Written By Jan Sims
ILDERTON - A barn quilt now adorns Ilderton’s Heritage Park. It’s the work of local designer Emilio Barbaro, who won a contest sponsored by Middlesex Centre to have a quilt featured on the main building at the park.
“I was really surprised,” says Barbaro when he learned he had the winning entry. “I never thought of putting something on a barn,” adds Barbaro.
The inspiration for the barn quilt came about with the help of his 6-year-old son, Anton. “I’m going to show him that design is not just coming up with something, it has to have a meaning and purpose,” says Barbaro. The process began by cutting out shapes with pieces of paper, and involved driving around the Ilderton-area where they noticed the geometric patterns that were echoed with other barn quilts.
Barbaro says he also wanted to highlight the diversity of Ilderton, with Anton choosing the colours for the design. “We came up with a penrose design and that’s very literal. So, we started shaping it and we ended up with four corners. That was our first iteration,” says Barbaro.
The design impressed the judges, with comments that are posted on the municipality’s website. “The intricate design uses vibrant colours to capture the essence of the region’s seasonal beauty, from the lush greens of the forests and fields to the golden hues of its crops and the striking blues and reds of its iconic skies,” the website post reads.
Barbaro trained as a designer in his homeland of Mexico before moving to Ilderton where he has his own design business. He says part of the reason the quilt uses bold colours is to enliven the local winter landscape with its predominance of whites and greys. “We wanted it to be joyful,” says Barbaro of what he hopes people will feel when they see the quilt. “I just wanted to bring a little ray of colour into the landscapes. That was my hope,” adds Barbaro.
