Winter Texans share new take on barn quilts

WESLACO — Quilts are usually recognized for their simple patterns, but Winter Texans from Rio Valley Estates have modernized this hobby into fun for everyone.

Originally from Tripoli, Iowa, Mary Lou Benson first discovered barn quilts on a trip she took with eight friends from the local mobile home park. The women headed out to Iowa and took a tour in Fayette County, during which they discovered a whole new spin to what they understood to be quilting.

Barn quilts are eight foot pieces of wood that are painted with quilting patterns in multiple colors. In states like Iowa and Ohio, these large paintings are placed up onto two-story and often times century old barns, hence the name.

In 2005, the idea for the barn quilts originated in Ohio where Donna Sue Groves, a Field Representative with the Ohio Arts Council decided to have 20 “Quilt Barns” throughout the state. These quilts were to be called a “Clothesline of Quilts” and symbolized the pioneer and agricultural heritage of the state.

Given that the lack of barns in South Texas and the mobile nature of Winter Texans, the women decided to create smaller, two feet versions called mobile home quilts.

Weslaco resident Donna Gabbert joked about when the group first made the decision to start the quilts.

“When Mary Lou got back from her trip she said we should make the quilts just for fun, but I wasn’t really serious about it,” Gabbert said. “Then I e-mailed her about it and found all of these sites and we decided to put them up on our mobile homes.

Park resident Verlyn Westrum created a replica of the Summer Star Flower quilt that resides in Hamilton County, Iowa. The original is mounted to a barn that his nephew, Dirk Westrum, owns.

“I believe it was 1938 when I broke my arm while I was playing in that barn, they thought I was dead but I wasn’t,” Westrum recalled and chuckled.

The patterns for the new forms of art draw their inspiration from traditional quilting patterns. Some participants like to use their grandmother’s favorite patterns or come up with original ideas.

“One man, Gary, took some little tool to makes marks and it makes the painting look like real fabric,” Benson said.

The mobile home quilts give a feeling of home to those who create them, and a memory of family that stays vibrant long after the paint fades in the warm South Texas sun. Currently, 44 members of the park have created or placed a quilt on their mobile home, but new ones keep popping up every day.