Colourful barn quilts decorate fairgrounds

Fairgoers at last week’s Huntingdon Fair may have noticed the 4-H barn and Cattle Arena have both been adorned with eye-catching barn quilts designed and painted by members of the Huntingdon 4-H Club. As a centuries old tradition recently revived by rural communities across North America, barn quilts are large pieces of wood painted to look like quilt blocks. Once painted, the quilts are then hung on the exterior of barns, garages, houses and other buildings to be viewed by those driving by. The movement has been credited with helping to draw attention to our rural landscapes, agricultural architecture and the significance of the family farm. In part due to the intersection of such issues with the 4-H program and as an artistic project that incorporated teamwork as well as math skills in experimenting with geometric shapes, the Huntingdon 4-H group adopted the project with the goal of creating two four-foot square quilts to be hung during the Huntingdon Fair. “We thought it would be a good project to start,” says Nelleke Nieuwenhof, the president of the Huntingdon 4-H group. “It was a neat idea, and it was really fun,” she added, suggesting the project worked especially well considering there were a number of younger members involved with the project as well. “We were really surprised by how nice they were,” she concluded, of the green, white and black patterns the group chose to feature on their quilts. The hope is that these first two quilts are just the beginning. Already, the Huntingdon 4-H has initiated a partnership with the Huntingdon Fair Board to hang a quilt annually and has garnered interest from local quilters. A local Quilt Trail Barn quilts have become such a phenomenon in parts of the United States and Southern Ontario that quilt trails are now popular tourist attractions, with maps available to those looking to enjoy a colourful ride through the country. The first quit trail originated in Ohio, and the hope is that such a movement could be catalyzed here in the Haut-Saint-Laurent. The members of the Huntingdon 4-H have actually issued a challenge to the Ormstown and Howick 4-H Clubs to create their own barn quilts with a bit of a friendly competition in mind to see which club can come up with the best quilt. Once hung, the quilts would add to the already exceptional rural landscapes of the region.