Suzi Parron

I am often asked how it is that I--a woman from a state with very few barns--ended up spending three years studying barn quilts. Though the first barn quilt appeared on the scene in 2001, I actually never heard of quilt barns (as they are sometimes called) or quilt trails until 2008.

I love to travel, usually with a destination, but seldom with a fixed timetable. In 2008, I set off on a road trip from Georgia to Wyoming with Yellowstone as the turnaround point but with no certainty as to when I'd arrive. Being a teacher does, at times, have its privileges!

I travel the back roads, taking the highway to jump from one area to another and then wandering off to see whatever appears It might be a statue of the world's largest groundhog or a man with a chainsaw carving bears by the roadside; I seldom go half an hour without stopping to explore.

On the first evening of my trip, I spotted a barn quilt, in Cadiz, Kentucky. I wasn't looking for barn quilts, but having found one I wanted to find out more. I checked online--the back roads do come with wi-fi -to find a barn quilt book, but none existed. My curiosity got the best of me, and I ended up in Adams County, Ohio, where Donna Sue Groves began the barn quilt trail. She and I collaborated on the book, which begins with her story.

Three years and about eight hundred barn quilts later, I can safely say that I am well-versed in the subject. I did not travel to every barn quilt trail, but I did communicate with organizers of each trail in the country to find out a bit about their barn quilt projects.

The book is the story of both how the quilt trail came to be and the many ways that barn quilts have taken on meaning for those who create them. The story of my travels and many of the barn quilts I encountered can be found on my blog--americanquilttrail.blogspot.com; the best have been saved for the book itself.

For more info on barn quilts, visit my website www.barnquiltinfo.com