Adams Country, Ohio launched the first official quilt trail in 2001. Donna Sue Groves wanted to honour her mother, Maxine who was a quilter, with a painted quilt square on the family’s barn in Manchester, Ohio. The first barn quilt wasn’t on Maxine’s barn but the Groves’ did become part of the first Barn Quilt Trail.
There are now thousands of Barn Quilts along quilt trails in 43 American states. The blocks are marked on driving maps provided by local information centres or more recently on the internet.
Many communities in the United States have jumped onto the Barn Quilt bandwagon to bring tourists to their region and it works. It’s hard to miss the brightly painted quilt blocks as you drive along country roads.