quilt trail

The tradition & historical record

A quilt trail is a series of barn quilts (painted wood or metal hung or freestanding quilt squares) installed along a route emphasizing significant architecture and/or aesthetic landscape. Currently North America has 46 quilt trails: 43 in the United States and three in Canada. ¹

The first official quilt trail was begun in 2001 in Adams County, Ohio. Donna Sue Groves wanted to honor her mother, Maxine, a noted quilter, with a painted quilt square on the family's barn in Manchester, Ohio. Though many believe that the Groves' farm is home to the first barn quilt, the first was an Ohio Star created as part of a community celebration at a nearby herb farm. The Groves farm later became part of a trail of 20 barn quilts that formed a driving trail throughout Adams County. An emerging concept, a U.S. national quilt trail that first spread across Ohio now includes barn quilts in Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin. In Canada, British Columbia has developed a trail. Barn quilts also exist in Ontario and Kings County, New Brunswick. ¹

There are quilt trails in over half of the states in the United States, as well as in Canada. ¹

The Alabama Barn Quilt Trail in Lauderdale County plans to expand across the entire state. ¹

Historic downtown Trenton is considered the start of the Florida quilt trail. Many quilts can be seen along the I-75 corridor including in White Springs, Madison, and Lake City. Trenton hosts an annual quilt festival on National Quilt Day which falls on the third Sunday in March. ¹

A quilt trail exists in Maine, principally in Franklin and Somerset counties. ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Quilt trail”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

quilt trail is series of barn quilts, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 1 external register, which can be verified through the citation. ²