It's precise and demanding work," said art teacher Jill Schneider. "Students research the history of the patterns and use a ton of math skills to get the pattern on the boards. The barn quilts in central Minnesota range from 2-by-2-foot boards mounted on homes, fenceposts and mailboxes to 6-by-6 signs on local shops to the 8-by-8 graphic images sometimes hoisted onto the sides of barns by a bucket truck borrowed from the local electrical co-op.Īrtists brought into town have helped locals prepare, prime and paint their boards art students at Staples-Motley High School have created more than 40 barn quilts. Gordy Greenwaldt feeds his chickens near the Eggs in a Basket and Sunflower barn quilts his wife Mary painted at 48584 277th Av. The annual "Bike the Barn Quilts" tour combines fall colors on country roads with the bright geometric designs. Wisconsin's barn-quilt capital, Shawano County near Green Bay, may have the nation's most extensive trail, boasting 366 quilt plaques, mostly on dairy barns. Bus tours have helped day-trippers view the quilts, with stops at wineries, breweries, orchards and cafes. Carver County's barn quilt trail began in 2011 and has grown to four dozen sites. Minnesota boasts at least eight trails, from Caledonia to the Chisago Lakes, featuring colorful wooden renditions of quilt squares. I don't have an artistic bone in my body but I've taught 4,000 people how to make barn quilts." "Getting involved gives everyone the chance to be artists. "We don't have many chances to come together as a community, share with neighbors, with no electronics," she said. Since 2008 Parron has documented 14,000 barn quilts and co-authored a pair of travel memoirs filled with her photographs and stories she collects and curates. The movement dovetails with the resurgence of interest in all things Americana," said Suzi Parron, who cruises the country in her motor home, offering talks on barn quilts and leading workshops on how to make them. It resonates and that's why the trails have exploded in popularity. "Everyone has quilts in their family, a grandma who quilted. Barn quilt trails now meander through 48 states and several Canadian provinces, a popular economic development tool. The grassroots concept took off like a prairie fire. The first modern barn quilt trail was established in 2001 in rural Ohio. Earlier, farmers in Pennsylvania Dutch country painted patterns or circular God's eyes onto their barns. With the dawn of the automotive era, advertisers began paying farmers for the privilege of painting billboard-style slogans ("Chew Mail Pouch Tobacco") on roadside barns. "They say, 'Let's grab the map and go check out barn quilts.' " A national movement "This project started long before anyone knew COVID would hit us, but when people couldn't gather it's become a source of entertainment and wonder, an interesting outing," said Vicki Chepulis of the Five Wings Arts Council, which gave the project a $5,000 grant. On a sunny day, it's perfectly pleasant to follow a sort of self-guided barn-quilt scavenger hunt on rural roads marked with deer and ATV tracks, with an ear tuned to farm market reports and funeral notices on the local radio station. Visitors can find the map at, or on brochures posted in local businesses and at the historic Staples depot. Now there's a map dotted with dozens of stops in and around the towns of Staples, Motley and Wadena, or viewable on the outskirts of smaller burgs like Verndale, Bertha and Clarissa. What started with seven quilt patterns painted on plywood has expanded. They might find other cool things going on in our small towns," said Kajer. "People can see them from their cars but it might give them a reason to stop, walk around, have lunch or fill up their cars. Noska, a retired occupational therapist from Browerville, and her friend Lisa Kajer, a retired teacher from Staples, were among the instigators who thought a barn quilt trail would be both a positive community project and a year-round tourist attraction to coax cabin-bound travelers off the highway. We're on a mission to bring eye candy, free public outdoor art, to our community and our visitors," said Mary Noska. Started six years ago, the four-county Central Minnesota Barn Quilt Trail now includes 123 bold wooden barn "quilts," with nine more in the works. The oversized geometric patterns - painted to resemble classic quilt blocks - are visible on the backroads, byways and Main Streets of cabin country. As late-winter brown gives way to spring green, a drive through north-central Minnesota offers some surprising and unexpected flashes of color on barns, businesses and other buildings.
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