I recently traveled to Ohio to visit my family. Since we’re still in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, our options for fun things to do outside of the home were quite limited. Thankfully, my brilliant mother came up with a brilliant idea — the Ottawa County Barn Quilt Trail! Some of you may be wondering just what exactly is a barn quilt? It’s a piece of wood that has been painted to look like a quilt block and then affixed to a barn (or any building, really). Check out the articles below to learn about the surprisingly short history of barn quilts. I actually had no idea that barn quilts only date back to 2001 until I started writing this blog post!
My parents live in Northwest Ohio, so the Ottawa County Barn Quilt Trail was the closest one for us. This trail is a collaboration between the Greater Port Clinton Area Arts Council and the Ottawa County 4-H Program. There are currently 22 quilts displayed on the trail with more coming this fall. They are scattered throughout the county, which means quite a bit of back and forth if you want to see them all. But it’s so worth it!
Not only are the barn quilts themselves so cool to see, but it was such a pleasure to drive through the beautiful countryside with glimpses of Lake Erie and the bizarrely juxtaposed sight of the Davis-Besse cooling tower and its enormous cloud of steam often spotted in the distance. We also managed to have a delicious socially-distanced lunch of lake perch at Jolly Rogers in Port Clinton. What a lovely day! Scroll through the pictures below and enjoy!
Boy Meets Quilt 
These are cool. I’m from Ohio and am familiar with the Bicentennial Barn project. Instead of quilt images, Scott Hagan painted an image of Ohio on one barn in each of Ohio’s 88 counties.
https://ohiomemory.ohiohistory.org/archives/2161
I’ve seen those but never knew the story behind them. Thanks for sharing!!