North Star~Barn Quilt Trail, New Milford, CT

LILLIS FARM

The quilt block, with its eye-catching North Star quilt square design, hangs on a white barn that originally housed workhorses. The year 1929 appears on two of the doors, indicating when the barns were rebuilt with older foundations from the site. A nearly identical dairy barn stands a few hundred feet to the south. The farm they served belonged to the Baldwin family in the early 19th century, when the barn foundations probably were built. Albert N. Baldwin, who lived here his whole life, was an early 19th-century state legislator known for his work on prison reform. The farm is no longer actively worked.

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‍The New Milford Barn Quilt Trail consists of 19 colorful quilt patterns hand-painted on large weather-resistant blocks and hung on antique and vintage barns and historical buildings around our town. It honors our rich agricultural history, the exciting resurgence of family farms in New Milford today and the American tradition of quilt-making. It is the first barn quilt trail established in Connecticut. Already, over 40 U.S. states, including New Hampshire and New York, boast quilt trails in a rapidly expanding movement that began in Ohio in 2001. Get in your car or jump on your bike and use any mobile device to access this site as you visit these barn quilt block sites. Please use caution as you drive, bike or walk along the country roads of the barn quilt trail. Remember that the quilt blocks are displayed on what is often private property and can be viewed only from public roadsides. Responsibility for any accidents while observing the quilt blocks rests entirely with the viewer.

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