barn quilts

Press release:

The Genesee County Chamber of Commerce is pleased to announce that it has updated and expanded the Barn Quilt Trail of Le Roy, in cooperation with Le Roy Historian Lynne Belluscio and the Le Roy Historical Society, by launching a new website and new self-guided trail brochure.

The original 2012 Barn Quilt Trail began as a bicentennial project for the Town of Le Roy, with the first being painted in 2011 at the annual Oatka Festival. In the following 10 months, the trail surpassed its goal of 25, with over 70 barn quilts being painted and erected.

Today, the trail features a collection of over 100 hand-painted barn quilts along four driving tours in and around LeR oy. Explore the scenic countryside while spotting each unique barn quilt that’s displayed on an array of barns, garages, homes and other outbuildings. Each quilt pattern has a story to tell, and these stories, along with full size images, can be found on the new LeRoyBarnQuilt.org website.

Barn Quilts are known to drive heritage tourism for rural communities as visitors search out authentic experiences that represent the stories and people, past and present, of the area. For Genesee County, the barn quilts have come to represent the pride shared by the people of LeRoy, a town with a rich agricultural heritage, deep appreciation of its history and immense pride in family heritage.

The Barn Quilt Trail expansion is supported through the Tourism Matching Funds program, administered by Empire State Development and I LOVE NY, New York State's Division of Tourism. 

The Chamber invites everyone to explore the trail and discover the beauty and history of the area. The brochure can be requested online at LeRoyBarnQuilt.org or picked up at the Chamber’s Visitor Center at 8276 Park Road in Batavia. This, and other local brochures, can be found in our vestibule, which is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It will also be available in LeRoy this spring at the Town Hall, Village Hall, McDonald’s, The D&R Depot Restaurant, JELL-O Gallery Museum and the Woodward Memorial Library. Watch for special Barn Quilts programming at the Woodward Memorial Library this spring.

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 200^th 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.

When Lynn Belluscio first proposed starting a barn quilt project in Le Roy, she was hoping to get 30 or so quilts installed on barns in Le Roy by June.

Well, 30 or so won't be a problem, it turns out. The idea caught on fast. Now she's thinking maybe 50.

The project was conceived to help promote the Le Roy Bicentennial, which the town, village and historical society will celebrate this summer.

Belluscio first heard about barn quilts -- large sections of plywood painted with the patterns of quilts -- on a phone call of town historians. Then she saw how the idea had taken hold in the Town of Neversink, so she thought it would be a great project for Le Roy.

After Belluscio got the support of the historical society and announced the plan in the Le Roy Pennysaver, she started getting handfuls of requests for barn quilts.

"People say to me, 'Did you ever expect it to be this popular?' and I would say, 'I was hoping it would be,' " Belluscio said.

The quilt patterns might come from a family heirloom, a quilt in the historical society collection or a pattern from a book, but all are intended to help weave a story together of the history and culture of Le Roy.

Quilt sizes include 4x4, 6x6 and 8x8. They might be hung on a barn, an outbuilding or a garage.

The historical society is maintaining a library of paints and other supplies for residents who want to paint their own quilts.

One of the quilts being painted by Belluscio is 8' x 8' and based on a quilt that was given by members of the Methodist church to a departing pastor in 1898 (top photo). It is signed by 200 members of the congregation.

The completed barn quilt will be auctioned off March 10 at the historical society's annual dinner, with a minimum bid of $150, with that amount going to the bicentennial project.

Even though the historical society has yet to publish a map of all the installed quilts -- and they're not all installed yet -- people are already discovering the project and driving around looking for the quilts, Belluscio said.

"People are discovering their own back yard, or back roads," Belluscio said. "They're going out to find them and we're happy to see that happening. It's something really neat that is happening."

Any other Le Roy residents interested in a barn quilt, Belluscio can be contacted at 768-7433. The society has also set up a website for the project.

Here's a list of installed quilt locations:

• 46 E. Main St.
• 8148 North Road
• 8042 Lake Road
• 8041 R. Main
• 8457 North St. Road
• 63 Lake St. (Rt. 19)
• 9573 Asbury Road
• 9743 Asbury Road (4) & across road
• 6195 Sweetland Road
• 8506 Lake Road
• 23 E. Main St.
• 9423 Summit St. Road
• 6849 W. Main Road
• 8283 Harris Road
• 9396 South St. Road
• 8587 North Road
• 8090 Black St. Road (corner of Linwood Road)
• 9290 York Road
• 1719 Craig Road, Linwood
• 9696 Asbury Road
• Conlon Road (south of North Road)
• 8343 Gully Road
• 36 Lathrop Ave.
• 13 Summit St.
• 8171 W. Bergen Road

Route 5, Town of Le Roy

Asbury Road

Asbury Road

Stein Farms

Route 19