Today Katherine, a photography buddy and I decided it would be great fun to travel to Kankakee, IL to take pictures of the quilting barns. Now, Kankakee is about 48-50 miles south of here and there is not a quick or direct route to the barns, you know what I mean about no direct route, it means traffic, tons of construction, bridge outs. We programmed the 1st location into my trustee GPS (I think I will call it/her Georgia. Short for G (Georgia) P (Peaches) S (Summer) Meaning sometimes the peaches are sweet, juicy, delicious and right on target, but sometimes they look great but are mushy and tasteless and need to be thrown away only to start again with a new one. In other words sometimes your GPS is right on target, but other times they lead you right to a dead-end bridge out. So, to continue.....Georgia was able to direct us to our 1st quilting barn (see above).
A little background info on the quilting barns....the practice of painting quilt squares on the sides of barns actually began in Ohio to attract people to slow down their lives. When freeways began to develop and life got so fast & busy, farm people in Ohio decided that perhaps by painting something as attractive as quilt squares on the sides of their barns, people would decide not to drive the freeways, but travel on the country roads to enjoy the beauty of the barns and slow down their lives for awhile. The practice was so successful in Ohio that Illinois decided to carry on the tradition. In 2008 10 barns added beautiful quilt squares on the sides of barns in Kankakee County, IL. In 2009 another 10 barns joined the ranks of the quilting barns, again in 2010 another 10, and in 2011 there is hope that 20 more will be added. So, if anyone wants to slow down their lives a bit and enjoy the beauty of the quilting barns off of the busy freeways, travel to Kankakee County, IL. A side note...notice the blackened sky in the photo above, a storm of rather great intensity moved in right after this was shot shortening our trip by almost an hour, which means, ofcourse, another trip to Kankakee County is in order for summertime and another chance to slow down.
This photo of me was featured today on the Mortal Muses website. Their theme was relaxation and I thought this was a perfect image that screamed relaxation. Actually, Sam, my son-in-law picked up my camera as I was soaking up the sun on Easter Sunday and snapped this shot. The grey hairs are really shining in the sun (isn't silver the new blonde??)
Another side note...weren't you totally surprised when James was voted off of American Idol? I really thought he was in the running to win. Now I am totally confused. See ya next time.
I enjoyed your blog Deanna! North Carolina has the quilt blocks too. They're showing up everywhere here - homes, businesses, schools, churches. I do love the ones on the barns and have several photos of those.
ReplyDeleteOh, I was surprised about James because he was everybody's favorite! I think it's to his advantage though. He is so talented and will get a deal and won't have to be tied to AI!
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