UNION TWP. — Joyce Laswell displays her love for quilts in many forms.

The Union Twp. woman has heirloom quilts handed down by family tucked away for safekeeping. Others are prominently exhibited in her living room and some are gifts she made and gave to grandchildren.

But the pattern people notice while driving past her home at 716 Shawhan Road is the 8-foot-by-8-foot interlocking plywood “quilt” created by her son Kelly over the course of three weeks in late 2009 as part of a large project to restore the more than 100-year-old barn.

“I like quilts and I always have ever since I was a child,” she said. “I wanted one and wanted one (a barn quilt) and finally got one.”

Once a milking operation, the barn now houses chickens. Despite what its interior is used for, its exterior is a work of art, Laswell said.

“It adds something to the barn,” she said. “(Quilting) is something our ancestors did out of necessity but I think there’s a growing, revised interest in the quilts. I think this is a good way to show ‘em off.”

Laswell, who is limited in what she can do because of caring for her husband Ron, said she hopes more people will create barn quilts and start a quilt barn tour, much like the ones that have sprung up in parts of rural Kentucky, especially Rockcastle County, where her family once resided.

“In this one particular community ... you go maybe a mile and here’s another barn quilt on a barn,” she said. “I think it would be so interesting in our county if you were to drive along and see these.”

Kelly Laswell said creating the quilt was tricky because he had to find pressure-treated timbers that had been sitting around for a couple of years and had dried out, making them easier to paint than “green” timbers.

The project still required a lot of paint simply because the wood was pressure-treated.

“It had to be primed four times and then a couple of coats of paint and then it had to be sealed, so it took a little longer than your average project that you would have indoors,” he said. “I wanted to make it last so hopefully whoever sees it enjoys and takes pleasure it just as my mother does.”

Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4541 or eschwartzberg@coxohio.com. Follow at www.twitter.com/eschwartzberg.