Press release:
Suzi Parron, author of the newly released book “Following the Barn Quilt Trail” will speak at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, May 11, at Le Roy House, located at 23 E. Main St., Le Roy.
Colorful barn quilts dot the landscape across the United States. Le Roy has one of New York’s largest barn quilt trails, with nearly 100 painted designs. For nearly seven years, Parron has been traveling the back roads of the country photographing and collecting the stories of the quilts, the barns and the people.
She will be sharing those stories on when she visits Le Roy House. This program is free and open to the public. She will be selling and signing her newest book, recently published by Ohio University Press.
The barn quilt movement started in Southern Ohio in 2001. It was the idea of Donna Sue Groves, who wanted to acknowledge her agricultural heritage and her mother’s love for quilts. She envisioned a “clothesline of quilts” across the country. Since that time, thousands of painted barn quilts have appeared on barns, sheds, fences, and buildings in almost every state and a few provinces of Canada.
Parron, a former English teacher, quilter, backwoods traveler, avid kayaker and folk art collector began chronicling the barn quilt stories and published her first book, “Barn Quilts and the American Quilt Trail Movement” in 2012. She first visited Le Roy in the summer of 2013, a year after Le Roy had dedicated its barn quilts to the 200th anniversary of the town.
Since that time, Parron, her husband Glen and their dog, Gracie, have traveled 13,000 miles in their converted bus, “Ruby” collecting stories for Parron's second book. Included in it is the story of Le Roy’s McPherson family quilt, which inspired the McPherson Orchard’s pink quilt, “Lady of the Lake.” And the story of the Stein Farm’s two quilts, taken from two family quilts – both included with photographs and the introduction to the quilts found in New York State.
For more information, call Lynne Belluscio, 585-768-7433 at the Le Roy Historical Society.
