Barn Quilts Announce Northern Illinois Quilt Fest

The Northern Illinois Quilt Fest blankets the state from Highland Park to Galena and offers visitors opportunities as varied as the opportunities presented in the creative process of quilting itself.

The project began at The McHenry County Historical Society in Union.

“We have a really good collection of over 140 quilts. Local quilters were telling us what great quilts we have in our collection and we should be able to share them with people who have an appreciation for them,” said Nancy Fike, administrator for the McHenry County Historical Society.

Many other small museums and institutions in northern Illinois were also in possession of historic quilt collections. Representatives from museums and quilting experts gathered together to plan a quilting fest.

“People aren’t aware that there are so many treasures all along northern Illinois. Our vision was to focus on the museums, but also have public art,” said Sandy Schweitzer, a quilt appraiser from Crystal Lake, and one of the organizers.

“We want people to see and learn about quilts. They are not all in fabric form,” Fike said.

The Historical Society started a barn quilt project in 2002, but the Northern Illinois Quilt Fest gave it a big boost.

“One of the most exciting things are the barn quilts. A year ago we had about 10 in McHenry County. Now there are 27 up and six more planned,” Schweitzer said.

“They keep increasing. It wouldn’t surprise me if we end up with 40 or 50. The barn quilts draw attention to the issue of barn preservation and they are also public art,” Fike said.

The historical society has a barn quilt map on Google, that includes quilt gardens. There is a quilt garden at Col. Palmer House in Crystal Lake. Countryside Nursery in Crystal Lake is building a large quilt garden that echoes the St. Louis pattern barn quilt erected behind the garden.  

Countryside Nursery is planning a seminar in July to show people how they can build their own quilt gardens.

Organizers from Lake County to Jo Daviess County met regularly for a year to plan the festival.

“I enjoyed the meetings, meeting other people from museums. Everybody united for this one goal of promoting quilt collections, said Chris Pyle, historical resources manager at the Lake County Discovery Museum in Wauconda.

Pyle said the project started with some anchor sites for quilt exhibits and grew to include the participation of quilt shops, speakers on quilting, and convention/visitor’s bureaus.

The Lake County Discovery Museum will display 20 historic quilts in its exhibit Quilt Treasures: Pieces of History, which runs from July 2 to Sept. 25.

Pyle said the historic quilts on display include some from the Civil War period.

“We have some crazy quilts. Women would take fabric left over … They are often very meaningful; they would use things that meant something to them from different people or events,” Pyle said.

A crazy quilt made by Elizabeth Preston Benwell in 1891 includes a piece of a buckskin bag her husband had taken in the 1848 gold rush.

“The tiny round pieces in the bouquet at the bottom of the quilt are from the buckskin bags that John Benwell used during the 1848 Gold Rush. He rode from California to New York with bags full of gold, and Elizabeth sewed pieces of his Gold Rush bags into quilts she made for all of their eight children,” Pyle said.

“The workmanship in the quilt is amazing,” Pyle said.

Area highlights of the Northern Illinois Quilt Fest run from Highland Park out to Union.