First Barn Quilt in Lancaster Goes Up

By Pattie Cox

The barn-quilt project in Garrard County is developing quickly with
the first completed design in Lancaster’s city limits already hung.

Michael Wild and Paul Aubrey hung the eight-byeight foot quilt block on
the east wall of B & B Shoe Repair on Monday afternoon.

The bright blue and white block is easily visible on the building owned
by Lonnie Napier and James Bushnell, for those traveling west on Ky 52
into Lancaster.

Although this particular block was designed and painted by Shannon
Carver, several more are already in the works through the Garrard
County Homemak-ers under the auspices of the extension office.

The first to be completed will be Virgil Clark’s and all it needs is the sealer. It will be hung on a Clark Road barn that faces US 27 so it
can be easily seen from the main highway.

Thomas Peters, Whitaker Bank, Freda Pendleton, Farmers Bank and Joan Tussey are all in line for quilt blocks themselves. They have already paid the $300 fee and once they are all complete, Inter County Energy has agreed to hang them.

Others have filled out forms but still need to get their money in to purchase the necessary materials.

“Unless I have the money in hand, [they’re] not on the
list,” Mary Hixson, Garrard’s extension agent for family
and consumer sciences, said.

The group’s plan is to have seven or eight completed by
the first of January. They are needing painters to help
Painting Chairperson Elaine Davis and those interested in
the individual designs to help Design Chairperson Wilma
Anderson. Also people willing to haul eight-by-eight
foot sections of wood to the work site, the old city hall
garage on Stanford Street, are also needed, she added.
Peggy and Henry West are working on a block, but not
through the extension office, Hixson said.

Individual designs are all okay as part of the
Appalachian Quilt Trail, even those already up, as long as
they comply with the size and care criteria. They also
need to share the details of the design along with why
and where it will be hung so it can be included in the
brochure and on the up and coming website, Hixson said.

$8,000 Grant Awarded For Barn Quilt Map

A regional tourism commission that includes Garrard, Boyle, Lincoln,
Jessamine and Casey counties has been awarded an $8,000 grant.

The grant will be used to set up a web site with cd-burning capabilities
for a barn quilt directional map through the five counties.

The regional group came up with the plan when it discovered
the joint barn-quilt effort currently in the works in all five counties.

Although the award was granted in mid-May and the
group’s plan was to meet in mid-June to discuss how to
proceed, summer vacations have delayed the process
slightly.

“To us there’s no real hurry,” Garrard’s Tourism
Director Skip Gladfelter said, “because there are lots
of barn quilts to put up.” The money must be spent
within a year of the award date, but once the quilt locations
are determined, setting up the website can be done fairly quickly, Gladfelter added.