OklahomaHorses Magazine July 2021

July/August 2021 • OklahomaHorses 9 so there are references of that, and we take those patterns and put them on boards, and then we hang them. And that’s where the barn quilts started. There are three trails in Oklahoma right now,” Scott said. Although barn quilt trails feel like something that was born centuries ago, the current barn quilt fad actually began in Adams, Ohio, when Donna Sue Groves wished to honor her mother, Maxine, and her Appalachian heritage by having a paint- ed quilt hung on her barn. She eventually approached others in the community to develop a sort of “sampler” of 20 quilt squares that could be placed along a roadway, inviting travelers to visit the countryside. With a team of volunteers, Groves and her committee planned out the trail and recruited barn owners to sign on. The popularity of Ohio’s barn quilt trail caught on, and, soon, other states like Tennessee, Kentucky and Oklahoma began offering their own barn quilt heritage trails. Although many historians believe the Amish community in America started the tradition of painting quilt patterns on their barns, no written or provable documenta- tion has been found prior to the famous Ohio Star that was painted in Adams County, Ohio, in 2001. There are now 43 quilt trails in the Unit- ed States and three in Canada. According to the website, Barn Quilt Info, an official trail includes quilt blocks on a series of surfaces accessed on a walking or driving trail. However, the quilt patterns don’t have to be on barns. They can be put on fences, other types of buildings, on signs and even on aluminum. Oklahoma ‘Quilters’ Scott first discovered barn quilts when she visited her sisters in Bonham, Texas, in Tarrant County in 2016. “My sister said she wanted to take me around to see this barn quilt trail, and I said, ‘Well, I don’t know what that is, but let’s go,’” said Scott. “We got in the car, and we drove around. I was fascinated by them. They’re really beautiful.” After visiting her grandchildren in Oregon that summer, she was feeling lonely when she returned to Oklahoma. “I thought, ‘What can I do to lift my spirits?’ My mother used to say ‘Get busy and do something,’ so I thought, ‘I’m going to make a barn quilt!’ My husband’s a carpenter, so he bought me a piece of plywood, and I started my barn quilt. I had trouble with the first one because they’re geometric shapes, which are sometimes a little hard to draw.” After her husband helped her figure out the dimensions, Scott was hooked. She began painting barn quilts on a regular basis, and, soon, others came to her for their own barn quilts. Scott and her artist friend Annette Rowe, both teachers, started making the barn quilts together. “We started going to craft shows in our area, in Tillman County, and to festivals.