Quilt Barn project aims to preserve McHenry's barns

Seeing quilts on the outside of barns might conjure up a few strange thoughts. Could this be a new approach to environmentally friendly heating? Or maybe, a prank by local youngsters?

Neither, says Nancy Fike, McHenry County Historical Museum administrator. Fike hopes a county-wide project will help promote and protect McHenry's remaining barns.

Fike has devoted the past six months to the Quilt Barn Project, which would place traditional quilt patterns on McHenry barns visible from the side of roads.

"Nearly 1,000 barns are still standing in McHenry County," Fike said. "However, very few of them are being used for the purpose in which they were designed anymore … they need a way of being preserved."

Barns would display one of 25 patterns supplied by Arlen Bird, a Union resident and Historical Museum quilter.

"Because county sign ordinances prevent anything from being painted directly on barns, a quilt pattern is painted on two 4-by-8 ft. plywood sheets, which are then attached to a barn's walls," Fike said.

"It should not be an expensive proposition -- all that's needed is plywood, paint, volunteers and willing farm owners." Painting would be done by local artists, Girl Scout troops or 4-H clubs, free of charge.

After reading about successful quilt barn programs in Iowa and Ohio, Fike contacted the Arts Subcommittee of the McHenry County Board about the project. She believes it would be the first of its kind in Illinois.

"One county in Iowa already has 48 quilted barns while in Ohio half of the 88 counties have them. McHenry is another perfect match for combining the traditions and beauty of quilting with the existing barns."

Tina Hill, chairman of the McHenry County Management Services Committee, which oversees the Art Subcommittee, said Fike's idea "came to the Arts Subcommittee a as a project we could do in-house and promote McHenry County artists. It seems like a fairly simple project that will do a lot for the area."

Andrea Lily, assistant curator of the County Art Subcommittee, believes the project is an important step for the county.

"School children rarely go to the Art Institute (of Chicago) -- it's a pretty far trip," she said. "Compared to other communities, McHenry's lacking in public arts resources. Rockford has an art museum, Aurora has an arts council … we need to step things up here," she said.

Lily, who has adopted leadership of the project, helped design a Web page on the county's site devoted to quilt barns. The web site features an application for barn owners interested in participating, information for artists, and links to other areas of the country who have started similar projects.

So far, Lily has been approached by one artist and one barn owner who are interested in participating in the project.

"I would like to say that in the next few months we can get to a point when we're painting, we're up and going," she said.

Lily is looking for lead artists to volunteer for each barn project, as well as volunteer groups who want to paint.

To Fike, the project is an "absolute win-win situation. Essentially it reminds every community in McHenry County what they have in common. We all started from this rural base. We'll notice those barns that are still standing and enjoy the art at the same time."