Quilter 'pieces' together her mountain heritage

By Rose Hooper

Mountain Heritage Day Quilter Laura Nelle Goebel

Driving back and forth from Cullowhee to Brasstown to teach at the John C. Campbell Folk School, Laura Nelle Goebel kept noticing a dilapidated, but full-of-character barn.

Built around 1910, the now rusty-hinged barn had seen many years use as a stock and hay barn. "Each time I drove by, that old barn seemed to lean a little more," she said. "I kept thinking that one day I'd drive by and it would be flat on the ground... like Doug Tanoury says in his 'Old Barn' poem, it would 'go completely south, its boards and beams like turkey bones left in a platter.'"

'Hole in the Barn Door'

That barn, located on Settiwig Road in Clay County, inspired a year-long project currently on display at the Folk Art Center, just off the Blue Ridge Parkway in Asheville.

"I decided to do a series of quilts depicting different barns in Western North Carolina," said Goebel, a renowned quilter who has taught for 17 years at the Campbell Folk School. "I thought about the idea for a long time, conceptualizing it in my mind. But I kept putting it off. Then I received a grant from the Regional Artist Project, which pushed me to actually do the project."

Naturally, she started wit' that old barn at Brasstown.

"I called my first piece 'Hole in the Barn Door' because that's the name of the traditional block pattern trim around the quilt. I thought it was appropriate because there's truly a hole in the barn door and you can see all the way through it," said Goebel, who used strip piecing, crinkling, couching, applique and machine embellishments to complement the barn's character.

'Granddaddy's Corn Crib'

Next she selected a little red stock barn located on Shoal Creek Road near Cherokee. She constructed this quilt using piecing and dimensional applique, along with free-motion embroidery, to provide the rustic depth and texture. The strength of the rock foundation, as well as the looseness of the soil and the wood-like framing, appear to pop off the cloth.

What helps make the barns appear so real is how Goebel uses an actual photograph to begin her creation.

"After I take the photograph, I scanned it in the computer. Then I cut a piece of muslin paper size, 8 1/2 inches by 11 inches, do the same to some freezer paper and press the paper to the shiny side of the muslin and run it through the printer," she said.

'Hooper Barn'

For the quilt she calls "Cherokee Cabin," the brown barn is highlighted by brown pleated material to give it texture. Another quilt, "Tobacco Barn," is a ready favorite with its dangling chamois cloth tobacco leaves.

"You know that stage in drying tobacco when the leaves are pliable and 'eel just like chamois cloth? That's what inspired me to cut the chamois cloth into the tobacco leaf shapes,"' said Goebel, who finds it fun to "search for fabrics that have just the right feel."

Each quilt begs to be touched.

While she is very adept at using fabric for texture, Goebel also uses a technique of string patchwork.

"Tobacco Barn," a quilt by Laura Nelle Goebel, is on display at the Folk Art Center in Asheville through Nov. 16. Nestled among the pines and dogwoods of the Blue Ridge Parkway, yet only a few miles from I-40 and downtown Asheville, the Folk Art Center showcases the finest in traditional and contemorary crafts of the Southern Appalachians. Center hours are 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. daily, except holidays.

"Actually, that's an old-fashioned technique 'here you draw the pattern and stitch it on paper, then later pull off the paper," she said.

Her quilt "Granddaddy's Corn Crib" employs that method, with threads upon threads. "That barn is no longer in existence, but was done from my imagination of how I remembered my own granddaddy's corn crib. Creating the solid dark areas took quite a few stitches!"

Many folks will recognize the quilt she calls "Hooper Barn" crafted from George Hooper's barn in Tuckasegee. Using muslin blocks, this piece is composed of printed images using computer technology.

'Little Red Barn on the hill'

"It's blending the old with the new because I set the images together in a traditional patchwork pattern." Rummaging through the stalls and climbing the creaky boards to the loft, Goebel said this particular barn had so many interesting crooks and crannies and images and angles that they wouldn't fit in one frame.

Her series of six quilts, all varied in size, are on display in the upper-level interpretation gallery of the Folk Art Center through Nov. 16.

"I'm working on getting them in other places, too," she said, such as the Appalachian Cultural Center in Boone.

"I suspect these quilts will be on the road and travel for several years. That's quite a switch because generally as soon as I make one, I give it away or sell it."