Quilt Trails Project

Welcome New Affiliates!
Quilt Trails is continuing to grow. Welcome two new affiliates to the Quilt Trails family: McDowell County and Macon County. Both have launched quilt trails project. You can see some of the McDowell County quilt squares at http://mcdowellquilttrail.org.McDowell already has 9 blocks up and Macon is working on their first eight. Ashe County (www.ashecountyarts.org)has 70 blocks up, Avery (www.averycountyarts council.org)has 46, Madison ( www.madisoncountyarts.com)has 28, and Watauga (www.watauga-arts.org)has 14.

With the holidays approaching, Quilt Trails is looking forward to slowing down a teensy bit while volunteers travel to be with family and friends. Our paint studio will slow down for the month of December. But we already have plans in the works for next year with some fun new events planned starting as early as February. Our Gift Shop will remain open and we will have some special Christmas goodies, including ornaments of the quilt squares, our Calendar and some notecards showing the barns in the snow. We also have a new item in the gift shop, so come by and check it out.
The Calendar Contest is now over, and we thank all of you who sent in pictures. We hope to have the calendar ready for sale by the middle of November.

Volunteers

Quilt Trails doesn’t work without volunteers. We will continue to bring you stories about our volunteers here. Two volunteers who have helped us out enormously most recently are Steve Hardesty and Carolyn Bareford.

It was Steve’s idea to do a Road Rally and he has been the brains behind the event which is fast approaching (Nov. 7). Pre-registration closed Oct. 30. But you can register the day of the event. Just show up at 8am at the Habitat construction facility on the Mtn. Heritage HS campus. We will have signs to direct you to the right place.

Steve Hardesty grew up in Illinois and Florida. He has a degree in Geology and a Masters in Business Management. For 35 years he taught Earth Sciences in schools in the Orlando/Orange County, FL area, and then started a parallel effort in 1977 at Valencia Community College. He is still teaching online classes in meteorology from wheverever Verizon has service.
He first came to the Toe River Valley in 1965 as a geology student, then again on his honeymoon in 1968. He bought property on Carvers Knob near Little Switzerland as part of a family purchase in 1974 and took full ownership in 1996.
He and his wife Linda have been married 41 years and have one married daughter who resides in Orlando. He volunteers at the Blue Ridge Regional Hospital and the Quilt Trails project.
At one time he was a commercial hand-weaver of Scottish tartans and very active in groups who celebrated our Scottish ancestry. He is Past President of the Winter Park Saint Andrews Society, past Chair of the Central Florida Scottish-American Society, and active in the Clan Gunn Society of North America.
Carolyn Bareford has been painting for us since April of 2008. She has distinguished herself in the department of DETAIL. Carolyn painted the really complicated block that hangs on the Penland weaving shed called Cat Tracks and Snail’s Trails – an old weaving pattern adapted to a quilt block. It took longer to tape it than it did to paint it and it is a true masterpiece. She has just finished painting the Cathedral Windows block for Ramona and Xavier Maximillian which will go up off Shoal Creek Rd. hopefully before the end of the year. This masterpiece was painted to look exactly like a family quilt owned by Ramona. The fabric in the quilt has been reproduced in teensy detail. Carolyn painted almost the entire block by herself. This one was totally freehand as there are no straight lines (or very few) in it. Next she is tackling a block with a plaid background – another one with a zillion “pieces” in it. We appreciate Carolyn’s dedication to our project but that isn’t all she does for us. She also makes all the pins that match the quilt blocks! You can see her fine work in our Gift Shop.

Carolyn and her husband, George, moved here four years ago. They were originally looking for a vacation house, but when they found this area, they really liked it and decided to swing early retirement. Carolyn says “After many days and nights of discussion and 3 separate trips up to this area, we finally decided to retire and move here.”

They are both native Floridians. George had lived elsewhere when he was growing up, but Carolyn had never lived anywhere except Florida. Carolyn says, “This was a major decision for me, to leave not only my job that I really loved, but all of my family too. Not only did I have to get used to the area, but the cold too. After seeing the real 4 seasons and enjoying the snow, I love it now.”

Carolyn worked in the data processing field for over 40 years. She first started out at the Hillsborough County School Board, then worked at Hillsborough Community College for 15 years as the Computer Operations Manager and then at the City of Tampa for 23 years. She held a couple of positions at the City, started as the Computer Operations Production Coordinator, then moved to another section and ended up as their Senior Security Anaylst. She managed all of computer security for the 4800 or so employees at the city. (Now we know where all that attention to detail comes from!)

Carolyn and George have one son who is a graphic arts designer in Florida.

Carolyn isn’t new to the crafty world. She started out doing decorative woodworking several years ago, but now does several different types of crafts with wood, beads, cloth etc. She enjoys cooking, reading, crafting..... and painting!

Thank you Carolyn and Steve for all you do for Quilt Trails!


Have a suggestion? You can call one of our Board Members, or our Executive Director.
Board members:
Norm Rabek nrabek@verizon.net 828-675-5413
Shirley Hise shise@mitchell-county.com 828-765-9033
Jake Blood yanceyedc@gmail.com 828-682-7722
Sue Ledford mtnprosue@gmail.com828-778-8111
LouAnn Morehouse info@avercountyartscouncil.org 828-898-4292
Barbara Tester barbara.tester@carolinafirst.com 828-682-7744
Barbara Webster, Ex. Dir. info@quilttrailswnc.org828-682-7331

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This page was last updated on Wednesday, 11 November 2009 09:03 AM