Newark family hopes to start barn quilt trend

NEWARK – With the combination of a scissor crane and a forklift, members of the Christian family hauled the huge barn quilt up to the side of their barn at 12149 W. Helmar Road. The big reveal on June 26 was the culmination of a year and a half’s work on the part of Stacy Christian.

“I got into it after seeing a barn quilt trail in Kankakee County,” Christian said.

Barn quilts are a large form of rosemaling, a form of decorative floral paintings originating in Norway and usually found on smaller canvases.

According to Christian, the new addition to their barn uses the “os style” of rosemaling, which is a symmetrical and asymmetrical painting of flowers and stems.

“I used two sheets of 4-by-8 plywood,” Christian said, describing how she put the barn quilt together. “Then I used exterior grade latex paint [and] procured a pattern for the rosemaling.”

Working in her garage, Christian created a smaller 4-by-4 rosemaling painting for their house as a test.

“It’s so detailed,” she said. “It’s tricky working with exterior paint, and rosemaling is done with oil-based paint, and [on] bowls or small paintings, nothing of this scale. I had never painted something like this before.”

The new accoutrement to the barn also has a great deal of family historical significance, according to Duane Christian, Stacy’s father-in-law.

“This farm is third generation,” said Duane Christian. “This family started here from Skanevik, Norway [about] 100 years ago.”

For Stacy, she’d like to see more people take up barn quilting beautification for their respective farms. She already has plans to include a guestbook in the future for those who want to stop by and snap a picture.

“I’d love to see the whole county blanketed in these things,” she said. “I think they’re so cool.”