Champaign County Barn Quilt Tour: A Fall Festival Wrapped Up in Quilts

Champaign County Barn Quilt Tour: A Fall Festival Wrapped Up in Quilts

The sixth annual Champaign County Barn Quilt Tour, October 8 and 9, is several fall festivals wrapped up in one. The tour features stops at nine locations that celebrate Ohio’s agricultural heritage, the folk art of quilting, local foods, and local history—accompanied by a wide variety of fun, educational activities for adults and children.

In a loop through the northeast quadrant of scenic Champaign County the stops feature demonstrations and tours of a 200-year-old family farm with an active maple sugar camp, a 100-year-old dairy farm, the state’s largest indoor fish hatchery, an historic homestead that showcases 200 years of local agricultural history, a draft horse farm offering wagon rides, a farm market and a nationally-recognized maker of gourmet food products.

All of the sites include displays of quilts. Other features at various sites include exhibits and demonstrations of antique farm machinery, artists and craftspeople, a beekeeper, children’s games and crafts, petting zoos featuring traditional farm animals, as well as alpacas and sturgeon (at the fish farm), live music, garden tours, samples of various foods, locally grown food sold at a farmers’ market, and a dinner and wine tasting (additional cost).

One Ticket Covers All Stops

A $10 tour ticket (children 12 and under are free) covers all nine stops. Tickets can be purchased at any of the stops during the tour – 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 8 and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 9, as well as at a tent in the southeast corner of Monument Square in historic downtown Urbana. Ticketholders may start at any of the stops.

Tickets also may be purchased in advance at the Champaign County Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau, 113 Miami St., Urbana; 937-653-5764; 877-873-5764. They also are available at Security National Bank, 1 Monument Square or 828 Scioto St., Urbana; Braden’s Café & Sweets, 115 W. Main St., St. Paris; Hemisphere Coffee Roasters, 22 S. Main St., Mechanicsburg; and Freshwater Farms of Ohio, 2624 N. U.S. 68, Urbana.

Presenting sponsors of this year’s tour are Robert Rothschild Farm and Champaign Residential Services, Inc.

Barn Quilt Tour Stops

Johnson’s Maple Sugar Camp, 7012 Stevenson Rd., Cable, was recognized by the Ohio Senate in 2005 as a Bicentennial farm. It was begun in 1805 by Jacob Johnson and, seven generations later, is still in the family. Barn Quilt Tour features: Tours, including the farm’s log cabin, barn, sugar shack, and a presentation and display on the traditional methods the Johnson still use to process maple syrup from the farm’s 20 acres of maple trees—some 200 years old.  Also, maple syrup samples and sales, maple sugar candy, sweet rolls made by Katie Hoover of Sunshine Gardens with Johnson’s maple syrup icing, local artists displaying and demonstrating their work, and a video presentation about the family cemetery, which is located on another part of the farm. Champaign County Dulcimers Club will perform 1-3 p.m. Saturday.

 

Robert Rothschild Farm, 3143 E. U.S. 36, Urbana (robertrothschild.com), which produces award-winning gourmet food products including preserves, mustards, dips, sauces and sweet toppings. Barn Quilt Tour features: On the grounds of its 170-acre working raspberry farm and 51,000-square-foot production facility, RRF will offer product tastings and ice cream sundaes featuring its toppings. Other features: display of wall hangings and quilting demonstrations by Champaign Quilters Guild, as well as displays of mini quilts and vintage aprons.

 

Stan-Mar-Dale Farm, 5077 S. Kennard Rd., Urbana, a registered Holstein dairy farm that has been in operation in the same family for more than a century. Barn Quilt Tour features: An informative tour of the dairy operation, a calf petting area and children’s games, crafts and other activities, and a display of family quilts including one made of banners, ribbons and rosettes the farm has won at national, regional and state dairy shows.

 

Mac-A-Cheek Castle, 10051 CR 47, West Liberty, one of the two historic limestone mansions, known as the Piatt Castles (piattcastles.org). They showcase 200 years of local history. Barn Quilt Four features: Children’s games and activities and an outdoor exhibit about the 180-year history of the Piatt family farm, “They Lived Long on the Land.” Tours of the castle, which opens at 11 a.m. each day, will be offered to Barn Quilt Tour ticketholders at the discounted group rate.

 

Woodruff’s Cambrian Farm, 6721 E. U.S. 36, Cable.  Barn Quilt Tour features: Tours of two of the farm’s historic barns, made of lumber milled from local trees. They were used for draft horses and mules used on the original 600-acre farm. Also: horse-drawn wagon rides both days, displays of antique equipment, such as horse-drawn plows, displayed next to modern GPS-guided farm equipment, Belgian draft horses and Angus cattle.

