Barn quilt artist Janet Pentl trades in needles and thread for brushes and paint
Artist Janet Plentl in her Marble Falls workshop using what were once her quilting tools to create a 2-foot-by-2-foot barn quilt on aluminum with enamel paint. The workspace also serves as a gallery for her colorful creations. Staff photo by Suzanne Freeman
Once an avid quilter, Janet Plentl of Marble Falls put away her needles, threads, and fabrics to take up — quilting. Yes, she’s still making quilt blocks, but these are painted on aluminum or wood and measured by feet, not inches.
Brightly colored and boldly designed, Plentl’s barn quilts are not for cuddling under. Instead, they hang outdoors on fences, homes, businesses, and barns, which is where they got the name.
“I already had a bunch of quilts in the house,” Plentl said. “Now, I could show my love of quilts and my love of design and color outside. It brightens up the whole outside. I can put these in places I can’t put the fabric quilts.”
Barn quilts became popular as a form of agritourism in the early 2000s in Ohio and Pennsylvania. The wooden quilt blocks range in size from 2 feet by 2 feet to 8 feet by 8 feet and are strategically hung with locations mapped out on social media.
“It inspired people to drive around and see all the barn quilts,” said Plentl, who is working on a Hill Country Quilt Trail. Already, nine barn quilts of several sizes are posted in Burnet and Llano counties.
Plentl donated the most visible barn quilt to Marble Falls VFW Post 10376 at 1001 Veterans Drive. More information about the trail can be found on her Facebook page @JaVibeBarnQuilts. This will be the fifth trail in Texas.
“A lot of people don’t know about barn quilts,” Plentl said. “It’s becoming a fast-growing art form. It’s considered folk art.”
Barn quilts can function as a customer draw for businesses as well as a tourist attraction. Plentl suggests specialty designs for an ice cream shop, an animal shelter, and a pet or grooming store. Just about any business can inspire a quilt block, she said.
An example of a block perfect for a school or teacher’s home hangs in her workshop. She has created barn quilts for Hope House residential home in Liberty Hill, Austin Boxer Rescue,and, well, quilt shops, including Austin Street Fabrics in Dublin near Stephenville and The Country Quilt Shop in Llano.She keeps photos of each in a binder for potential customers to peruse.
Other custom designs are more personal. One man commissioned four blocks for members of his family who loved to play Chinese checkers on an antique family board. The design was based on that board, with each square bordered by the color marble each family member always claimed for play.
She made another barn quilt block in memory of Bruno, her oldest son Homer Plentl’s Labrador who died at 14.
“Whatever can be sewn into a quilt block, that’s what I can put on a barn quilt,” she said. That includes images that would be appliqued on a fabric quilt.
While some of her quilt blocks are from known quilt designs, which she always pays for and credits, she often creates her own. However, her favorite blocks to paint are the custom blocks, some of which match a patron’s favorite fabric quilt.
“Personally, I want to do a lot of custom work,” Plentl said. “I just want more people to enjoy them.”
Plentl didn’t have to set aside all her quilting tools to take up this new art form. She makes extensive use of an impressive set of acrylic quilting rulers, which come in a variety of shapes and sizes.
“It’s all the same tools. I just changed from fabric to paint,” she said.
Unlike most barn quilters, Plentl paints on aluminum composite with Sign Painters’ 1-Shot brand lettering enamel, both designed to withstand years of weather in the great outdoors. Also, the enamel produces a shiny luster without a seal coat.
“The aluminum composite eliminates wood rot and is one-third lighter than wood,” she said. “You don’t have to worry so much about where you hang it.”
Hanging is simple. Her barn quilts come with a screw hole in each corner for mounting on any surface.
JaVibe Barn Quilts (shortened from “Janet’s vibe”) operates out of a portable building that is part workshop, part gallery. She keeps several projects going at once as the specialized paint she uses takes 24 hours to dry and she always applies two layers for a deeper, richer color.
Plentl teaches barn quilt classes but with outdoor paint on 2-foot-by-2-foot flats of wood for a faster dry and a finished product by the end of the day.
Class dates and locations can be found on her Facebook page. She has two scheduled in March at Poppy Quilt N Sew in Georgetown. She also holds classes at The Country Quilt Shop in Llano, Kingsland House of Arts and Crafts, and the Marble Falls VFW. She’s open to holding classes wherever there’s space and a willing group of people to participate, she said.
“There’s no downside in a barn quilt,” Plentl said. “People have so many beautiful things inside their homes — this is a way to share color and design outside.”
Contact Plentl at 830-385-9296 or javibebarnquilts@gmail.com or visit her website at javibebarnquilts.com.