The Mountaineer

By Andrew Marshall

April 25, 2025

More than 90 quilt blocks now adorn Haywood homes, barns and businesses with new ones going up all the time — so many in fact that the Haywood County Arts Council has trouble keeping its quilt block trail maps up to date.

The popularity of the Haywood County Quilt Block Trail also keeps behind-the-scenes volunteers who create the colorful wooden blocks incredibly bus.

The idea of a quilt block trail got started in Ohio in 2001, and quickly spread to 48 other states over the next 20 years. Quilt Trails of Western North Carolina got started in 2008 and has been a rousing success, quickly spreading from county to county.

The Haywood County Arts Council adopted the WNC Quilt Trail program in 2019. The arts council has taken on the roll of curating quilt blocks for new locations across the region — from the design to hand painting the colorful squares.

The Folkmoot Center serves as the physical headquarters, providing studio space or volunteers, who meet weekly with brushes in hand to work through the waiting list for new quilt blocks.

Envisioning a new quilt block

The blocks are made of sturdy marine-grade hardwood and decorated with outdoor friendly paint, meaning they stand the test of time. But even better, each block strives to tell the story of the building or area where it hangs.

That’s thanks in large part to Lauren Medford and Bethany Collen, the two designers who help turn history into art.

Clients often come with an idea of subject matter. After that, they sit down with designers and talk modern vs. traditional quilt block design and color choices.

Medford is a lifelong Haywood local and HCAC’s gallery manager. She’s also a talented artist in her own right. Combining design with Haywood history is right up her alley.

“Sometimes I go out to the person’s house with a color fan, and I look at the light on the house, and we determine our colors. And then the client will sign off on the design and then we make a template,” Medford said.

From there the whole process is placed into the capable hands of Danna Bohnhoff, volunteer Quilt Trails studio coordinator. It’s up to Bonhoff to figure out how to render the template onto wood, utilizing a rotating crew of volunteer painters in a studio at Folkmoot.

Bonhoff has no truck with an imperfect product — lines have to be crisp, the finish smooth. It can be a painstaking process, especially with volunteer painters, but that’s all part of the charm, Bonhoff explained.

The volunteer work also helps Bonhoff feel closer to her grandmother, a quilter. Bonhoff has picked up the brush rather than the needle, but she’s still putting quilts out into the world.

“Quilting is a huge part of our heritage. So it makes me feel connected that way. And when you’ve been here generationally, it really does make you feel closer to everything that’s around here,” Bonhoff said.