Welcome to Quilt Trails of Western North Carolina!

With over 200 quilt blocks, we have the highest concentration anywhere in the USA! Come to Yancey County to get started on your great quilt adventure! We are just 45 minutes North of Asheville - exit 9 off I-26, or exit onto Hwy 80 off the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Six contiguous counties host quilt blocks, with the highest concentration in Yancey and Mitchell Counties. While in Yancey County, visit Mt. Mitchell, highest peak East of the Mississippi. Mitchell County is home to Roan Mountain (the rhododendrons are in full bloom in June - gateway through Bakersville) and Avery County offers Grandfather Mountain with its mile-high swinging bridge. Of course we have waterfalls, supreme hiking, great trout fishing, canoeing, golf, horseback riding, and great shopping. Burnsville, seat of Yancey County, has TWO quilt shops.

The Quilt Trails project got its start in Ohio when Donna Sue Groves put a block on her barn to honor her mother. From that simple act, the project has spread to 30 states and Canada.

Nine different driving trails take you to view vividly painted quilt squares installed on barns and buildings of participating communities. Even if it is raining you can still enjoy a day of adventure finding the quilt blocks. Stop by the Quilt Trails Gift Shop in the Yancey County Chamber of Commerce in Burnsville to purchase a driving map and one or more of the nine tour guides that tell the stories behind the blocks.

Quilt Trails on UNC-TV

Local Business Creates "Block of the Month" Program

Proprietor Cherine Criste of Burnsville, NC, business Needle Me This says that visitors to the shop have often requested local 'Quilt Blocks' on fabric. In response, Criste created a wallhanging, approximately 60" X 60" with various barns with blocks from Eleanor Burns's book "Quilt Bocks on American Barns" and added a local flavor by developing, creating, and including some of our local, Yancey County quilt blocks.

A Block of the Month [BOM] program has been prepared, as well as, a kit for those willing to do the project on their own. The book has also inspired Criste to continue her quest to prepare more of our local blocks in fabric. As more are desinged, a sampler quilt will be made. Customers will be able to pick and choose the blocks they like and make the project of their choice. These quilts are fun to make and the sky is the limit when embellishing the barn blocks. Individual blocks are great on hangers as well.

Needle Me This will need to know how many are interested in the BOM by March 4th. The BOM will start on Monday, March 7th. For those not living in the area, a BOM can be mailed at an added cost. For more information, visit Needle Me This at 230 East Main St, Burnsville, call at 828-682-9462, or email at needlemethis@earthlink.net.

Quilt Trails WNC Wins Award for Sundial Project

Sundial Quilt Block

Sundial Cup

Buy a beautiful Sundial Mug from our online store, or visit our giftshop in the Yancey Chamber of Commerce building, on West Main Street in Burnsville.

Quilt Trails has just won the Small Town Main Street Award for Promotion with our Sundial project! This is the second year in a row Quilt Trails has taken first place with the Small Town Main Street Awards, given out by the Department of Commerce. Special congratulations go to Bob Hampton and Martin Webster, designers of the Sundial.

Our sundial is the largest vertical sundial in North Carolina and the only quilt block sundial in the world. You can see the sundial on the side of the Yancey Common Times Journal building in Burnsville, just off the town square.

On Christmas Day the sundial will tell accurate time without the use of the Equation of Time which appears as mountains across the bottom of the sundial. There are four days of the year when the Equation of Time adjustment does not apply, and Christmas is one of those days. So if it is a sunny day on Christmas, the sundial will give you accurate clock time. Be sure to use the Eastern Standard Time numbers - the middle circle of numbers.

Quilt Trails Profiled in Carolina Country

Carolina Country

The Quilt Trails has been profiled in the June 2009 issue of Carolina Country magazine.

The article, by Hannah Miller, is titled "Stars & Barns: The Quilt Trails Project brings more color, customs & tourists to the northwestern Carolina countryside."

Read the full article here [PDF].

Get Adobe Reader

Tour Guides Available!

Tour Guides and Maps are available for purchase in the Quilt Trails Gift Shop at the Yancey County Chamber of Commerce in Burnsville.

Maps include all of Mitchell and Yancey Counties, with an overall map and individual maps for individual Trails. [Click here for online maps]

Guides are available for Arbuckle, Bakersville/Roan Mountain, Bee Log, Burnsville, Celo & Parkway, Green Mountain & Relief, Lickskillet to Westside, Pensacola, and Spruce Pine.

The Gift Shop is open Tuesday-Friday, 10am-5pm and Saturday 10am-2pm.

If you would like to volunteer for the Gift Shop and learn more about the Chamber and how to serve visitors to our county, call 828-682-7331.
 

Mt. Mitchell Craft Fair
Thanks to all of you who came to see us at the Mt. Mitchell Craft Fair. We all had a wonderful time and those of you who painted t-shirts appeared to have the best time of all! We appreciate your enthusiastic support!