Following the Barn Quilt Tour in Highland County ~ Virginia ~ Part 1

Saturday was a day that Hannah and I had looked forward to ever since I signed up for the Barn Quilt tour over in Monterey. The Highland Center is located three mountains over from where we live, but it was well worth the trip!

The morning included a celebration of barn quilts with a presentation and book signing by author Suzi Parron, followed by a catered lunch, and a self-guided tour of Seldom Seen barn quilts of Highland County.We arrived in the small town of Monterey and found the Center (above), registered, found our seats, and browsed some of the vendor displays around the room before the presentation began: Here I am browsing through the program, the menu, and the map that would guide us all over the county on back roads to see eight of the Seldom Seen quilts that most folks never know about:

Delicious refreshments were served as we waited for the morning's activities to begin: Suzi Parron was available for signing her new book Following the Barn Quilt Trail: Suzi's hour-long presentation about her travels across the United States to capture photos of barn quilts, and especially the stories that went along with them, were so interesting...I could have listened to her all morning: Here I am with Hannah on our special mother/daughter day trip. We enjoyed meeting the local ladies at our table, and one of them remarked, "We knew you weren't from the county the minute you walked in!" I guess they know everyone within miles...and we were definitely strangers:Here's a close up of our lunch plate, which consisted of quiche, salad (that's a watermelon radish on top), maple bacon cornbread, and a plate of cookies for dessert:After lunch we were on our way with the Northern Route map in hand to find the eight barn quilts on the Seldom Seen Tour. Because all the owners had been contacted and were on their property to answer questions and talk about their barn quilt, this was our favorite part of the tour. The next blog post includes us talking with some of those owners.

We also tracked and found over 30 other barn quilts listed in the Barn Quilt Trail brochure...they were located on every back country road imaginable!

Here's one of the many barns we saw....this barn has 5 barn quilts mounted on the side and one on the end, too, for good measure...very striking: This property below belongs to Margie, the barn quilt painter whose work is found on numerous Highland County barns. I'll show you her studio in the next post: Have you enjoyed the journey so far? I'll show you more beautiful barns and the quilts mounted on them in the next blog post. Stay tuned for Part 2.

~Deb

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Comments

[Toni]

Hi Deb! Love that you went to a barn quilt tour. I've always loved barn quilts, and if I wasn't so lazy I'd paint one for our barn. lol
I've never seen a watermelon radish! Love it.
Have a great week!
Toni

[Barbara J.]

Hi Deb, I'm so glad you and Hannah got to do the barn quilt tour. I'm still looking for a picture of my cousin's barn quilt to share. Congrats to Tom also on his retirement. There's nothing like it. I had back surgery two weeks ago and have been a little slow in responding to things. I also made P.Allen Smith's chicken salad and it was great. Just be sure to use white balsamic vinegar in the dressing! I didn't and regretted it :). Tasted great though.

[victoria]

What a fun tour. Some of those quilts are amazing. Look forward to your next installment.

[Tammy C]

Looks like it was a fun day.Glad you had good weather.

Lunch looks good.Watermelon radish isa new one for me to see.

Look forward to the rest of your tour.

[Chris]

Oh Deb, this sounds like such a wonderful day trip! I can't wait to read part two. Your lunch looks delicious. I have never seen that kind of a radish, did it taste the same? It reminded me of a "dragon fruit" we ate in Hawaii. (I did not like it.) You know you could have taken a REALLY long route and seen my barn quilt!! ;) I would have even treated you two to a meal and a bed!! :)

[Shari]

I LOVE reading about your adventures!!! It all sounds so dreamy! And the photos are just beautiful!!!

I cannot sew, but I surely love beautiful quilts.

His,
Shari