One can drive through the country side and see more and more quilt squares showing up on the sides of barns. Big 4 x 4 sheets of plywood are divided and conquered by paint instead of cloth showing various quilt images. I think the beginning of this countryside art show began in Ohio. I think. I could be wrong. Could be Iowa. At first it was a surprise to be driving along and see a bright patch on a usually weathered old barn. We would point and decide, just like with cloth, whether we liked the color choices. Is there enough contrast? Would I pick those colors?
Now, we see them more often and it occurred to me over the weekend that it's so appropriate to have a huge quilt square brightening up the size of a weathered barn. Isn't that what farm women did? Make quilts to keep their families warm? Cutting up worn clothing giving a shirt or skirt one last chance to live? Can you imagine that most pioneer and farm women in decades gone by knew how to quilt? Quilting was as much associated with farm life as the mule was.
I like to look at them, it feels right making the connection between barns and quilting and the lives that went into them.
Last weekend PH and I went back to the lakeshore to visit friends and stopped at one of the vineyard/wineries in the area. It's great grape growing country so tasting rooms are popping up like dandelions.
It took me a minute to realize this square shows a bunch of grapes made with hexies! Not only is this imaginative, colorful and fun, making the connection between the use of the land and the quilt square
is really what this countryside phenomenon is all about.
I love the pioneer quilts, made to toss on a bed and keep warm! It's lovely to see the artistry making it to the barn. You sure could have made this a post about our beloved cloth quilts but you took it to the great outdoors and I like where you went with it.
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