A second quilt design was hung at J.D. Devins' farm on Battlefield Road. His wife, Beverly, debated incorporating goats in their design because they run a goat farm. She opted for Tangled Star to represent the North and South armies during the Civil War since the road leads to Perryville Battlefield.
A third quilt is ready to be hung on Clifton Road at the home of artist Louise Dearborn. She painted doves on it as symbols of Christianity.
In addition to these three patterns, more are in progress in the Brummetts' Perryville Furniture warehouse.
Mary Ann Sharp, who works with the Boyle County Conservation District, said Patchwork Boyle has a "blue million" volunteers and is ready to take the project full steam ahead.
"We've tried not to go into this helter skelter," she said, noting there are specific guidelines for the quality of material and paint used to make these long-lasting art.
She credits a quilting group, Pieceable Quilters, and recently retired extension agent Donna Forgacs with getting the quilt project started in the county by hanging two quilt designs. One is on Tom Nolan's farm on Lexington Road, and the other is on G.W. Anderson's farm in Alum Springs.
Pattern conversion
For $250, Patchwork Boyle will help applicants select a design and work with them until the project is hung. The group relies on Judi Adams' expertise with computer-assisted drawing to put the designs on the boards. Adams, who is retired, said she narrowed down the design choices to 200.
"I looked at 4,400 to pick 200 patterns," said Adams, a quilter for the past 10 years.
Adams said she is willing to devote her energy to the project because she values quilts. "I love all the patterns, the symbolism and the history of quilts."
At the warehouse, Eddie Walker was busy making a Morning Star pattern to put on his barn on U.S. 127 south of Danville on the way to Junction City.
Nearby, Nancy Gentry outlined Dutch boy britches while she waited for her granddaughter, 4-year-old Anna Keith Story, to come fill in the pants. Gentry will hang her quilt on her barn on Minors Branch Road in Forkland. She chose her design because it's the Forkland Festival quilt.
"We might have the hay ride come by the house," she said of the hay ride held during the October festival.
Sharp expects great results with Adams to draw the patterns, Inter-County to hang the boards, excited applicants, and a recent grant to promote the project.
Danville-Boyle County Convention and Visitors Bureau also received an $8,000 grant for developing a Web site to showcase the ones that have been done.
Adam Johnson, executive director of the visitors bureau, says the money from Tour Southern and Eastern Kentucky will be used to develop a promotional Web site for quilts hung in the Heritage Corridor, which includes Boyle, Lincoln, Garrard, Casey and Jessamine counties.
"Once we get a good number of barn quilts up, we'll start to put together a promotional item for those barns," Johnson said.
Johnson's favorite idea concerning the quilts is to offer a CD for a driving tour.
"We'll interview the people that put the quilt up and why it was meaningful to them. But we also want to make a simple CD that people can put in their car and when they go to barn 1, that's track 1 and they can listen to that. That's something we can do to flesh out the stories of this quilts."
Sharp says her love of quilts motivates her.
"I don't think the younger generation realizes what a part of life quilts were. You didn't have heat and in the winter, you got under five or six quilts."
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For more information
Applications are available at the Boyle County extension office, Corporate Drive, (859) 236-4484; the Boyle County Conservation District, 3998 S. Danville Bypass, (859) 238-7461; and the Danville-Boyle County Convention and Visitors Bureau, Grayson's Tavern, Constitution Square, 236-7794.
