History Class: A Brief History of Barn Quilts

Old barns are beautiful, especially the weathered ones that have seen plenty of use and could tell stories. They are the quintessential country symbol and what could possibly be better than realizing that they have another picturesque trick up their sleeves in the form of the barn quilt, which they wear like jewelry.

It is generally accepted that back in the day, the barn quilt came to the New World from traditions in the central European countries such as Germany, Austria and the Netherlands. When the 17^th century Mennonite farmers moved their families to America, they brought the tradition with them. The barn quilt was a useful symbol to identify the farm and its farmer. It could be used as a identification for travelers and many farms would be found based on the description of the barn quilt, which would be quite pertinent to the farmer and his family or the region in which the farm was found.

It would make perfect sense that in a time when literacy and numeracy was not widespread, a colorful quilt in a distinctive design could be helpful!

The designs were distinctive. The quilts were large, on average, around 8’ x 8’, although some were smaller at half that size and some were much larger, depending on how far off the main road the barn was situated. The patterns were bold, designed to be seen at a distance. Drunkard’s Path, Compass Star, Jakob’s Ladder and Bear Claw were all popular motifs because they are strongly geometric and therefore, visible. Small details were likely to be lost so they were less likely to be used.

It has been suggested that the idea of barn quilts may have grown out of the protective symbol of a hex sign, which was once used for protection and the hope of abundance on the farm and it is true that the hex signs share characteristics with barn quilts. However, the two seem to exist also alongside one another and have done so since the beginning of American colonization.

Barn Quilts in the Modern Age

The barn quilt was a popular symbol of the Penn Dutch farmers (confusingly, Penn Deutsch indicating that these farmers originated in Germany rather than The Netherlands) and after initial farm usage, it fell from our sightline until 2001 when Donna Sue Groves from Adams County, Ohio started the Barn Quilt Movement.

Groves remembered as a child spotting and counting the barns along the road to visit her grandmother in Roane County, West Virginia. In a 2008 interview, she explained how the barn spotting game was invented by her mother to keep her and her brother (their father, too, on occasion) quiet on the long car journeys. Normally, a family might play number plate games but that didn’t work on back country roads where the cars were either quite sparse or all displaying West Virginian plates. So points were awarded for spotting certain barns and this led to questions that her ex- school teacher and quilt enthusiast mother was happy to answer.

Groves looked forward to seeing the barns and as she grew older, she developed her own game variations. She would categorize them as either dilapidated or well-kept and as a teenager she started to notice the old hex signs on barns as they travelled through Pennsylvania; her mother allotted a generous fifty points for spotting those so they became extra special!

The Barn Quilt Movement

Her barn fascination stayed with her into adulthood when she decided to make a barn quilt to honor her mother, a keen quilter. The idea hung in the air for a few years until friends, noting her mother’s encroaching age, encouraged her to get on with it. They even volunteered to help.

The quilt, like most barn quilts, was not an entire quilt as you might imagine from the name, but rather a quilt block and when Groves had the quilt hung on her Ohio tobacco barn, the neighbors took notice.

They loved the concept and Groves, quick to see the potential as a community concept for the area, then pointed out that if one was worth doing, it might be worth exploring the possibility of a whole trail’s worth of barn quilts, which would be great for tourism and would encourage visitors to the area.

A committee was formed, which included Grove’s mother who researched and came up with 35 designs from which the committee was to pick 20. Her mother felt that this was an important number as 20 blocks made up an average bed quilt and it would also make a good driving loop for the trail.

The first quilt was hung in October 2001 at the Lewis Mountain Herb Fair in front of press and over 10,000 people. And the movement took off. This sparked so much interest in the neighboring counties that calls and letters came in asking how they could join. As of the interview with Groves in 2008, 22 states and 20 counties in Ohio were on board. By 2021, the barn quilts numbered 90,000 across the Untied States.

Why We Love Barn Quilts

It is such a beautifully simple idea, too. It fits fabulously well with the ethos and aesthetic of the countryside and pairs so beautifully with barns of all shapes, ages and sizes. Many women quilt and will therefore have a favorite design in mind and if a farm doesn’t have a barn, it will have another sort of outbuilding which will do just as well.

It is an accessible craft which can involve a whole community, young and old. The modern barn quilts are painted onto plywood and then hung onto the building rather than being painted directly on. This is easier in every way and allows for maintenance, too. Groves noted that the very old timber of some of the barns sucked in layers and layers of paint meaning that the project quickly became more expensive than it needed to be.

Sadly we lost Donna Sue Groves on November 13, 2021 after a long battle with breast cancer but what a legacy one very clever woman has left! She has changed the landscape and renewed interest in a tradition that is older than modern America itself. She found a way to unite country communities and to bring lasting gains to rural areas which may have felt some hardship in the past.

Which quilt block did her mother finally choose for their old tobacco barn? It was a Snail Trail block in green, grey and mauve Martha Stewart colors and was painted by Jeff Schenkel from Marietta, Ohio.

Do you have a barn quilt? What’s your favorite barn quilt design? Let us know below in the comments!