Lavonia

passing through small towns we often have to stop and take it all in, 

the little quilt shop, the murals, and of course the quilt squares! 

Lavonia, Georgia

Kentucky barns etc

following the quil trail

School House quilt block, Hanson, KY

Mosaic Star block, State Route 70, Central City, KY

Star of Bethlehem, Muhlenberg County Extension Office, KY

Following the Pennyrile Quilt Trail through Western Kentucky.

quilt talk

if quilts could talk

            quilters are coming to visit

do you know what that means?

we get to come out of the closet, 

cedar chest, Rubbermaid totes

out into the light of day and fresh air

prepare to be ogled and fondled

squeezed and stretched

our stories told, stitches examined

our weight and thickness pinched

our designs traced and praised

stitched in the ditch - what did she call me?

don't squeeze me there, I'm ticklish

pardon me for being fluffy

how rude to comment on my weight

old and frayed? I prefer vintage

not long now, almost time

to go back into hiding, safekeeping

I wish I was a barn quilt

at least I haven't been given away 

or worse, cut up for a new project

Our friends Susan and Teresa {a.k.a. the blonde quilting duo} are making t-shirt quilts and came by for some pointers.

Teresa knows her stuff and won't have any problem with this project. 

Susan is helping, although she was laying the groundwork early…

Susan: I can't sew a straight line, I can't cut straight.

Teresa: Well alrighty then, you can do the ironing part.

They have their shirts all gathered up, have lots of ideas and tutorials on Pinterest and Craftsy.

I love it! You ladies are going to be fine. Take lots of pictures, call me if you need anything.

Two more high school seniors graduating in May with two excited ladies making them quilts, fun times ahead!

Pinterest!

~photo barn quilt near Dover, Tennessee April 2013

tobacco barns

The tobacco barns here in Kentucky have started smoking. Roll down the windows to get the full effect.

Riding around looking at the local scenery, I found lots of tobacco hanging out to dry, some smoking tobacco barns, and even found a bonus - a barn full of drying tobacco with a quilt square!

Lots of tobacco history HERE in this area.

the barn quilt

quilts on barns on quilts

The talented ladies of Quilt and Sew at Golden Threads in Trenton, Kentucky have taken the barn quilt square to a whole new level. Carol Thurston traveled the local area taking pictures of nearby barn quilts. Then she created patterns for each one to be made out of fabric, offered a class at the store to make the quilt, each month featuring a different block, 12 blocks total, in the Barn Block of the Month class.

Barn Block of the Month

The original quilt pattern featured the 12 blocks she designed around the edge and one big quilt block in the middle, which was to be determined by a design contest of the local quilters. Instead of one winner, they ended up with three, with the three winning blocks being displayed in the center of the quilt and also on the building outside.

Americans have been creating designs and making them into warm quilts for hundreds of years. Then in 2001 Donna Sue Groves painted the first barn quilt square in Ohio. The idea took hold and now there are over 6000 barn quilts across the country. This phenomenon is documented in the book by Suzi Parron and Donna Sue Groves, BarnQuilts and the American Quilt Trail Movement.

Just get out and ride around, you might see one! Or you can follow organized quilt trails, search and see if there is one near you.

The Barn Block quilt will be offered soon as a kit, yes I signed up to get one!

Land Between the Lakes

Great Western Furnace circa 1855

The Homeplace Interpretative Center

Bison

elk

Quilts displayed at The Homeplace

We recently drove over to Land Between the Lakes. The 170,000 acre recreation area was formerly called 'land between the rivers' but when the two rivers were formed into lakes, the resulting peninsula was designated Land Between the Lakes National Recreational Area by President Kennedy in 1963.

We took the south-to-north route of the Trace and only made it halfway through the park, stopping at 3 visitors centers, the iron furnace, the bison range, and the elk and bison prairie. The Trace goes up the middle of the park, so we didn't see the lakes on either side. A huge park with lots of campgrounds and trails, even a 100 mile OHV trail, and 300 miles of shoreline, I am sure it is a very busy place in the summer months. But it was a nice drive on a cool spring day, not crowded at all, our kind of trip.

Quilts of the Cumberland

Four Patch

Baby Doll's Log Cabin

Dresden Plate

'My Girls' see the yo-yo eggs!

barn quilts for sale

Quilts of the Cumberland show, part of the Rivers and Spires festival in Clarksville, Tennessee. There was a car show outside and I asked Buddy if he wanted to stay there while I looked at the quilts, but no he wanted to see them too. He paid more attention that I did! He would say things like, 'look at all those pieces!' and 'that would look good made out of wood' (like these we have at home). He struck up a conversation with Rick McKee who was there demonstrating the huge Gammill quilting machine, he examined the construction of the barn quilt squares on display. 

Lots of local talent in this city as in every city we have visited. Quilts are part of the history around the country and kudos to all the quilters out there for keeping this history alive and passing on the skills to and talent and art to the next generation. 

on the quilt trail

Hands All Around

National Civil War Quilt Trail, Stewart County, Tennessee

Snow Crystals

Letitia's Medallion Sampler

This sampler was the largest and most impressive at 16' x 16'!

Delectable Mountains

What a pleasant surprise yesterday driving through Dover, Tennessee to find all the quilt squares! We stopped and got pictures of most of the ones we saw, and then later found a list and map of quilt squares in the area - 91 total! So you know I will be back over there to find some more.

The map was found at the Land Between the Lakes visitor's center, where they also had a quilt block:

Crossroads

NOTE: I contacted Carolyn Darke, artist and president of the Stewart County Arts and Heritage Council, who created the beautiful sampler quilt above. I wanted to tell her how much I loved seeing all the quilt squares and ask about the construction materials (as the ones we made out of plywood are deteriorating quickly). She graciously responded:

Thank you so much for admiring our quilt blocks....hope you were able to visit our Visitors Center, there are some there also. About ours, they are painted on "sign board" a light weight material that sign painters use, it comes in 4x8 sheets and can be cut in half for 2 4x4 squares or two whole sheets for an 8x8 block. The board needs to be lightly sanded before painting it. We used Home Depot's best exterior paint, latex, it has primer and paint combined. After we finished painting our blocks we painted them with an ultraviolet protection clear paint called "frog juice" expensive stuff, not sure that step was too important, anyway they seem to be holding up just fine. About hanging the blocks, if on a flat wood surface we used screws that are used for metal roofs, on uneven surfaces and masonry we made a wood frame out or 1 by 2s, used masonry screws to put up frame then screwed the painted block to the frame.

barns

Barns make great pictures, whether functional or dilapidated or historic. I saw lots of barns on our road trip, a few of which even had quilts painted on them. Yes, I finally saw some barn quilts in person, although I had to be quick on the shutter on some of these!

a drive-by photo of a barn quilt in Townsend, TN

horse barn in Dupont Forest

vegetable garden at Callaway

Townsend, TN Artisan Guild

another drive-by between Sevierville and Newport, TN