Kentucky residents have banded together to display a part of their cultural heritage in a statewide art project. Colorful quilting patterns, passed down from previous generations, have brighten up the state's backcountry roads for nearly a decade. In a conscious effort to lure tourists away from interstate highways, quilt artwork has turned rural roads into an eye-catching art gallery. Hundreds of unique eight by eight quilt panels have added a cheerful note on roadside buildings, floodwalls and rustic barns, creating a series of quilting trails.
   Local students, lending a helping hand, applied their artistic skills to either plywood or longer lasting metal panels. Area electric companies have chipped in, lending bucket trucks and crews to hang the paintings. Governmental agencies and private donors have supplied materials for the movement and as many as 30 Kentucky counties have joined the quilt-barn rage. This Kentucky barn scene was found at the Gladie Center in the Red River Gorge, an area surrounded by the Daniel Boone National Forest.
   Donna Sue Groves of Adams County, Ohio, has been credited for the initial inspiration for the Clothesline of Quilts Trail theme. It began as a tribute to her mother, master quilter Nina Maxine Groves, and has now spread to a half-dozen states. Starting out in 2001 to honor her mom, a fifth generation quilter from Roane County, West Virginia, the first showcase of quilt-art has gone on to inspire hundreds of heart-warming community projects from New York to South Carolina and Iowa to Maryland.

     Kentucky Quilt Trails Map