Appalachian Quilters at the 2009 Cityfolk Festival

by Sara Cogswell, curator of the 2009 Material Culture area at the Cityfolk Festival

The material culture quilt exhibition, Threads of Evidence, is pleased to have Appalachian quilter Maxine Groves as a participating artist. Maxine is from Manchester in Adams County, the part of Appalachian Ohio that borders Kentucky in southeast Ohio. Maxine’s daughter, Donna Sue Groves, will accompany her mother and participate as a presenter, sharing her story of the Ohio Quilt Barn Trail, now the National Quilt Barn Trail, a project she long ago envisioned to honor her mother.

Appalachian Ohio consists of 32 counties in the southeastern part of Ohio, characterized by the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. They are well known for their beautiful scenery, rich culture, and timeless traditions. Urban Appalachians are people from Appalachia who are living in metropolitan areas outside the region. Mechanization of coal mining during the 1950s and 1960s was the major source of unemployment in central Appalachia. Many migration streams covered relatively short distances, with West Virginians moving to Cleveland and other cities in eastern and central Ohio, and eastern Kentuckians moving to Cincinnati, Dayton and other parts of southwest Ohio in search of jobs. Enclaves of Appalachian culture can still be found in some of these communities.

Nina Maxine Green Groves is descended from five generations (both parents) of Appalachian families in the hills of West Virginia. She learned to knit, crochet, and quilt from her mother and grandmother as a small child. After rearing her children and teaching for twenty-five years, she retired to Adams County, Ohio. In April of 2008, on her 80th birthday, Maxine was presented with a certificate of recognition from Ohio Governor Ted Strickland for her accomplishments at an event held at the Bob Evans Farm in Rio Grande, Ohio. Over 50 of Maxine’s quilts were on display at the Bob Evans Farm Homestead Museum in a special exhibition. Maxine’s quilts have been featured in numerous publications and have been displayed at dozens of venues and festivals in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana. In 1999, she received an Ohio Arts Council, Traditional Master Apprentice award.

As a child growing up in West Virginia, Donna Sue Groves’ family would make a traveling game out of looking for barns, especially those painted with advertisements. When she purchased an Adams County farm in 1989 that included a tobacco barn, Donna Sue promised her mother that she would one day paint a quilt square on it to honor her mother and their Appalachian heritage. Seeing the blank sides of the many barns in Adams County, Donna Sue suggested that instead of painting a quilt square only on her barn, as set of quilt barns be painted and developed into a driving trail. What resulted from that initial effort in 2001 was the nation’s first quilt barn trail; a collection of 20 squares leading visitors through scenic Adams County. Today, the Ohio Quilt Barn Trail is scattered across the landscape of 19 Ohio counties, and throughout 27 states nationwide.