Column: Quilts highlight historical importance of barns in area life

Published 12:00 am Friday, October 14, 2005

In last week’s column we featured the Silos and Smokestacks National Heritage Area in northeast Iowa. And what’s likely the most unusual of the 85 places now

a part of this unit of the National Park Service is the Barn Quilts of Grundy County.

This particular part of Iowa, incidentally, is to the west of Cedar Falls/Waterloo with the county seat in Grundy Center.

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Information from the www.grundycountyia.com website gives this information about these barn quilts:

&8221;The Barn Quilts of Grundy County&8220; is based on a similar project begun in Adams County, Ohio, in 2001.

&8221;The brainchild of Donna Sue Groves of the Ohio Arts Council, the Barn Quilt Project was originally conceived as a way to capture traffic off a busy four-lane highway as it snaked through the economically depressed area of this southern Ohio county. Using old and weathered tobacco barns, the Ohio Arts Council encouraged local artists to paint traditional quilt squares on the barns, similar to the way barns were once painted with logos, such as the familiar Mail Pouch Tobacco advertisements. However, this project paid tribute to the large number of crafters in their area. The project soon began to attract tourists, and has since encouraged nearly one-half of the original barn owners to become entrepreneurs. Both rural and city dwellers are benefiting from this folk art display in numerous ways, especially in the area of increased commerce to existing retail merchants and service businesses.

&8221;The Barn Quilt Project began in Grundy County, Iowa in the fall of 2003 when Pat Gorman, Field Specialist with Iowa State University Extension in Grundy County, attended the National Rural Funders Collaborative conference in Nebraska, where Donna Sue Groves presented Adams County’s success with the project. While driving home from the conference on newly completed Highway 20, Pat realized that this type of project would be an excellent way to attract visitors off of Highway 20 and back into Grundy County, an area that is now bypassed daily by thousands of vehicles that would have traveled down into the heart of the county prior to the completion of the highway, patronizing businesses, restaurants, and other local amenities. Pat presented the idea to Christi Ross, then Associate Director of the Grundy County Development Alliance, and a master quilter. Christi agreed that the project would indeed be a unique way to emphasize the historic role of barns and quilting in Grundy County, while also benefiting the county economically.&8220;

The brochure issued by Silos and Smokestacks National Heritage Area in Waterloo describes this part of the system with, &8221;This 64-mile loop through the towns and fields of Grundy County showcases colorful quilt blocks painted on the sides of barns and other farm buildings, and it highlights the many ag-related businesses and small specialty shops along the way.&8220;

Those quilt squares are usually eight feet by eight feet in size and based on a variety of the traditional patterns familiar to quilters. In some situations these squares are painted directly on the buildings. On other farm places they’re painted on plywood panels and nailed to the barns and other buildings.

A recent article in the Des Moines Register says there are now 30 of the decorated farm structures in Grundy County. In fact, maps are available for folks to use to drive what’s now called that county’s &8221;quilt loop.&8220;

The Register article also reported that there are more barn quilts in Tennessee and Kentucky, plus three more Iowa counties.

One of those places is Sac Country, located to the south of Storm Lake. Their &8221;quilt loop&8220; is 106 miles long with 17 decorated farm buildings, soon to be 22 in number.

Another Iowa place now developing this particular concept is Greene County, located to the west of Boone and Ames.

The third Iowa area now developing its own set of barn quilts is Pocahantas County, located between Fort Dodge and Spencer.

OK, folks, here comes what I like to call the &8221;kicker&8220; for this column. Will the concept of the barn quilts ever be developed in Freeborn or some nearby county in Minnesota or Iowa?

(Feature writer Ed Shannon’s column appears each Friday.)