Live Oak Suwannee County Florida Quilt Trail
QUILT TRAIL
Block by Block
By Hayli Zuccola
Live Oak Suwannee County Florida Quilt Trail
The barn quilt movement can be traced back to Ohio in 2001 when Donna Sue Groves assembled an outdoor quilt square in honor of her late mother . Sans fabric , Groves used materials that could withstand the outdoor elements and later hung the finished piece above her barn for all to see and admire – hence the name “ barn quilt .” Neighbors and other community members fell in love with the idea and began making their own and today , there are barn quilt trails across all 50 states and even parts of Canada .
In 2013 , the concept made its way to the Sunshine State with the first barn quilt block created by Stephanie Metts , owner of Suwannee Valley Quilt Shoppe in Trenton , who during a luncheon encouraged citizens from nearby cities like Branford , Madison and White Springs to adopt the project in their own town to encourage foot traffic in more rural , less touristy areas . It was during this event that Live Oak quilter Caroline Leonard first learned of the movement and pioneered bringing the project to Live Oak .
Her vision was eventually presented to the Community Redevelopment Association ( CRA ) of Live Oak who agreed to match the funds for blocks within the district . When Leonard fell ill , her cousin Marilyn Jones took over the endeavor and convinced the local Artists Guild , which she was a member of , to join the project .
Using sturdy wood , high-quality house paint and an eye for design , members of the guild painted 20 blocks in their first year after going door-to-door seeking interested businesses . Once the first batch of squares were up in 2017 , they no longer had to go in search of sales as people started coming to them wanting a barn quilt of their own .
Today , there are somewhere between 75 and
120 SUWANNEE CHAMBER IMPACT | 2023-2024