The van was all fixed and we needed to head down to the dealership near London, Ontario to pick it up.  Spring has finally showed up and presented us with a perfect day for a day trip so we took it.  We decided to check out the Barn Quilt Trails in the London area before we pick up the van, and then drive through some of the small towns in the area on our way back.

The barn quilt trail initiative stated with a daughter’s tribute to her quilter Mom.  In 2001, Donna Sue Groves made a wooden barn quilt square in honour of her Mom and hung it on the side of the family’s barn in Manchester, Ohio.  Donna’s barn quilt was not the first barn quilt, but did inspired other farmers to follow suit, and soon after the first barn quilt trail was formed in Adam’s County, Ohio. Nearly 2 decades later there are trails in most of the American states and many others north of the border in Ontario, British Columbia, and New Brunswick.

Through quilting patterns, the trails focus on local history, significant events, or they may highlight specific properties, structures, or architecture elements.  You can follow the Underground Railroad, or the Trail of Tears, rural histories, and military conflict to mention several of these themes.

The movement expanded it’s reach and you don’t have to have a barn for a quilt.  It can be mounted on the side of buildings, on an edge of a park, or free-standing on a front lawn.

You can check the story on the website to find out more, or better yet, get into your car and go exploring if you have any trails in your area.

Ontario has 14 trails featured on the Barn Quilts website and a few more in planning stages.  We just sampled a handful of them and most were on the Native Women’s Trail of Tears, which are a bit different than the traditional quilt designs.  They seemed like an interesting trail to start with.  I also took us through several reservations, which made for an interesting drive.

Take a look at some of the images that we captured and click on the captions below the photos to read more about each of the patterns.

Feathers

We love how these communities created a unique tourist destination without Disnifying the area.  It incorporates art, culture, history, and heritage in a subtle, simple, and effective 8X8 painted wooden square.  It is up to you to interact with the quilts; you can just drive by and view the vibrant squares, you can stop and explore the area, or you can dig in deeper and find the story behind each and every one of them.  If you are into geocaching, many of them have a cache near by as well.  Bonus!

The book Following The Barn Quilt Trail by Suzi Parron and Donna sue Groves is available on Amazon.ca and Amazon.com.  Check it out!

After picking up the van (an update about the toilet and battery will follow in a future post), we took our time zigzagging through back roads and small towns, wondering if any of them would be a good place to retire to.  We found ourselves at the perfect spot on the north shore of Lake Erie before heading back home.  Port Dover is a cute port town; we strolled to the end of the pier to look at the lighthouse and view the town from a distance and even gave a small tour of the van to a small fan club.

Looks like we’ll need to come back and explore the area a little more.  There is a lot to explore in Southern Ontario and one does not have to drive to San Diego and back to have fun.

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