LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lake County Quilt Trail project has been hanging colorful painted quilt blocks on barns, houses and other buildings around Lake County since 2010.
To date, nearly 100 blocks decorate Lake County’s highways and byways. The Lake County Quilt Trail is an “agricultural and tourism project designed to promote and celebrate our community pride.”
The Lake County Library’s free lecture series Know Lake County will feature the Lake County Quilt Trail on Saturday, May 21, at 2 p.m. at the Lakeport branch of the Lake County Library, 1425 N. High St.
Members of the Lake County Quilt Trail team will share how the project started in Lake County and how they design and paint the 8-foot by 8-foot and 4-foot by 4-foot quilt blocks.
The team will display some smaller block samples. Lake County is the first county in California to have a quilt trail.
Artists, painters, writers, carpenters and a videographer volunteer their time to create the quilt blocks. The Lake County Quilt Trail Web site is www.lakecountyquilttail.com .
Lake County’s Quilt Trail began after Marilyn Holdenried discovered quilt trails in other states and brought the idea to Lake County. This public art on barns, houses and other buildings celebrates family, farming and local history.
The Lake County Quilt Trail has been published. Lake County’s Kerrie Hershey has published Sunday Drive, a book of some of the patterns from the Lake County Quilt Trail. The quilt trail is one of the quilt trails featured in the newly-published book “Following the Barn Quilt Trail” by Suzi Parron.
Traditional quilt block names commemorate things important in the lives of the quilters – family, everyday life, politics, plants, animals and more. Quilt Trail blocks are chosen to reflect the history of the building or the family that will have the block.
Lake County PEG TV records the Know Lake County presentations for re-broadcast on PEG TV Channel 8 and on www.lakecountypegtv.org . The presentations are also available on DVD to check out from the Lake County Library.
The Lake County Library is on the Internet at http://library.lakecountyca.gov and Facebook at www.facebook.com/LakeCountyLibrary .
For more information about Know Lake County and other library programs call 707-263-8817.
Jan Cook works for the Lake County Library.