The Appalachian Quilt Trail in Tennessee features barns painted with 8 x 8 quilt squares. The barns are located in the rural northeast corner of the state, shown on this map.
East Tennessee is a patchwork of blue mountains and green hills, rolling farmland and meandering rivers, rocky ridges and fast-moving streams.
Past and present often travel side-by-side along the trail, with old homesteads, farms or stores kept in families for generations. Many of the quilt squares you will see on buildings are replicas of old family patterns.
I have seen pictures of this done in Iowa, but did not know of the Tennessee barn quilts until I found a small reference to the AQT while reading the current issue of Blue Ridge Country magazine that just arrived, something caught my eye in one of the ads for area accomodations - "stay on the Appalachian Quilt Trail in Tennessee".
Appalachian Quilt Trail - the three words peaked my interest - appalachian trail and quilts together! When I learned more about it, I decided that this looks like a great destination for a future road trip!
After finding these photos of the barns online, I wished we had a barn to paint a quilt square onto. I suggested to my dear husband that I could paint one on the woodshed or the tractor shed, and his standard answer was heard - "whatever you want to do, dear."
