Originally Posted by PattyS
There is quite a story of how these blocks began showing up on barns.
A woman named of Donna Sue started what are now the oversized, brightly colored barn quilt squares appearing on barns throughout the Midwest and East. In Ohio in 2001, she made the first remodeled block of a barn quilt square in honor of her mother and to help a friend draw attention to his business from the nearby four-lane highway. In the nine years since, the modernized, oversized barn quilt squares have popped up as far East as New Jersey, with dozens of county and state quilt trails in between.
I think putting "paintings" on barns was a tradition going back many, many years in history. I can remember seeing stars, etc(without the 'block') on the sides of barns in a history book.
So I'm guessing this new quilt block thing grew from that.
I haven't seen any here in New England but saw some in Penn. once. They're fun to look and all a beautiful addition to the countryside.