Kentucky Memories

I did mean to head out into barn quilt world this summer, but a ruptured Achilles tendon has had me laid up for the past six weeks and left me with nothing but my memories. Good thing I have a lot of great memories!

Scott County, Kentucky has a fabulous quilt trail--a full day's worth of beautiful quilted black barns.

This particular barn has a quilt on each end, both based on the same cloth quilt, which hangs from a railing inside. It seems that the woman who owns the quilt always thought that the pattern was five blocks, so she wanted the barn quilt painted that way. Her husband said no, he saw four squares!

What to do but to have one painted on each end of the barn, in the two different configurations? (Though, to match the quilt, the 4 squares would have to be hung on point)

The barn is visible just outside the window, so you can see both the cloth quilt and the painted quilt at the same time. Guess which quilt square is on the end of the barn facing the house? Well, it's her quilt, after all.

The Kindness of Strangers . . .

Tennessee Williams' Blanche DuBois who "always relied on the kindness of strangers" is a pathetic gal, but this phrase has always had a positive connotation for me.

After all, it was the kindness of a stranger who took a few minutes to explain to me why she had a quilt painted on her barn that led me to this project.

The past eighteeen months, I have continually relied on others' kindness. Kenny Browning and I have never met, but he provided a couple of great photos for my book of barns that were obscured by rain when I was in Lebanon, KY. He was more than glad to contribute to my 'barns in snow' theme with this Dutch Girl.

From Oregon to Alabama, an army of strangers has helped me document quilt trails that I either couldn't visit or couldn't get photos of while I was there!

Wait until the press gets this manuscript and the accompanying copyright permissions for the photos--somebody is going to have a big job to do!

Speaking of Alabama, if you haven't checked out this blog: deepfriedkudzu.com, it's worth a look. Ginger is one of my 'guest photographers,' and she also has helped me track down info on the Gee's Bend quilt trail. And no--we haven't met!

A Few Good Men

Traveling the quilt trails is always a pleasure. But generally, I travel in the company of women. Just as most avid quilters are women, most avid barn quilters are female.

But Tuesday, Gracie (see--another female) and I spent a great couple of hours with Don Hart. It was nice to spend time with someone whose voice is deeper than mine!

We ran a bit late in the morning, but Don's group had saved me a triangle to paint. Yep--that's me, putting paint to a quilt square for the first time! Gracie helped, too. As she ran back and forth between the painters, her tail became coated with yellow paint! If only we had some canvas nearby . . .

Don had some great stories to share; he does a lot to promote barn quilts around the region and has the kind of enthusiasm you would expect from someone who started last week--not a couple of years ago. And there was crab rangoon for lunch! Life is good on the quilt trail.

Late afternoon, we headed down to Rockcastle County. It was a bit hard to find the log cabin where Christopher Robbins makes brooms, but it was worth it to find a nice guy to take us on the tour. They have some really unusual squares; even their take on the maple leaf (above) is a bit different. And I resisted the urge to ask him whether he heard a lot of Winnie the Pooh jokes as a kid.

Last day on the trip--Lebanon, KY, where we met with Chris Hamilton and saw one of the most interesting squares of the week--the airplane quilt. What a great story. I only got to see a couple of barns because it was raining. Mother Nature must have known I was on my way to Eastern Tennessee.

There is something about Eastern Tennessee and me. The first time I visited in Spring, it rained. A few weeks later, it was supposed to be a beautiful day. I headed for Johnson City. Rain. Same thing in May.

We were slated to visit this Thursday; I checked the weather online; the forecast--rain. So we headed home a day early, a bit disappointed but ready for some rest.

I checked the weather Thursday afternoon. Total rainfall for Eastern Tennessee--1/100th of an inch. Go figure.