Expressions in Color - The Louisiana Quilt Trail

EXPRESSIONS IN COLOR

Take a Ride Along the Louisiana Northshore Quilt Trail

By Mimi Greenwood Knight

Ann Boudreau and her sister were on a trip through North Carolina. As they drove around the countryside, Boudreau’s eye was drawn to the colorful quilt squares she saw here and there on barns, homes, and businesses. She did a bit of inquiring and discovered these hand-painted public works of art were part of a grassroots arts movement known as The American Quilt Trail. Enchanted by the idea, Boudreau returned home to Ponchatoula with the thought of starting a quilt trail in Southeastern Louisiana.

The first thing she did when she got home was enlist the help of her friend, Artist Kim Zabbia. “I told Kim all about what we’d seen,” Boudreau said. “She asked, “Do you want a square for yourself or do you want to start a trail here?’ I told her, ‘BOTH’!”

Zabbia set about designing a quilt square for Boudreau. Once hers was on display, others wanted a square of their own. The two women invited several friends to form a quilt-trail committee. As the committee began organizing the movement, Zabbia found herself in big demand designing squares which were painted and displayed on homes, churches, schools, businesses, and municipal buildings, first in the Ponchatoula and Hammond area but quickly spreading throughout

Tangipahoa, St. Tammany, Livingston, St. Helena, and Washington Parishes. The Louisiana Northshore Quilt Trail was born! That was in 2011. To date, there are more than 150 squares—known as “blocks”—throughout the five parishes. In fact, that first block Zabbia designed for Boudreau contains elements representing each of the parishes along the trail.

Genesis of a Movement

Originating in 2001 in Adams County, Ohio, the quilt trail was the brainchild of Donna Sue Groves who conceived of the project in honor of her mother, Maxine, a noted local quilter. Many of the original Ohio blocks were painted directly onto tobacco barns, but participants quickly realized it was easier to create the block on a piece of wood or metal then mount them and that blocks could be hung on plenty of structures, not just barns. Colorful quilt squares began popping up on the sides of houses, sheds, and fences, and mounted on posts in yards, pastures, and flowerbeds.

Each block along that original trail—which Groves envisioned as a “clothesline of quilts”—and each subsequent trail is at least two feet by two feet, but most are much larger, and designed to look like a section of a cloth quilt reflecting the passions and personalities of the people who hung it. For the last 22 years, what became known as The American Quilt Trail Movement has been the fastest-growing grassroots public art movement in the country. There are currently 46 North American quilt trails: 43 in the US and three in Canada.

You can find a quilt trail in most US states, reflecting the uniqueness of that region, from the Finger Lakes of New York State to the Everglades of Florida, from the gold-rush region of California to the mountains of North Carolina. Stewart County, Tennessee boasts a National Civil War Quilt Trail and—no surprise—Texas claims to have the largest quilt trail in Fannin County, Texas. But the fastest growing trail, for several years now, is the Louisiana Northshore Quilt Trail begun by Boudreau and Zabbia.

Public Art that’s Highly Personal

“The idea was to simultaneously showcase the historic beauty of the Northshore and the cultural significance of the art of quilt making,” Boudreau said. “Kim was a tremendous help. She poured her heart and soul into it. I had the idea, but Kim took the ball and ran with it. And we had a wonderful committee of women who really took the project to heart.” At age 90 now, Boudreau is serving more of a supervisory role, but she’s thrilled to see her work carried on and to witness the enthusiasm locals have shown for the project. Some of them are quilters, but many are not.

Craig Price, Jr. works at the Tangi Tourism Visitors Bureau in Hammond. He explains their block by pointing out the two things that are fundamental to the history of Hammond—strawberries and the railroad. “Our block tells the story of growing, picking, and packaging strawberries then shipping them out on the train where they’d go as far away as Chicago,” he said. Many of the blocks in the Hammond/ Ponchatoula area echo that strawberry theme including a big one across from Memorial Park where the annual Strawberry Festival is held each spring.

“The idea of the trail is a driving tour of our beautiful part of the state,” Boudreau said. “All blocks are within a 45-minute-to-two-hour drive from either New Orleans or Baton Rouge. You can drive from the hills of Folsom and Franklinton to the lakefront cities of Mandeville and Slidell and on.”

As you drive along the trail, it’s hard to pick a favorite block. But some tug at the heart strings such as the block at the Chauvin residence in Hammond entitled “Mother Crust”. For years, Miss Frances Chauvin has been the beloved Pie Lady at Baton Rouge’s Red Stick Farmers Market. Her block represents one of her pies with seven slices for her seven children and one missing slice in homage to her late husband. Miss Frances is, of course, the crust that holds it all together.

Also in Hammond, is a block at Doughlicious Donuts which depicts three overlapping donuts (Olympic-ring style) denoting the three generations of family bakers involved in the business. There are blocks paying tribute to alma maters and sports teams, military service, hobbies, livelihoods, and spiritual beliefs. The block at Middendorf’s Restaurant in Manchac features crabs, crawfish, and alligators while a podiatry practice’s block is designed with stylized feet in flip-flops.

Some quilt blocks were designed to honor actual quilts and quilters. The block that hangs outside the Franklinton Town Hall in Washington Parish, for instance, is an interpretation of a quilt that hangs on the wall inside the building, a collaboration between several local quilters which is signed by many of them. Similarly, the block outside of The Varnado Store Museum in Franklinton is a smaller version of a morethan-100-year-old quilt on display inside the museum.

Celebrating Louisiana

Author Sue Nichols compiled a book about the Louisiana Northshore Quilt Trail she titled “Only in Louisiana: a Guide to its One-of-a-Kind Quilt Trail”. In it she details each of the 150-plus blocks with back stories about the people who created them and a brief history of/tribute to Southeastern Louisiana.

Many municipalities have embraced the quilttrail movement. The block at the Pearl River State Welcome Center is titled “Iconic Louisiana Seafood” and features the state crustacean (crawfish), state freshwater fish (white perch), state saltwater fish (speckled trout), state amphibian (tree frog) and the state tree (bald cypress) while the block at the I-10 LA State Welcome Center entitled “Gator Country” is done in the state colors of navy, gold, and white highlighting a French Star in honor of Louisiana’s French heritage and including our state flower (magnolia), state wildflower (Louisiana iris), state reptile (alligator), and state tree (bald cypress).

A particularly lovely block at the I-55 LA State Welcome Center pays tribute to our states musical roots with a block titled “Strings & Springs” featuring a Cajun diatonic accordion, fiddle, clarinet, trumpet, and keyboard and the opening words of our state song, “You Are My Sunshine”. The Covington Trailhead’s block honors the uniqueness of the city with a depiction of the iconic clock tower at the trailhead, gazebo at Columbia Street Landing, oak trees in Bogue Falaya Park, and the three rivers that flow through the city while the block at the Slidell Museum honors the city’s location on both Lake Pontchartrain and the Honey Island Swamp and features Slidell’s historic train depot circa 1913.

Join the Movement

On the website at LouisianaQuiltTrail.com, you’ll find directions for exactly how you can be a part of the trail complete with a registration form and instructions for how to build, design, paint, mount, and light your block, and recommendations for types of materials to purchase. The quilt-trail committee will work with you to make sure your chosen design doesn’t already exist along the trail.

But before you embark upon your own creation, why not take a self-guided driving tour to find inspiration from those who’ve gone before you. Maps of the Louisiana Northshore Quilt Trail can be found at regional tourist centers and on the Louisiana Quilt Trail website. You might also enjoy perusing AllPeopleQuilt. com and BarnQuiltInfo.com to see what’s being done in other states. See you on the quilt trail!