By SARA DRYDEN
Indiana Correspondent STAMPING GROUND, Ky. — What used to house thousands of pounds of golden leaf tobacco now stands empty. The large tobacco barns of Kentucky and southern Indiana and Ohio are nostalgic fixtures on the landscape.
Because of the tobacco buyout, production has changed. There are not as many small growers and so, many of these barns are vacant and some are falling into decay.
Several communities are coming together to pump life into the old barns and to add a little color to the countryside.
Barn quilts can frequently be seen throughout parts of Kentucky,
Ohio and a few have crossed the river into Indiana. The Buffalo Gals Homemaker Club of Scott County, Ky., is spearheading the effort in the Bluegrass state.
“This has spread like wildfire,” said Betty Kettenring, one of the Buffalo Gals Homemakers. “I was amazed how much people like them.”
In little more than one year, the Homemakers group has made and installed 68 barn quilts in the Georgetown/Scott County area.
They are currently working on 10 more.
“Labor and love go into each quilt,” said Kettenring, as she painted a barn quilt in her home. “We are doing this to show art, beautify the countryside and preserve the tobacco barns.”
Another motivation for the Scott County trend is to prepare for the tourism of the 2010 World Equestrian Games to be held in Lexington.
New to the scene are three barn quilts made by individuals in Jefferson County, Ind. Carrie Britt of Lexington, Ind., got the idea from a friend and decided to make one for her family’s barn. “Barn quilts really embody our American heritage of old wooden barns and quilts,” said Britt, who painted The Little Red Schoolhouse quilt square for her barn.
The idea of barn quilts is not new. In 2001 the initial project, the Adams County Quilt Barn Sampler, was officially dedicated to honor Nina Maxine Groves, a fifth-generation quilter from Roane County, W. Va., and her Appalachian heritage.
Word spread quickly to other states; today, more than 1,500 colorful quilt squares adorn barns, other farm buildings, flood walls, homes and community structures throughout Ohio, Iowa, Kentucky, Tennessee and beyond. Sixteen states now have communities that are decorated in barn quilts.
“The exciting thing is that communities are having fun and working together,” said Donna Sue Groves, the visionary behind the barn quilts, who started them in honor of her mother. “People are remembering the past and how barns were built. They are remembering the heritage of barns and quilts.”
Groves also envisions the creation of an imaginary clothesline of interconnecting barns decorated with quilt squares emerging as the National Quilt Barn Trail. She hopes to coordinate a national gathering of communities in 2009 to discuss and share barn quilt stories and endeavors.
“There is laughter when you talk to people involved in this,” said Groves. “People are having fun and working together to do something beautiful and good for their community.”
Communities interested in starting a barn quilt project can learn more about it at a quilt trail workshop hosted by Kentucky’s Boyd County Extension Service on Nov. 2-3. To find out more, contact the office at 606-739-5184 or online at www.abcquiltalley.com – registration ends Oct. 1.
This farm news was published in the Aug. 22, 2007 issue of Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee. |
