The latest, local tourist attraction has gone up on a carport in rural Crittenden County.
Neil Decker, a representative of the Kentucky Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, hung the county’s third decorative, wooden quilt block last week on Virginia McDowell’s outbuilding in Mattoon, next to the old school.
Painted quilt blocks started popping up on barns, outbuildings and public facilities a few years ago as a way for Kentucky to promote rural tourism. The idea was inspired by an Ohio artist, who put a painted block on her family's barn in honor of her mother who had been an avid quilter. The idea caught hold in eastern Kentucky then quickly spread across the state as counties sought to draw curious motorists off the beaten paths of four-lane highways.
The state’s agriculture department got involved to help spur the effort forward. Crittenden County’s FFA class has been helping by designing, constructing and painting the quilt blocks.
The quilt block on McDowell’s garage is a “Mariner’s Compass.” The county’s other two quilt blocks are a “Carpenter’s Wheel” at Marion Inn at 2362 U.S. 641 and a “Barn Lot and Trees” at Crittenden Farm Supply at 312 West Gum Street.
McDowell, who is sponsoring the newest block, learned to quilt from her grandmother when she was nine years old. Her husband, son-in-law and grandson were all Navy men, and at one time, she had quilted the Mariner’s Compass design.
The quilt block is painted on a piece of Alucabond just larger than five foot square.
For more about the quilt block project or for an index of quilt blocks hanging on buildings throughout Kentucky, go online to http://www.quiltindex.org.