 

The Mad River Farm Market, 7538 N. U.S. 68, Urbana. Local food products are a specialty of the market. Barn Quilt Tour features: Tasting of locally-made food products, including Ayars ice cream. Petting zoo and other children’s activities. Display of quilts by the Champaign Quilters Guild. On Saturday only, a wine tasting, including selections from Ohio, 4 to 8 p.m., and a boxed dinner, 5 to 7 p.m. (additional charge).

 

Curt and Ginger Huhn barn, 6108 Black Road, Cable, a restored hand-hewn barn built in 1830, featuring a carpenter’s workshop. Barn Quilt Tour features: Tour of the barn, hillside water garden, two acres of mature perennial gardens, alpacas, demonstrations by local artists and artisans, handcrafted jewelry by Ginger Huhn, wool spinning and fiber arts (Sunday only), and bee keeping, Ukranian egg and herb demonstrations. Champaign County Dulcimers Club performing, 1-3 p.m. Sunday.

 

Mike and Donna Black Barn, 7793 Brush Lake Rd., North Lewisburg. Barn Quilt Tour features: Tour of original post and beam barn at Whispering Pines Farm, antique tractors and an array of other antiques, a farmers’ market featuring local producers, and the Champaign County Ohio State University Alumni Association, which will be selling OSU garden stones and other items.

 

Freshwater Farms of Ohio, 2624 N. U.S. 68, Urbana. A three-generation family operation founded in 1986 on a former chicken farm, Freshwater Farms is Ohio’s largest indoor fish hatchery and the only Ohio producer of trout products. Barn tour features: Tour of the farm’s restored century-old barn, which houses a retail market that sells the farm’s fish products, and an upstairs banquet facility, where quilts will be displayed. Tours of the fish operation and displays of fish and other native creatures, plus a chance to pet the farm’s sturgeon and feed the fish.

 

About the Barn Quilt Tour

The tour was established in 2006 to celebrate Champaign County’s agricultural heritage, the folk art of quilting and the unique features and history of Champaign County. The tour has grown to include 75 barns and other buildings that display large vibrantly-colored patchwork quilt blocks, each one a unique design, that adorn all sections of the county.

Throughout the year, visitors can drive through the county to view the barn quilts, guided by a map available from the Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau.

For more information, contact the Champaign County Visitors Bureau at 877-873-5764 or visit ChampaignCountyBarns.com or facebook.com/barnquilttour.


Prizes Offered in Clothesline of Quilts Contest

Residents and businesses throughout Champaign County can help blanket the county, and get into the spirit of the 2011 Champaign County Barn Quilt Tour, by participating in the Clothesline of Quilts contest.

All that’s required to participate:

  • Put up a display of old or new quilts outside your home or business—in the country or in town—during the Barn Quilt Tour, October 8 and 9. They may be displayed in any fashion—not just on clotheslines
  • Take a photo of your display and mail or email it by October 17 to the Champaign County Chamber of Commerce and Convention and Visitors Bureau, 113 Miami St., Urbana, info@champaignohio.com. Include your name, phone number and address. (Photos will not be returned.)

Business winners will receive plaques and be recognized in the Urbana Daily Citizen and in the Chamber newsletter. Cash prizes will be awarded to individuals: $100 for first place; $75, second; $50, third; and $25, fourth.

 

Barn Quilt Tour Offers Two Contests for Kids

This year’s Champaign County Barn Quilt Tour includes two contests for children:

  • A coloring contest – The contest is for children ages 2-12. Print any one of four barn quilt designs on the Barn Quilt Tour Facebook page (facebook.com/barnquilttour) and submit completed entries by October 4 to the Champaign County Chamber of Commerce, 113 Miami St., Urbana, by October 4 for a chance to win prizes. Entries will be displayed at one of our Barn Quilt Tour stops on October 8 and 9. Coloring stations will be set up for children during the tour at two of the stops – Robert Rothschild Farm and Stan-Mar-Dale Farm.
  • Scavenger hunt – Children who go on the Barn Quilt Tour will be given a list of items to find at the nine tour locations. They can turn in their finds at any of the stops to receive coupons for a free barn cookie with $10 purchase at Bobby D’s Cakes and More, 1501 S. U.S. 68, Urbana, and a free buckeye candy with purchase from Braden’s Café and Sweets, 115 W. Main St., St. Paris.