About Barn Quilts

Sac County, Iowa, is covered with barn quilts! Starting summer of 2005, visitors to Sac County, Iowa began seeing decorative quilt blocks on historic barns and corncribs all around the county. The number of barn quilts has grown to 55, so visitors can easily spot a barn quilt every 5 to 10 miles throughout Sac County. Brochures describing the Barn Quilts of Sac County can be found in Welcome Centers throughout the state, and Barn Quilt Maps are available in convenience stores, museums, city offices and a variety of other locations in Sac County. Maps are also available on this web site.

Barn quilts are large, colorful wooden blocks. Most are 8-foot square. Sac County also features 19 smaller Community Quilts near historic or public sites in the towns around the county. The project was started by Kevin Peyton of Sac City as a 4-H Leadership and Herbert Hoover Uncommon Student Award project. (http://www.hooverassociation.org) A group of Sac City area quilters chose the quilt patterns, based on the pattern's agriculture-related name or heritage. School students, 4-H members, and other youth and adult volunteers painted all of the quilt blocks.

The barn quilts are on barns or corncribs that are at least 50 years old. Almost all are on hard-surface roads. The Sac County Barn Quilt Committee, which guided the project from the beginning, planned a tour route that will take visitors through almost every town in the county. The Barn Quilt Maps also mention additional sites of interest for you to enjoy on your trip. Visitors can choose to tour all the barn quilts, or choose a shorter route while passing through northwest Iowa.

You can see more barn quilts in Sac County than anywhere else! Grundy County had the original barn quilt project in Iowa. Green, Pocahontas and Humboldt Counties have also started barn quilt projects. Other barn quilts can be found in Ohio, Tennessee and a few other states.