By TRICIA NEAL, CJ Staff Writer
If you’ve enjoyed seeing the brightly-painted quilt boards hanging on several barns throughout Pulaski County over the last year, you’re in luck.
More are on their way.
The Somerset-Pulaski Convention and Visitors’ Bureau has received a $2,000 grant from the Southern and Eastern Kentucky Tourism Development Association. The funds were made available through Congressman Hal Rogers to help promote tourism in Kentucky. CVB director Carolyn Mounce says the $2,000 should pay for the creation of 12 new quilt boards to add to the ones already on display.
The five quilt boards currently on display were created by various Pulaski County School System elementary art classes. They can be seen at the following locations:
• Haney’s Appledale Farm, West Ky. 80, Nancy.
• Weaver Farm Barn, Ky. 90, Bronston.
• Eubank Elementary School, Ky. 70, Eubank.
• Lurene Carter Skaggs Barn, Ky. 461, Shopville.
• Burnett Barn, Parkers Mill Road, Somerset.
A sixth quilt board is expected to be hung soon.
Those boards were created with funds from a $1,000 grant the CVB received last year.
The quilt boards are part of a project called “Clothesline of Quilts in Appalachia” — a series of quilt square replicas displayed on barns throughout several states.
Mounce is looking for individuals or groups that would like to paint a quilt board — and for owners of highly-visible barns who would like to have a quilt board displayed on their property. Two groups have already expressed interest in painting boards, Mounce said.
Anyone interested should contact Mounce at (606) 679-6394.
The paint on the boards is expected to last up to ten years, Mounce said. They will be maintained and repaired as needed.
Property owners at each of the existing quilt board locations have signed releases allowing visitors to stop and see the boards up close, Mounce said.
When all the quilt boards are complete, Mounce hopes to create a brochure which will guide tourists to each quilt board location. The brochure would also describe each quilt and provide the name of the individual or group that created it.
