LeRoy Pennysaver & News

LE ROY PENNYSAVER & NEWS - MARCH 15, 2020 by Lynne Belluscio For three years I have talked about bringing the 2012 Barn Quilt map up to date. We receive so many requests for the maps and folks are still printing them from the internet. Unfortunately, the maps are out of date. Some quilts have been taken down and new ones have been put up. For example, there are three on a barn on Vallance Road. Bill Roger’s “John Deere” quilt isn’t on the old map and neither is the “Irish Spirit” quilt on East Main Road. There’s a new one going up on Woody’s Deli on North Street. Crocker’s has repainted their quilt “Railroad Crossing for the Black Diamond” and it looks great! And we’re hoping that McDonald’s can put their barn quilt back up after their renovation last year. The old map doesn’t include the stories or the history of our quilts, so that will be included with the new maps. Folks like to hear those stories, so this is to let you know, I’m working on it. It will be a small booklet, with the story of our project, and the stories of some of the quilts. I guess it will be like one of the “step on tours” that I give on the bus. In the meantime, there’s a couple of people who want to paint a barn quilt this year. I will be rescheduling the barn quilt workshop that was postponed last year. The 4 x 4 “Jell-O Jigglers” that was outside the front door of the Jell-O Gallery blew down last fall and was damaged, so I was planning to fix it and repaint it and then I thought, why not paint an 8 x 8 - “Jell-O Jigglers” to be put up on the Town Highway barn on Asbury Road, next to the “LeRoy’s Pride” that was painted during the Oatka Festival in 2012 during the Bicentennial. So, if you are interested in a workshop, or want to make sure your quilt is included on the new map, or want to share a story about your quilt, let me know. Here’s a little more of the story about “Jell-O Jigglers”. In 2011, the Historical Society announced that we would participate in the Town’s Bicentennial by sponsoring a barn quilt project. We would buy the plywood at contractor’s discount from Potter Lumber and assemble a “library” of paint from Crocker’s Ace Hardware. For $100, folks could have the materials to make an 8 x 8 barn quilt or $50 for a 4 x 4 quilt. The price was pretty much at the cost of materials. It wasn’t to make money, but to make the barn quilts easy to make. We hoped to have 20 barn quilts in place by the Bicentennial in 2012. (We had over 70 by June 2012.) The first quilt that I painted was “Jell-O Jigglers, during the 2011 Oatka Festival. I can’t even remember where I came up with the pattern, but I knew that it had to be in Jell-O colors. Eventually, that quilt was put up at the Jell-O Gallery, and a photo of it was sent to a former LeRoyan, who took the pattern and created a crib quilt. In fact, she used hand dyed material so that the colors would be exactly what she wanted and she assembled quilt kits, complete with the hand dyed material. The new Jell-O Jigglers for Asbury Road will look like the crib quilt. The one outside the Jell-O Gallery is only one square of the crib quilt pattern. Even though it has been ten years since the barn quilt project started, it still brings many visitors to LeRoy. As I was explaining to a group this past week, it was a project that drew attention to the impact of agriculture on our town. Our farms provide the economic base for LeRoy, and it’s important for our future to support our farmers. So, if you haven’t taken a drive around town lately, as spring arrives, drive out into the countryside. Enjoy the rural scenery and see how many barn quilts you can find. Hopefully I’ll have new maps ready in a few weeks. LeRoy’s Barn Quilts - What’s New The quilt was designed by Eileen Casey Gianiodis who grew up in LeRoy. Her grandfather was a police officer and owned a hardware store in LeRoy. Her great grandfather was the mayor. “For many people, their hometowns are places they can’t wait to leave. I was no different. It’s only now that I live 450 miles away, that I realize what a true gem it is.”