BARN QUILT TRAIL

The 2017 International Plowing Match, held just outside of Walton, left Huron County a legacy that will outlast many memories created during those successful five days: the Huron County barn quilt trail.

The first barn quilt trail was created by Donna Sue Groves in Adams County, Ohio. Groves wanted to honour her mother, Maxine, and her quilting art by painting a quilt block on their tobacco barn. The idea was a hit with friends and family and gradually evolved into a community project that could bring tourism and economic development to the area. The “clothesline of quilts” began with an Ohio Star, dedicated in 2001. Groves’ own barn quilt, the Snail’s Trail, was finally installed in 2003.

The concept came to many local residents at a Huron County Plowing Match courtesy of Cheryl Gardiner of Gardiner’s Gate. She had a display at the match years before the event came to Huron County showcasing a unique business dedicated to custom, handcrafted barn quilts.

Barn quilts are large, hand-painted badges for barns, most ranging from one foot square to eight feet square. Their bold geometric patterns and bright colours make them particularly well suited to the rural landscape, where they can be seen high atop barns and other buildings along the rolling hills and back roads of southwestern Ontario.

The idea took hold in Huron County in connection with the 2017 International Plowing Match and Rural Expo, which also coincided with celebrations marking Canada’s 150th birthday. In the years since the match, the number of barn quilts has continued to grow.

There are actually two barn quilt trails covering Huron County. The Huron County Barn Quilt Trail currently has 132 quilts listed on its map, while the South Huron Barn Quilt Trail has 22 listed. Fourteen of those South Huron quilts are unique to that trail, with the others appearing on both maps. That means there are at least 146 unique barn quilts currently represented on the two online trails.

Even that number likely doesn’t tell the whole story. The enthusiasm surrounding the 2017 International Plowing Match resulted in plenty of barn quilts being created and installed around the county, and it is quite possible that some were never added to the online trail. Others may have been put up since the original excitement of the Plowing Match died down, without their owners notifying the trail organizers.

In fact, the current Ontario’s West Coast visitor guide describes Huron County as having “well over 200” barn quilts scattered across the county. So while the online maps provide a useful way to find the quilts, they may be more of a guide to the trail than a complete census of every barn quilt in the county.

Most of the quilts that are listed are mapped on the Ontario Barn Quilt Trails website, many complete with descriptions of the barn quilts, their design and the story behind them. The site also includes separate maps for the Huron County and South Huron trails.

Some are placed at businesses, while others are at home farms or schools. Some are even at event grounds, like the site of the annual Huron Pioneer Thresher and Hobby Association’s reunion in Blyth or at Don McNeil’s shop and museum in Brussels.

The quilts are spread throughout Huron County, though many are concentrated in the central communities, with a large number located south of Wingham and north of Hwy. 8 near Clinton and Seaforth. South Huron adds another group of quilts to the southern part of the county, with quilts found around Exeter, Crediton, Dashwood, Mount Carmel and surrounding rural areas.

For someone exploring the county, the maps provide an interesting excuse to take a different route. A trip to find barn quilts can easily become a back-road tour, with stops at communities and farms that might otherwise be passed by. And you don’t necessarily have to set out with a particular quilt in mind. Sometimes the fun is simply spotting one from the road and then checking the map to find out what you have discovered.

Many of the barn quilts celebrate a family’s history or the history of a farm and the commodity it has been producing for generations, while others celebrate Canada or the Huron County community.

Near Brussels, the Armstrong family’s barn quilt celebrates the aerodrome located at the farm and the family’s rich aviation heritage. It is a good example of how the quilts can tell a story that goes beyond the crops in the fields or the livestock in the barn.

Norah’s Pinwheel at the home of Brian Schlosser is a special one, especially with its roots in the International Plowing Match.

Schlosser featured the barn quilt at the match in the Brussels Fall Fair tent, asking visitors to sign the quilt. He then sealed up the creation and erected it on his barn, complete with thousands of signatures.

It is hard to imagine a more appropriate souvenir of the event. Instead of simply putting the quilt away after the Plowing Match, Schlosser turned it into a permanent reminder of the thousands of people who came to Huron County for those five days.

A book detailing the barn quilts of Huron County was even produced in the months leading up to the 2017 International Plowing Match, though it was such a popular item that it sold out within months of its creation. You may get lucky and find one at a used book sale or store around the county.

The book was another way of documenting the quilts and the stories behind them at a particular point in time. But as the number of quilts continues to grow, the online maps have become an important way to keep track of them.

There is something particularly fitting about barn quilts becoming part of Huron County’s landscape. Quilting has long been associated with rural life, where fabric scraps could be turned into something useful and beautiful. Barn quilts take that tradition outdoors and make it part of the landscape itself.

And while not every quilt is on a working farm, many of them have a connection to agriculture and rural life. They mark farms, celebrate families and commemorate the communities that have grown up around them.

The quilts also provide a little incentive to slow down and pay attention to the countryside. Travelling Huron County’s back roads, you never know when a colourful block will appear on the side of a barn or building.

The 2017 International Plowing Match may have lasted only five days, but its barn quilt legacy is still being added to almost a decade later.

There are the quilts that are mapped and documented, and likely others that have quietly appeared on barns and buildings without making it onto the official lists. That makes the Huron County barn quilt trail something of an ongoing project — one that continues to add colour to the countryside while recording the stories of the people and farms that make up the community.

For more information on the Huron County and South Huron barn quilt trails, visit barnquilttrails.ca and select the appropriate trail.

 

Norah’s Pinwheel at the home of Brian Schlosser is a special one, especially with its roots in the International Plowing Match. Schlosser featured the barn quilt at the match at the Brussels Fall Fair tent, asking visitors to sign the quilt. He then sealed up the creation and erected it on his barn, complete with thousands of signatures.