Artsville USA
By Morgan Laurens
January 13, 2025
Explore the Quilt Trails of Western North Carolina at your own pace, or join a guided tour this May during Haywood County’s Appalachian Heritage Festival.
Blink, and you’ll miss it: colorful quilt trails weaving through the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina. With over 300 brightly painted squares adorning barns, businesses, and homes across nine counties, these hidden gems embody the region’s history and culture, beckoning explorers to uncover the stories behind each bespoke design.
“A lot of people have seen the quilts, but they don’t realize that there is a trail,” says Danna Kelly Bohnhoff, volunteer studio coordinator for Quilt Trails of Western North Carolina. “The quilt squares help tell stories, memorialize places and people, or showcase something special to the region.”
The first quilt trail began in Adams County, Ohio, in 2001 when Donna Sue Groves hung a painted quilt on her barn to honor her mother and Appalachian roots. What started as a personal project quickly evolved into one of the fastest-growing grassroots public arts movements in the U.S., spreading across 48 states over two decades. Inspired by the movement’s success, North Carolina began developing the Quilt Trails of Western North Carolina program in 2008, starting with Mitchell and Yancey counties. Launched by Toe River Arts Council and led by Burnsville quilter Barbara Webster, Quilt Trails of Western North Carolina transitioned to new management in 2019 and has since become a vital component of the programming at the Haywood County Arts Council. Today, a dedicated group of volunteers preserves the tradition of handcrafting exterior quilt blocks, gathering weekly at Folkmoot Friendship Center in Waynesville.
