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.

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 OOAK Gallery on the Loop in Micaville to purchase a driving map and one or more of the nine tour guides that tell the stories behind the blocks.

New! I Love Cats and Dogs Pattern!

I Love Cats & Dogs is the block now hanging on the Yancey County Humane Society building. Now you can buy the pattern to make the quilt and pillows to match the block. The pattern will make two sizes of quilts or pillows. Complete instructions included on the CD as well as all the patterns. All are designed to be printed on your home printer. This pattern requires intermediate to advanced piecing skills. Buy it now!

Book Available at Gift Shop

The book Barn Quilts and the American Quilt Trail Movement, by Suzi Parron (with Donna Sue Groves), is now available for purchase at our Gift Shop inside OOAK Gallery on the Loop in Micaville.

Suzi Parron is a quilter, backwoods traveler, an avid kayaker and a folk art collector. She holds a Master of Arts in English from the University of Florida, with a concentration in the literature of the American South. She teaches English at Lakeside High School in Atlanta.

Donna Sue Groves launched the Ohio Quilt Barn Project in 2001. She was formerly the Southern Ohio field coordinator for Ohio’s Appalachian Arts Initiative and the Southern Ohio field representative for the Ohio Arts Council. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2010 Ohio Governor’s Award for the Arts in Community Development and Partnerships.

Quilt Trails on UNC-TV

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 OOAK Gallery on the Loop in Micaville.

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 OOAK Gallery on the Loop in Micaville.

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.

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!