production. . .from the Carolinas to Georgia to Alabama to Mississippi to Arkansas. . .As Cotton depleted the soil of nutrients, landowners were forced to move ever westward. . .taking their slaves with them.

After the Civil War, many freed slaves began sharecropping, following the same landowners for whom they had been slaves. . .Moving from the Atlantic coast to the Mississippi Delta and into Texas, so followed the African American style of quilting. . .acquiring the interest of white sharecroppers who incorporated many of the African-American techniques into their own covers. . .It is well documented that black and white sharecroppers often lived side-by-side. . .working close to each other. . .They shared. . .or observed. . .each others ways of cooking. . .of gardening. . .and certainly of quilting. . It appears that by the time farmers and sharecroppers reached this part of the Northeast Arkansas Delta, the rural Southern quilt truly had less to do with race than the economic condition of the maker. . .and that the lines of demarcation in culture were somewhat blurred. . .much like our food. . .To this day, my favorite meal is ham and beans or red beans and rice, cornbread, fried okra and greens. . .all influenced by the Southern black culture.

I would go one step further to say that here in the Dell area, economics didn't play as big a part as did the frugality of the times in which our grandparents lived. . .from pioneering new land to the economic collapse of the Great Depression. . .although sharecropper and tenant women did have a bigger challenge before them.

 

Possibly GEES BEND

 

 

For many years I researched the background history of our untraditional Southern quilts and my appreciation for them grew. . .I was drawn to them. . .and began a collection of my own. . .They are mostly made in Northeast Arkansas, but a few have come via other Delta towns in this state. . .I will be sharing those quilts with you as we journey through this series. . .For this post, I have only included representative quilts from the South, several of which are from Gees Bend. . .The place I started my research.

 

QUILT by  LAVERNA BRACKENS

 

 



BLUE JEANS POCKETS BY ESSIE LEE ROBINSON

 



"The naming of the quilts are as unique as the quilts themselves. . .names such as Mousetrap, Pig Pen, Housetop, Lazy Girl, Everybody, Slap Jack, and Britches. . .are not found in traditional quilts. . ."



MOUSETRAP--source

 

 

 

HOUSETOP VARIATION--source

 

 

 

EVERYBODY QUILT 



PIG PEN--source  





LAZY GIRL--source

 



SLAP JACK--source

 

THE UNTRADITIONAL QUILT IN NORTHEAST ARKANSAS

Compared to the other Southern states. . .and the Delta plantations in south Arkansas of an earlier date. . .North Mississippi County, Arkansas was a late bloomer. . .Only a handful of families lived in our local area before 1900. . .It wasn't until the swamps were drained and the forests were cleared that the farmers moved in around 1914. . buying up cut-over land for very little cost. . .We became a melting pot of many races and cultures. . .the last frontier of Arkansas. . .Class lines were not as distinctive as in other Southern states, although still present. . .Not taking anything away from the African American aesthetic and their influence on all Southern quilt piecing, I began to see how, through the years and from state to state, these quilts became a staple of many households whether black or white. . .



source



Quilters from Mississippi were probably the greatest influence of the rural Southern quilt here in the Northeast Arkansas Delta. . .although other states were also represented. . .I had the opportunity to visit Tallahatchie County, Mississippi, where the well-known Tutwiler Quilters craft their version of the Southern quilt. . .They make their quilts in a style reminiscent of the Gees Bend techniques . . .and certainly their choice of colors and combinations for all their quilts are in the Southern quilting style. . .For me, it helped to verify that we have a common history.



TUTWILER QUILTERS, MS

 

Quilt historians have found that, for the most part, black women made their quilts in the same styles that were popular with the general population during any given period. As quilters draw from a common history one cannot look at a quilt and easily identify the cultural background of the artist. There has always been a great deal of overlapping in quilting styles among different communities and cultures.

To add to the confusion, economic status usually dictated the kinds of quilts made by women regardless of their cultural heritage. Poorer women have always had to make do with scraps and discarded clothing. White and black women alike found "string" quilting to be an efficient way to use this fabric.. .Womenfolk 

 

ROOF TOP--Source

Out of curiosity as to the home state of early sharecropper/tenants, I went to the 1930 U.S. Census of Hector Township, Mississippi County, Arkansas. . .There I found a few of my Grandfather's farms close to the present day Roseland area. . . As a stroke of luck, the enumerator wrote the farm owner's names along the side of the page. . .I was better able to count successfully the states represented on and around my Grandfather's farms. . . the Martin and Magers Farm, the Earl Magers Roseland Farm beside R. C. Rose, and the Harding and Magers Farm. . .I also included that part of the Simmons plantation in the same sections but not belonging to my Grandfather. . .Many of the families working on different farms lived side by side, making it impossible to totally distinguish property lines on the census. . .Only counting the heads of households, it was not surprising that the top three states represented were Mississippi at 54%. . .Arkansas (south) at 16%. . .Alabama at 11%. . .and the remainder 19% from Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, and Tennessee. . .I also found that many of the families from Mississippi had parents or grandparents born in the Carolinas, Georgia, or Alabama. . .following the route of the Southern plantations.

 I wasn't surprised. . .



BRITCHES QUILT--source



IN SUMMARY

Many Southern quilts have surfaced in the last 20 years across the country and have absorbed the interest of the collectors and the public eye that responds to the arts. . . They are the ones that go way beyond the traditional pattern construction. . .making them interesting and full of surprises. . .These quilts speak to people in a way that a modern painting would if you came across it in a museum. . . The quilts rarely seem boring. . .They usually have movement. . color. . .modern art style. . .rural quilts from the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Texas. . .

With this little bit of background, in future posts I'll explore and share some of the basic patterns and symbols of the rural Southern quilt. . .and the various techniques. . .We may construct a few lap quilts together. . .as I share some of the actual quilts in my collection. . .TIL THEN. . .ALWAYS REMEMBER. . .

 



 

 





REFERENCES:

 

OLD SOUTH FOLK ART PRINTS BY FLOYD GORDON The Country Farm Home, 2012

 

DENIM BRITCHES QUILTS Duncan Farmstead 2015

 

THE BEGINNING An Introduction, Duncan Farmstead 2015

 

THE QUILTS OF GEES BEND by William Arnett, Alvia Wardlaw, Jane Livingston, John Beardsley, Tinwood Books, 2002         

 

GEES BEND: ARCHITECTURE OF THE QUILT by Paul Arnett, William Arnett, Bernard Herman, Maggi Gordon, Diane Mott, Dilys Blum, Lauren Whitley, Amei Wallach, Joanne Cubbs, Tinwood Books, 2006  

 

AFRICAN AMERICAN-GEES BEND STYLE QUILTS Rocky Mountain Quilts Website

 

WHY SOUTHERN QUILTING? Virginia Crossroads, University of Virginia

 

SOUTHERN QUILTING TRADITIONS University of Virginia

 

SOUTHERN AMERICAN QUILTS Welsh Quilts Blog, 2012

 

AFRICAN AMERICAN QUILTS Blog

 

TUTWILER QUILTERS Website

 

WOMENFOLK Website

 

When the nights became cold each winter, the women would scrounge up what small scraps of fabric they could find and fashion blankets to put on their beds, walls, and floors. . .to help keep the cold, whistling winds of winter at bay. . .