Pieced Together (2016)

Donna Sue Groves had an idea: pretty up an old barn for her mother Nina Maxine, a celebrated quilter, by hanging a wooden square painted to look like a traditional quilt block. A community organizer by trade, she thought why stop with just one square? So Donna Sue got together with her neighbors in Adams County, OH and created a driving trail of squares hung on barns to attract tourists looking for a day trip who might stop and spend money on gas, food, or crafts made by local artists. The first barn quilt square, an "Ohio Star," was hung on the Lewis Mountain Herbs and Everlastings farm in 2001; the idea sparked a grassroots phenomenon and a new form of American public art. Now over 45 U.S. states and parts of Canada have barn quilt trails. There are more than 360 community organized trails and countless squares found on barns, garages, and fences from California to Tennessee to Prince Edward Island. Donna Sue never planned on creating a cross-country movement but it is this very community of friends and strangers that is helping her put the pieces of her life back together.