FCE Sponsored Barn Quilt Workshops

Contact: Virginia Foley for information regarding upcoming classes.

You will begin with a pre-primed board and go through each step - drafting, taping, and painting, with careful attention to detail.

Each workshop lasts about 4 hours. You will leave with a finished quilt block or with one last color (which will be provided) to add at home.Your quilt block will be ready to adorn your own barn, home, or business. The finished product will be two-by-two feet and is the perfect size for mounting on smaller buildings. Contact Virginia Foley if you are  interested in purchasing a barn quilt to display at your local business.

Class Supplies

• Yard stick

• Quilt pattern if you have one you like. Simple patterns available at class. Browse a few patterns before class. Barn quilt pattern link  More pattern ideas

• Hair dryer to speed up the drying process                                                                                                                                                   

• Power strip and extension cord                                                                                                                                                                       

• Lunch is not included so plan to bring

Barn Quilt Trails   

A barn quilt is a large piece of wood that is painted to look like a quilt block. Even though the name implies that an entire quilt is painted onto the wood, it generally is only a single quilt block. The size of the squares vary, but usually, they measure 8 feet. After they are painted, these blocks are hung on the exterior of a barn, house, garage or other building.

The majority of barn quilts are comprised of simple geometric shapes, like squares, rectangles and triangles. This makes them easier to create. They usually are painted in solid colors, though every now and then, you’ll come across one that has been painted to look like printed fabric. The simplicity in shape and the vibrancy of solid colors make these blocks easily seen from afar. If they are too complicated, the details can be lost. The earliest versions of barn quilts have been around for hundreds of years.

Just as fabric quilts have their own unique history, so do barn quilts. While barns were not painted back in the day, they were decorated with different types of folk art. This included quilt blocks once paint was readily available and affordable. People chose certain blocks to reflect particular meanings. In the early 2000s, barn quilts began reappearing. During this time, quilt trails were created in Ohio.

A quilt trail consists of many barn quilts that are mapped together and visited. Those following along the trail receive a map with all of the locations marked, and viewers drive through the countryside to see all of the blocks. Today there are quilt trails all over the United States. A wide variety of people have created them, including quilt guilds, schools, churches, FCEs and 4-H clubs.  

As more quilt blocks are created in Atchison County, plans are to create a local quilt trail map. If you would like to be listed on the future map, please share details about your quilt below. Return completed form to Atchison County Quilt Trail Registeration,  Attention: Mary Lou  Bowen -Atchison Co Extension  PO  Box 109, Effingham, KS 66023.  Pictures of your barn quilt are welcomed.  Information About The Glacial Hills Trail Project  

Appliction To Register Your Quilt

Kansas Barn Quilt Trails

Midwest Living Barn Quilts