Quilts. We know them made of fabric of different designs, stuffed with a light filling, and with hand sown designs.  Their designs often represent something meaningful for the seamstress.  You might see them on beds to keep people warm, on a wall of someone’s home, or at a museum such as the Pacific Northwest Quilt and Textile Museum in LaConner, Washington. The art of quilting goes way back to Medieval times.

There is another kind of quilt that recently caught my eye in Kittitas County. Barn quilts are painted on wood, usually 4 ft x 4 ft or 8 ft x 8 ft,  are framed to maintain their shape when hung, and are always hung on barns. The history of barn quilt does not go back as far as fabric quilts. The first barn quilt was conceived in Adams County, Ohio, by Donna Sue Groves in honor of her mother who was an exceptional quilter.  Quilting had been a tradition in her family for several generations. After moving into a home that had a barn, Donna Sue thought her barn was the ugliest she’d ever seen. She told her mother that one day she’d paint her a quilt square on it.

Several years later when Donna Sue had not yet painted her barn quilt, she said, “If we’re going to paint one, let’s paint multiple ones, and create a driving tour for folks to come into our county.” She explained that the squares would preserve families’ stories and would bring tourism and economic development to the county. A committee was formed, funding started, a trail of 20 quilt barns and the first quilt trail, was begun.  In January, 2001 Donna Sue finally painted her square.

Currently North America has 46 quilt trails. There are 43 in the United States and three in Canada., including 2 in Washington State - The Kittitas County Barn Quilt Trail and the Conconully trail, in Okanogan County.  It’s amazing to me this art has expanded so rapidly since 2001 in Ohio.

Kittitas County has several hundred historic, just old, and working barns, and many more other agricultural buildings. where the barn quilts are hung. The first barn quilt on the Kittitas Trail was on the Dominion Barn, which is currently being utilized as a beautiful garden shop at Dusty’s Nursery in Ellensburg. And the quilt is still proudly displayed.

Since we were already on the eastern side of Kittitas Country, Beth and I started our adventure there. The map we were given at the Ellensburg Visitor’s Center showed a list of over 100 barn quilts  in 5 distinct sections. Since, we knew we wouldn’t be able to see all of them in one day, we we were determined to find at least 2 in each section. We avoided the freeway and were rewarded with some of the most beautiful areas in our state.

One of the most enjoyable parts of this journey was driving through areas of farms, pastures, and cows, chickens, and horses grazing in their fields. It’s a serene experience with wide open spaces, rolling landscapes, and an occasional piece of farm equipment driving much slower than we did.

As the sky began to darken and we had almost reached Cle Elum,  we knew we were getting close to the end of our journey. We had time for just one more barn quilt and we topped it off at number 15 before getting on to the freeway, driving back to Seattle. 

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