First of its kind in Middle Tennessee

Red Boiling Springs Walking Quilt Trail is located throughout our city parks; begins the gazebo in front of the Donoho Hotel on the corner of East Main Street and Witcher Hollow Road. The quilt trail has a three-fold purpose. First, to honor the heritage and history of the town; quilting is a part of our daily life. Second, it provides a pleasant addition to the existing walking trail in our city parks. Lastly, the quilt trails encourages citizens and guests to walk the trail to add a few more steps to their lives.

 Each shadow box display contains a 2×2 painted representation of a quilt block from a popular quilt design of the 1920’s to 1940’s. The box also contains a plaque that tells about the design and why the sponsor chose it. Most of the quilt displays are in honor or in memory of someone special. The names of the sponsor and the artist are also included on the plaque. The shadow box has a plexi-glass covering to help protect it from the elements.

The Quilt Trail is a project of Vision 2020 Inc in cooperation with the city of Red Boiling Springs, TN. For more information on how you can sponsor a quilt display in this attraction, contact Rita Watson at vision2020@nctc.com.

How it all comes together

Once a sponsor has decided on the quilt pattern and their application is submitted, a local artist is asked to paint the quilt square.  The artist begins by consulting with the sponsor about colors to use. Next, the artist graphs out the pattern on paper. This is when the artist’s high school geometry class comes in handing. This can take several hours depending on the detail in the pattern. Now, it is math class as the artist enlarges the graph plan to fit a 2′ x 2′ square. The artist will clean and buff the metal square and apply two coats of primer.  A simple pencil/pen drawing is applied to the board as a guide.

Sometimes the artist has to paint one color in an area and then lay the square aside to allow it to dry before makes this project time intensive. Many times the pattern is “taped” to outline the different areas and to prevent the colors from spreading into an area where they ought not be.  Finally, the square is covered with a clear, protective finish. Of course, the artist works their time painting around all their other life commitments.  We have some super artists in the area.

The Walking Quilt Trail also uses local carpenters to build the display boxes, stain them and then mount the square and plaque inside the box when mounting it to the post in the park.

A local craftsman laser engraves the information/memorial plaques that are mounted just below the painted quilt square inside the display box.

As you can see, it takes a lot of very talented folks to bring the Walking Quilt Trail together.

~ It’s time to take a walk~

Quilt Trail Map