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Above, Algood eighth grade students in Wren VanHooser's class hang an eight-by-eight-foot painting they completed of a Mariner's Compass quilt on an historic structure at White Plains Plantation.

Hitting the 'trail'

Area students, artists preserve the tradition of quilts with a painted quilt trail

COOKEVILLE - Two Algood Quilt Festival organizers are blazing a trail in the Algood vicinity - a trail of painted quilts.

Barbara Tolleson and Ruth Dyal applied for and received a matching grant that has funded a project to put six eight-by-eight-foot-square paintings of quilts made or owned by local quilters on area barns with the help of local artists, art teachers, and school children.

"It's only natural that after we painted that barn on Dry Valley Road, we wanted to continue that, so we did the research and tried to look for a route that would not only encompass nice barns but also pretty countrysides and nice houses" said Dyal.

One of the quilts, in the Mariner's Compass pattern, was reputedly worked on by Rachel Jackson, wife of Andrew Jackson. It will hang on an historic building on Old Walton Road, owned by Tom and Martha Willis.

"Legend has it that Rachel Jackson quilted on this quilt when she would stay here when she traveled with Andrew back and forth from Hermitage to points east," said Martha Willis. "The painting that was done is put up on the cabin which was part of the original smokehouse. It's lovely."

Artist Julie Styer and teacher Wren VanHooser helped the students at Algood School to bring the historic quilt to life.

"The Rachel Jackson quilt was very faded, so we used our imagination to come up with the colors we thought it probably was when it was new," said Styer., who shared its history with the fourth-through-eighth grade children who worked on the painting of it.

Styer and VanHooser also worked with the Algood kids on a Dutch Girl design by the late Dorcas Pointer. It will hang on a barn at the Doug and Mae Fowler Farm on Brotherton Mountain.

The material for every single girl on the original quilt was different and unique, and some of them were really intricate and hard for the children to replicate, so we gave them as inspiration and we used the same color palettes that were in the big quilt, though I think it still had the same overall effect when it was done," said Styer.

From left, students Dallas Dyal and Alex Stephenson with teacher Janis Nunally and artist Sandi Darrow work together one of two quilt paintings the group completed at Cornerstone Middle School

Artist Sandi Darrow of the Upper Cumberland Arts Alliance worked with the children at Cornerstone Middle School and their teacher, Janice Nunnelly, on a pattern called Grandma's Flower Basket by quilted Fannie Mae Harris and a red, white and blue brick design by the late Lilly Mae Hall.

"My mother-in-law did that from those old tobacco sacks men used to smoke from," said Jewel Hall, Lilly Mae's daughter-in-law, whose barn will sport the painting.

"She would save those little bags and rip them up and dye them, and she hand-quilted it out of those tobacco sacks. It has faded a little, but it was gorgeous at the time she made it."

Said Darrow, "Mrs. Hall said that in the summer there are millions and millions of sunflowers on her farm, and the quilt will look really nice with those sunflowers in front of that barn with those colors."

Also helping with the project was artist Ron Sweeney, who painted Velma Thompson's 20-inch miniature Drunkard's Trail quilt held by two of the antique dolls in her collection.

"I collect dolls and make doll quilts," said Thompson. "They took pictures of two dolls holding an 18-inch quilt I made for a doll bed. The dolls are an 1872 Dotter doll and an 1880 Grenier doll, the first doll to receive a patent in the U.S."

Because the grant that funds this project is a matching grant, Dyal and Tolleson are still seeking donations to support the quilt trail, and they hope they can add more quilts to the trail in future years.

"If this goes well, maybe we can apply for another grant too and keep decorating barns to bring people to the Upper Cumberland," said Dyal. "We have people in Granville and Livingston excited about it. We'd like to get the whole Upper Cumberland involved in it."

Added Harris, "I think it's great. I think it's something what will be long remembered, and I'm hoping the younger women will see this and catch on and want to start quilting."

And even those not all wrapped up in quilts can enjoy a splash of roadside color.

Said Styer, "Hopefully it will brighten up somebody's day when they are driving down the road and see the pretty quilts."

A brochure and a Web site (www.uppercumberlandquilttrail.com) about the trail are in the works for those who want to know more.