Barn Quilts and the American Quilt Trail Movement

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 iowa Iwas eager to visit Iowa, as it had played a pivotal role as the starting point of the quilt trail west of the Mississippi. In 2003, while the Adams County quilt trail was nearing completion, Donna Sue attended the National Rural Funders Collaborative conference in Nebraska, to share the barn quilt concept with other rural communities that were seeking ways to generate revenue. There, she met Patricia Gorman, at the time a Weld specialist with Iowa State University’s Extension Service. Patricia now lives not too far from me, so over lunch in midtown Atlanta, she told me her story. Patricia recalled walking into the Nebraska conference and seeing a woman sitting at a table with a red and blue quilt lying across a chair. “Are you cold?” she asked. “No,” said Donna Sue, “not at all.” Donna Sue went on to explain the signiWcance of the sampler quilt that she had brought with her. It was made by her mother, Maxine, and each square represented one of the twenty quilt squares in Adams County, Ohio. Patricia’s work focused on ways to relieve rural poverty, because the number of family farms was decreasing and jobs were scarce. She was also on the board of Opportunity Works, an initiative that aimed at creating economic development using the region’s assets. Patricia had accompanied Stacy Van Gorp, the agency’s director, to Omaha to look for ways to bring income from outside the area to the Wve eastern Iowa counties that she served. Travelers who might have stopped barn quilts and the american quilt trail movement  and eaten lunch at a local diner or spent a few dollars on their way to Ames or Des Moines were now speeding past on the new Highway 20 and seeing the countryside at seventy miles per hour. Stacy noted that on the way to the conference, Patricia realized that regions across the state were similarly aVected. “You could drive across Iowa to Nebraska and only turn twice,” said Stacy. “That was troubling Pat.” After hearing Donna Sue speak at the conference, Patricia thought that the quilt trails might be exactly the solution that she had been looking for. She and Stacy immediately chose Grundy County—a “can do” kind of place that could be counted on to take up the idea. Donna Sue recalled, “Pat was so enthused about it—she called and said, ‘Do you remember me? We don’t have the bridges of Madison County but we’ve got the barns!’ I was thrilled and honored and excited that somebody in a new part of the country wanted to participate.” The two talked once or twice a week for several months, sharing ideas and building on what Donna Sue had learned from her experience with the Adams County trail. Donna Sue felt strongly that engaging the entire community was key and that choosing barns that would take travelers along an easily navigated route would add to the project’s success. Eventually the discussion moved away from quilt squares and included more of the two women’s personal lives. Of course, I understood how months of talking with Donna Sue could blossom into a close friendship. Grundy County embraced the project, and a committee was formed to organize their eVorts. Janet Peterson, a University of Northern Iowa design major, interned with the group until her graduation in May 2004, when she was hired as Barn Quilt Project coordinator. Janet researched the history of the barns and the quilt patterns and put together a narrative that would eventually be provided to visitors. Donna Sue was thrilled with this development: “This was the Wrst instance of job creation in conjunction with a quilt trail. It was exactly what we had hoped would happen.” After writing a proposal that laid out the mission and goals of the project, the Grundy committee chose quilt blocks that were connected to agriculture, farming, or rural life and placed ballot boxes in every small town in the county so that everyone could share ownership of the project. This simple but eVective method of getting the entire community interested in the project was just what Donna Sue had suggested. Residents chose their favorites from among patterns such as Hens and Chicks, Log Cabin, and Windmill, and a local quilters’ group paired the top twenty designs with color schemes from which barn owners would select. With the patterns chosen and $1,200 in funding from local and state farm bureaus and...