Think big! That can be a challenge, but today we’ll meet a woman whose thoughts turned into a big community project which is encouraging tourism in southwest Kansas. Thanks to Connie Larson of Manhattan for this story idea.
Teresa Arnold is the person who helped inspire this project. She grew up on a farm, married and settled in Ashland, the county seat of Clark County.
A few years ago, Teresa took an interest in barn quilts. Barn quilts are those colored designs of quilt squares, painted on panels that are attached to barns or sheds. These colorful works of art have become quite popular. There is a barn quilt trail one can follow in the Flint Hills, for example.
After attending a barn quilt class, Teresa called her sister-in-law Beth DeMont who had retired as an art teacher at Herington. “You ought to give painting these barn quilts a try, it’s fun,” Teresa told Beth. Her sister-in-law did try it and found she enjoyed it. She painted several of them, as did Teresa and her other friends.
“The local PRIDE committee put barn quilts on the lampposts in Ashland,” Teresa said. As the barn quilts multiplied, Teresa and her friends needed more places to display them.
“I was driving with a friend and we were brainstorming about barn quilts,” Teresa said. “We knew we wanted to promote Ashland. I finally said, `If Cawker City can have the largest ball of twine, why can’t we have the largest barn quilt?’” Teresa said. The idea took hold.
Continue reading “Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Teresa Arnold, Kansas’s Biggest Barn Quilt”
