Effort gains more participants from across county
From Staff Reports
McDowell News, Published: December 15, 2009
From Old Fort to Montford Cove to the high school, the McDowell Quilt Trail is growing in different directions and involving more people, both young and old.
The first in a series of three quilt blocks, approved by the town of Old Fort, was recently added to the Old Fort Depot. Since it got started, the McDowell Quilt Trail has taken off and made life very busy for Mike and Jill Lucas, along with other members of the committee overseeing this project.
Old Fort’s quilt committee chose a design that incorporated the railroad and the depot’s natural surroundings to offset the brightly colored yellow-and-red building. In 1881, the second depot in Old Fort was constructed after the first, Henry’s Station, burned in 1879. Because of the cooler summer months, the town had become a popular tourist destination for residents living south and east of Old Fort.
This block represents the railroad-crossing icon with the center also symbolizing the red roof of the building and the bricks purchased to assist with the depot’s restoration. Because the Pisgah National Forest surrounds Old Fort, the green sections characterize its natural beauty. The blue portions denote the Blue Ridge Mountains highlighted by the sun indicated by the yellow quilt pieces.
The depot houses a railroad museum, the Old Fort Chamber of Commerce and the McDowell Tourism Development Authority, which maintains a visitor center there.
Meanwhile, students at McDowell High School are getting involved with the quilt blocks but on a smaller scale.
Karen Hawkins, teacher of apparel and design at McDowell High, said she read the August article in The McDowell News about the quilt trail.
“After reflecting on how our students could use this community effort within our classroom, we began to create our very miniature barn quilts, or as we call them, ‘door quilts’,” she said. “We did this to enhance student interest in community and learning.”
First, Hawkins’ students researched historic quilt patterns and picked a pattern to create. The students next used graph paper to layout their door quilts and finally traced the design onto squared and sanded pieces of hardwood and plywood, each 5-inch by 5-inch in size. Students learned to identify types of wood, use proper sanding techniques, identify color schemes and mix the primary colors of red, yellow and blue to creating their own colors. They finally painted their mini-barn quilts.
On Oct. 22, the students from Hawkins’ class traveled to the home of Mike and Jill Lucas where they viewed the “North Wind” quilt hanging on the barn. Mike Lucas was kind enough to speak to the students about his quilt, telling them about the quilt trail history in both the United States and in McDowell.
Lucas also told Hawkins and their students that Principal Ben Talbert spoke with him and the McDowell Quilt Trails Committee during the Mountain Glory Festival. Talbert is interested in obtaining a barn quilt for the high school and the MHS Steering Committee has approved his proposal.
On Oct. 23, Hawkins’ class visited the Historic Carson House where curator Sara Bryant gave the group an educational and entertaining tour. “I thoroughly enjoyed your students who came to Historic Carson House on Friday,” read an email from Bryant to Hawkins. “You have done a great job with them! They were excellent listeners and their comments and questions were right on the button. I also enjoyed your interpretation of the furniture, etc. In fact, in all of your spare time, I would love to walk through the house with you and learn from your knowledge base. We have some great connections. Hope we can work with you again at some point.”
Based on Bryant’s idea, the members of the school’s Family Career and Community Leaders of America decided to adopt the Carson House as a community service project this school year. Students returned to the house to take pictures for cataloging of furniture styles as a base for research. Currently students have 99 pictures on a power-point presentation, which are to be researched, labeled with text and supporting Web-links identifying furniture styles and periods.
And on Monday, the McDowell Quilt Trail added the quilt blocks to the Spring House Farm in Montford Cove and Spencer’s Hardware in Marion.
A distinctive quilt block with a thistle design is on display at the barn at Spring House Farm. It’s a design used during the early 19th century by the former residents of the Albertus Ledbetter House, now home to Spring House Farm owners Arthur and Zee Campbell.
Several years ago, the Campbells discovered the farm and learned the Ledbetter House was in danger of being destroyed. They purchased the 92-acre farm and carefully restored the Ledbetter House, which was built in 1826. Today it is included on the National Register of Historic Places and the property is known as Spring House Farm, www.springhousefarm.com, an eco-retreat with six distinctive cottages.
As they continued to restore the farm and search for salvage materials to reclaim for the construction of five of the six cabins, Arthur Campbell made an exciting discovery. One of the smaller structures on the property contained two antique blanket chests and a steel drum stuffed with various quilts, 38 in all. After consulting a textile curator at The Biltmore Estate, their dating process determined the quilts were created between the early to mid-19th century. The one-of-a-kind thistle design was used on one of the quilts.
Nancy Spencer, owner of Spencer’s Hardware, took a long time to decide on the quilt block that would adorn the outside of her business on Rutherford Road in Marion. After a great deal of thought, she chose the carpenter wheel signifying her faith. The carpenter wheel is a brightly colored block with a cross in the center. This block seems to change as you look at it.
Both blocks were added to the McDowell Quilt Trail, also a segment of the Quilt Trails of Western North Carolina on Monday. Designs are being created for new blocks to be placed in rural areas of the county along with two new additions in downtown Old Fort.
