Members of Ontario's Barn Quilt Trails presented a history of barn quilts at this weekend's Ontario Heritage Conference, co-hosted by Bluewater and Goderich.
Mary Simpson and Denise Cornell explained barn quilts actually started in Ohio in 2000 and appeared in Temiskaming with their plowing match in 2008.
They spread across Ontario, and started appearing in Huron County for the 2017 plowing match.
"It all started with Tim Prior and Brussels Agri-Services. He threw in some money to challenge the landowners and farmers to beautify their property with barn quilts, leading up to the plowing match. And they got up to 150."
Simpson points out every block on a barn quilt tells a story and some of the trails are built around a theme. She says the one in Middlesex County is all about the war of 1812.
"Some of them are collections, like in Huron County and some of them are actual trails. Down in Middlesex County there's a trail that runs from Delaware, on Longwoods Road, the old highway number two, all the way down through Chatham-Kent to the mouth of the Thames River on Lake St. Clair."
It's estimated there are over 200 barn quilts in Huron County.
