Beautifying old barns
Barn quilts, and barn quilt trails, have become signature projects in rural areas across the country. Take a drive around Colton and see the barn quilts around town in this self-guided tour. The first barn was quilt done through a town-school project and installed on the Colton Museum in January 2015. Photos of barn quilts throughout town are added as installed and/or as photos become available: www.townofcolton.com/photos--locations-in-town.html
The emergence of a barn quilt movement across St. Lawrence County has been documented by Traditional Arts in Upstate New York (TAUNY) with the help of a student videographer from Clarkson University. Other barn quilt locations include Hammond, Fine, Ogdensburg, Norwood, Hermon and Depeyster.
At a glance
- While cloth quilts are usually made up of a series of blocks pieced together, traditional barn quilts are typically a single block or square.
- Traditional quilt blocks can be embellished in many ways and incorporate more contemporary designs.
- Most barn quilts are painted on boards; and they are mounted on garages, houses, camps, museums and even on decks and posts in gardens as well as on barns. Barn quilts, like cloth quilts, often reflect the culture and character of areas where they are located.