T-L Photo/DYLAN McKENZIE The “Lone Star” quilt square adorns a barn on the Rinkes Farm in Short Creek Township. The Quilt Barn Driving Tour gives visitors to Harrison County a look at 20 different decorated barns throughout the area.

The barn at the
Harrison County Home is host to the “Make A Difference Day” quilt square. The barn also proudly displays an Ohio Bicentennial mural.

The “Bow Tie” quilt square peeks out from a barn on the Monzula Farm in Cadiz. The barn is easily observed from the back deck of the Vineyard 22 building, giving guests to the establishment a view to admire.

Puskarich
Public Library Director Sandi Thompson holds a copy of “Barn Quilts and the American Quilt Trail Movement.”

CADIZ — Visitors to Harrison County may notice various decorated barns as they travel through the area. What they may not know is that there are 20 barns in total, and they all come together to show the pride the owners have in Harrison County.

The Harrison County Quilt Barn Driving Tour is a self-guided tour focusing on the 20 barns scattered over the region. Each barn is decorated with an 8-foot painted replica of a quilt square. All the squares comes together to help form a complete quilt. With names like “Bow Tie,” “Dhalia,” and “Double Wedding Ring,” the colorful squares draw attention to the barns and the property around them, raising the public profiles of Harrison County and the residents that own the structures.

“They’re just pretty,” said Barb Pincola, who worked for the Harrison County Tourism Council when the quilt barn idea was first taking shape. Pincola added that they had heard about other quilt barns in surrounding communities, giving them the idea to consider bringing a similar tour to Harrison County. “We were just trying to come up with ways to make the county attractive and give people something to look at when they were traveling through. It was just a different way to do something to help promote the county.”

According to the Harrison County Tourism Council website, the concept was truly born when Donna Sue Groves, a field representative with the Ohio Arts Council, decided to decorate a barn on her farm in Adams County, Ohio, with a quilt square from one of her mother’s quilts. The idea quickly caught on, with other counties soon adopting the idea. Even counties in Tennessee and Kentucky got on board. Groves spoke to representatives of Harrison County to receive approval for the idea and gain support. The project was coordinated through the combined efforts of the Puskarich Public Library, the Ohio State University Extension Office and the Harrison County Community Improvement Corp. Each quilt square is based on an actual quilt sewn by a Harrison County resident, and the designs were voted on at the 2005 Harrison County Fair.

The initial plan was to install quilt squares on 15 barns, one for each township in Harrison County; there are now 20 decorated barns scattered all over the county for drivers do discover as they travel through the area. Sandi Thompson, director of the Puskarich Public Library, has been involved with the project from its early stages and is happy with the barn owners and volunteers who made the idea come to life.

“All of the owners just agreed to participate and hang a square on their barns,” said Thompson. “The squares were all painted individually by volunteers. Some smaller squares were painted by 4-H clubs and hung up, usually on barns that had a family connection to the club.”

All of the frames for the quilt squares were built by the students of the industrial arts program at Harrison Central High School before being installed by the Harrison County engineer’s staff. Thompson added that the final project was the result of a collaboration among several different agencies and many volunteers, with dozens of quilt designs being submitted by the residents of Harrison County. It took everyone working together to make make the project become the final result that it is today.

Information on the quilt barn website states that the barns “serve as a constant reminder of our pioneer and agricultural heritage,” and the self-guided driving tour to see all the barns gives motorists a chance to see all that Harrison County has to offer, with the drive taking people to various locations in Cadiz, New Athens, Jewett and more.

The colorful patches stand out to drivers, causing them to slow down and appreciate the barns they are attached to, as well as giving them a chance to see the surrounding area better.

For more information on the Quilt Barn Driving Tour, visit www.visitharrisoncounty.com/points-of-interest/quilt-barns/ or call the Harrison County Tourism Council at 740-942-1102.

The website also reminds visitors that all barns are privately owned and asks drivers to be respectful of the property and privacy of barn owners.