Following the Barn Quilt Trail. Suzi Parron

over each dark-planked door swiveled on pegs, and tall ceilings were higher than even Glen’s long arms could reach.

      There is nothing better than waking up to a cool morning with windows open, hearing Glen’s voice from downstairs, enthusiastically engaged in conversation. He would spend the day alone, so this morning social time with our hosts was his. I lingered upstairs for a while, not wanting to break the spell by emerging downstairs before time to hit the road.

      As Jim drove, Barb told me a bit about the Hancock County Quilt Trail. Several barn quilts were already in place nearby when Barb decided to create one for their property. Barb was soon working with the Arts Partnership to expand the quilt trail. During an event called Artswalk, a block designed by art teachers was painted by college students but no location for the quilt square had been determined. Jim pointed out the quilt block, mounted on an old grain elevator standing out front of a car dealership. “He didn’t really know what he was agreeing to,” Barb said.

      Flowers and Snails

      Interest grew, and Barb soon found herself very busy producing barn quilts. Of course, the Gabriels added quilt blocks to their property, a Compass and a variation of the Ohio Star, which are easily visible on new garages next to the drive. One of the buildings is also home to a workshop where both Barb and members of the local community paint quilt blocks.

      The quilt design on Dave and Jan Reese’s barn echoed one that was well known to me. The center swirl of their quilt block resembled the Snail’s Trail on Donna Sue and Maxine Groves’s barn in Adams County, but the unusual colors and yellow flowers around the fringes marked it as an original. Jan invited us inside for lavender-infused lemonade and said that she grows flowers, including fragrant lavender, as a business. Before long, we were behind the barn checking out the lavender labyrinth she had created. Now the patterns and colors of Jan’s Flowers and Snails quilt block design made sense.

      Dave is the third generation on the family farm and remembers the dairy barn fondly as “full of noise and lots of chaos.” His grandfather purchased the barn in 1918, but through Friends of Ohio Barns, the building was dated to the 1860s. The barn was in poor condition, but Dave and Jan had no qualms about the very costly renovation. “It was really important to us to save the barn,” Dave said. “Jan’s work area has brought new life to the barn; I think the barn quilt symbolizes that new life with the restoration and the barn being repurposed.”

      We drove with Dave to nearby Kaleidoscope Farms, where he had started a farm about twenty years earlier. The couple wanted their sons to experience farming because, as Dave said, “There are values that only come from growing up on a farm and having chores—the value of hard work. The farm grew mushrooms and raised sheep and Great Pyrenees dogs, but eventually Christmas trees seemed the most prosperous. Now twelve hundred to two thousand families visit each year. “Seeing my boys interact with customers is priceless,” Dave said. “They learned well, and now the grandkids are set to learn the same values. It’s a dream come true.”

      A Double Aster quilt block on the side of a brick building was visible as we approached our next stop. As we got out of the car, Barb pointed out three additional blocks on a barn at the back of the property and introduced me to one of the most ardent supporters of the local effort. Tom Rader welcomed us into the 1870s schoolhouse that he and his wife, Pam, had restored. The exposed wood beams and brick walls of the interior created a wonderful space for antique furnishings and quilts hanging on walls, on racks, and across furniture. Larger pieces in progress stretched out on racks waiting in turn. The studio would have been the envy of many a quilter.

      The barn where the three quilt blocks—Star of the East, LeMoyne Star, and an unusual Star Table Runner—hang is a modern building. “When you spend that kind of money on a barn, why not decorate it up?” Tom said. Corn was visible on one side of the property but not in front of those barn quilts. Tom intends to grow only soybeans and wheat so that the quilt blocks that he is so proud of are visible all year. It was no doubt the first time I had heard of a farmer changing his planting scheme to show off his barn quilts.

      “Now I look at barns differently,” Tom said. “When I see a barn I tell them it needs a quilt.”

      “He gets credit for the whole row in the neighborhood,” Barb added.

      Barn quilt trio: (left to right) LeMoyne Star, Star Table Runner, and Star of the East

      Barb Gabriel has made lots of new friends through her work and is proud of all that the community has accomplished, both with her help and on their own. Anyone who creates a barn quilt is welcomed to the quilt trail. “I don’t care who paints it,” Barb said. “I want to get them on the trail.”

      . . .

      Glen and I left the Gabriels and the quilt trail behind and headed to Adams County, where a special event was scheduled for the next evening—a benefit for Donna Sue to help defray her mounting medical expenses. She had survived breast cancer but a host of other health issues remained.