Quilt Barn Trail

Quilting combines history, culture and community with skill, time and patience to produce both beauty and practicality.  In America, the patchwork art form symbolizes the culture in which frugality and ingenuity built a nation, in good times and bad.  The Appalachian community heavily influenced this American tradition.  Through the new tradition of painted quilt patterns adorning barns across scenic countrysides, agricultural heritage is blended with the world of art.

The Quilt Barn project in Gallia County is a product of the community, connecting quilters, artists, property owners, organizations and businesses, highlighting Appalachian traditions, heritage and the fabric of its communities.  Bob Evans Farm was the first to display Quilt Squares in Gallia County.  Painted by art students from the University of Rio Grande, one is a logo for the County’s quilt trail and the other is a Welsh pattern, paying homage to Gallia County’s Welsh heritage.  The Gallia County trail is a coordinated effort of the French Art Colony, the Gallia County Convention and Visitors’ Bureau and Bob Evans Farms.  The goal, for the first phase of the project, is to have one square in each township, eventually adding more, until every interested barn owner is included. 

The first quilt barns were a labor of love, in which people volunteered expertise, joining hands to help the project take form, and property owners covered the costs.  Since then, the French Art Colony obtained a grant from the Governor’s Office of Appalachia, and in support of Make a Difference Day on October 25, 2009, will partner with local organizations, charitable groups and community members, to paint the remaining quilt squares.

Ultimately, quilt barns are expected to appear in all 32 Ohio Appalachian counties and 15 Appalachian states, representing the heart of a national movement, eventually linking the clothesline of quilts from county to county, state to state, coast to coast.

To learn more about the National Quilt Barn Trail, its origin and inspiration, visit  this website.

Visit the  2009 Gallia County Quilt Barn “Paint-On-Days”