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"If we get the funding, we’ll have
enough for 30 quilt squares and 20 murals of cultural life, such as a
haystack or a tobacco field, that will be painted on barns and other
structures.”
Gwenda Adkins
UK Extension Agent for Family and Consumer Sciences in Elliott Co. |
By Aimee Nielson
SANDY HOOK, Ky., (Oct. 19, 2005) – A tri-state effort among Kentucky, Ohio and
Tennessee is seeking to draw tourists off the interstates and into rural
Appalachia to experience the region’s unique culture.
Called “Clothesline of Quilts,” the project involves painting quilt squares and
murals of rural life on barns and other structures along roadways throughout the
Appalachian region in each state, including in nine eastern Kentucky counties.
The project began in Ohio when Ohio Arts Council member Donna Sue Groves painted
a quilt square on a barn in honor of her mother, a lifelong quilter. She wrote
grants and raised funds to paint 20 squares in her home county of Monroe, Ohio.
Kentucky and Tennessee soon joined the project in hopes of creating a
“Clothesline of Quilts” driving trail.
“Donna Sue Groves says that people come from all over the country to see their
quilt squares because it’s tying together the home and the farm life,” said
Gwenda Adkins, University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension agent for family and
consumer sciences in Elliott County. “You know, the wife was a lot of times in
the home, and quilting was a big part of her life. The man was out farming and
the children with him, and this is kind of tying that together and saying look
at us and look at our culture.”
Extension has partnered with Gateway Resource Conservation and Development and
several other agencies to make sure the project is successful in eastern
Kentucky.
“In Elliott County, there are not a lot of community development organizations
so Extension has taken that lead,” Adkins said. “This promises to be a huge
component of a project we started several years ago. If we get the funding,
we’ll have enough for 30 quilt squares and 20 murals of cultural life, such as a
haystack or a tobacco field, that will be painted on barns and other
structures.”
Adkins said volunteers from the community and Gateway RC&D have been a crucial
part of the project’s initial success and will continue to play a key role. Lois
Greene volunteered to help with the project by offering suggestions for quilt
patterns and colors.
“We wanted themes that had to do with nature and farm life, so Turkey Tracks (a
quilt pattern) came to mind,” she said. “I love red and white so that’s how the
colors came to be (for one of the featured squares).”
Vivian Brown, also a volunteer, believes the project may help bring in tourists
and drive economic development for the counties involved.
“I think it will increase tourism because it will get the vacationers off the
main highways and into the country,” Brown said. “I’m hoping it will develop
into some local businesses so that people can stay at home and make a living.”
Adkins echoed Brown’s sentiments. “Hopefully, the people will get off the
fast-paced interstate and really experience what Appalachia is about instead of
just driving through it,” she said.
Adkins also said that recent research shows that the quilting market is growing
rapidly and that total quilters in the United States now exceed 21 million,
representing a 50 percent growth since 1997. She said with each quilter spending
an average of nearly $140, the estimated dollar value of the quilting industry
stands at $2.27 billion. Those numbers are encouraging to Adkins and her
volunteers because it means more people are interested in quilting and perhaps
that will bring them to see the squares and murals in eastern Kentucky.
The nine Kentucky counties participating in the project are Bath, Montgomery,
Rowan, Carter, Menifee, Morgan, Elliott, Lewis and Greenup. Several other
counties have plans to work with the project as well.
Writer:
Aimee Nielson
859-257-4736, ext. 267
Contact: Gwenda Adkins
606-738-6400
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