Our Appalachian Quilt Trail

You may already know about the Quilt Trails. The idea started in Ohio, but soon spread to other states, In 2004, our county was the first in Tennessee to establish  it's own quilt trail. The idea was, that quilt blocks would be hand painted on 8'x8' squares and placed upon historic barns, buildings and art studios to attract tourists to the beautiful rural area of East Tennessee.  When first this endeavor began, we had about a dozen blocks along a scenic route, now, there are over 300 quilt blocks scattered across the eastern side of Tennessee. All of the blocks I am going to show you are along our route, and within 3 miles of our farm.

  This quilt block was painted right on the side of the building. This is a stain-glass studio just a few hops away from our house. The stain glass artist, Angie Slagle, kinda-sorta made up this design. Well, who can blame her, she IS a designer, after all.

This is my absolutely favorite barn, and I really love the block. Our county is dotted with dozens and dozens of historic barns.

This HUGE barn ( you can only see half of it in the picture) is the only Antiques shop in town. It displays one of the quilt blocks that I painted in mustard, forest green and BARN red. Doris, the owner, has some great antiques and she will always give you a good deal.

 Another aged clunker barn..no animals dwelling here anymore. I love the contrasting colors against the darkened barn wood.

This is a smaller block hanging from Ritter Farms, where they sell fresh farm produce, like enormous pumpkins and squashes, honey and our famous "Grainger County Tomatoes".   Yummm! It comes replete with bales of hay AND an antique buggy!

Here is a barn, painted black. Something you don't often see in Tennesee, most are red or aged grey barn wood. But one thing our barns always have, is a tin roof.

  You can't easily see this block. This is my neighbors barn and I was standing on the gate to take the photo. But isn't this a fabulous barn? It is over 200 years old.  The house that goes with it, was once a stage stop in the early 1800's.

  This block is on the Joppa Mountain Pottery, just up our winding mountain road and at the very top of the hill.

  And I saved my favorite block for last.. it is MY block called the "Whig Rose" ( I always preferred doing applique when sewing my own quilts, and it is still my preference when  painting a quilt)

 Not satisfied with painting a mere block, I painted the entire quilt. This is mounted on an old chicken coop on our property, just off the road and across from our house. People often stop to photograph it.

It is in serious need of some touch-up. I need to put that on my LIST.

  

There are many more quilt blocks in our area, these are just the ones I was able to photograph today.

 I recently learned of a new book entitled ,"Barn Quilts and the American Quilt Trail Movement" by Suzi Parron and Donna Sue Groves.

 You can find it on Amazon.
PS. just got a comment from one of the authors, you can purchase a signed copy directly from her.Just scroll down to the comment from "Donna Sue"

 I am sure the photos in the book are much better than these that I took on the fly. Perhaps you could start a quilt block movement in your area! 

 Closing with the last of my garden flowers.
 Poor garden... it has been overrun with weeds, I am too tired and hot to fix it.