Published: October 07, 2008 12:02 pm      

Quilt trail spreads through Kentucky

Laurel County residents

It was a late summer’s day when Mark and Joette Williams stood by their black East Bernstadt barn and infused it with color. It involved a ladder, neighbor Charles Johnson and a quilt block painted with a vivid star flower pattern.

About an hour later, the block was nailed to the wall and the face of the barn was permanently changed.

“I absolutely love it because we live in a country setting,” Joette Blunschi Williams said of the block. “Our house is more the country-style home. I thought the quilt pattern fit right in with our lifestyle.”

Joette Williams got the idea for the quilt block, which is painted on an 8-foot by 8-foot piece of treated plywood, from her neighbor Paula Philpot, who owns nearby Paula’s Quilt Pantry.

“They put a picture on their barn,” Williams said. “My husband went online and found a pattern. Charles and Mark together made it themselves and that’s what’s so unique about it.”

Philpot said she got the idea for her block about two years ago while driving in Tennessee.

“As we were seeing them, we were naming off the names of the quilt blocks,” she said. “I thought it would be nice to have one here.”

Philpot chose a log cabin quilting pattern to put on her barn.

“It’s a traditional block,” she said. “In the log cabin pattern, the red center represents the fireplace in the home. A yellow center means a candle in the window. The black center has been discussed about being a safe haven for the slaves.”

The quilt block project was started in 2001 by Donna Sue Groves, in Adams County, Ohio. Groves decided she wanted a quilt block painted on her barn to honor her mother, an avid quilter. Groves, a field representative for the Ohio Arts Council, asked her neighbors and community members for help painting and putting up the block. Soon the idea sprouted: Adams County would paint 20 quilt blocks and make them part of a driving tour in the area.

Soon, other communities were calling Groves wanting to make their own quilt trails.

“Most of the activity has been in Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and Iowa, but there’s also active quilt groups in North Carolina, West Virginia, Georgia, Texas, Maryland and Michigan,” said Ed Lawrence, spokesman for the Kentucky Arts Council.

In 2005, the trails spread south to Kentucky when Grace and Dean Raney, of Carter County, hung a quilt block depicting a grandmother’s flower garden.

Today, there are about 600 quilt blocks in 59 counties on barns, floodwalls, craft shops and restaurants in Kentucky.

And now several in Laurel County.

Kay and Donnie Burkhart put up a block on their barn on KY 1006 last summer.

“I picked up a magazine and there was an article on Sac County, Iowa,” Kay Burkhart said. “I got to reading about it. If you go on the Internet, you see 50 or 60 different quilt blocks in that county.”

The idea immediately appealed to Burkhart.

“I like the heritage of old barns,” she said. “And the heritage of quilt-making. Both my grandmothers were quilters.”

For her barn, Burkhart chose a vibrant pattern showing an eight-point star.

“The original corner of the barn is almost 80 years old,” she explained. “That’s why I picked my eight-point star.”

In addition to the Burkhart, Williams and Philpot blocks, there is another on a barn off Interstate 75 between exits 38 and 41, another in East Bernstadt and three more blocks on old KY 229 toward Barbourville.

It’s something Williams is glad to see.

“I think, not only are they country, but they’re classy-looking,” she said. “They say you take pride in your farm.”

Judi O’Bryan, extension agent for the University of Kentucky, said she’d like to further the project by creating an official trail through the area.

“I think we need to,” she said. “The whole purpose of the project is to get visitors to come in and see our quilt blocks.”

She added she is also considering creating a calendar featuring the barns.

To celebrate the trails statewide, the Kentucky Arts Council has put together a book, Kentucky Quilt Trails: Views and Voices, which combines photos of the quilt blocks with literary pieces related to quilting.

To call the Extension Service about creating a quilt block or creating a quilt block committee, call Judi O’Bryan at 864-4167.

Staff writer Tara Kaprowy can be reached by e-mail at tkaprowy@sentinel-echo.com.