Joyce Kuhn beams as she cranes her neck to admire a colorful new addition to her old red barn.

What used to be a bare spot is now a large, red-white-and-blue square made of plywood that features the Ohio Star. She and her husband constructed the art piece and installed it this spring.

“It was interesting getting it up there,” Kuhn said.

The barn quilt is only the second one Kuhn is aware of on Whidbey Island.

She and her husband Bill were inspired during a February visit to Tillamook, Ore., where barn quilts have become so much part of the rural fabric that Tillamook County boasts a self-guided quilt trail.

Since Joyce is an avid quilter and her husband is a retired structural engineer, the couple collaborated to bring the concept home to their North Whidbey property on Ducken Road and got the idea off the ground in early April.

It’s the second one in Oak Harbor, joining the Amish hummingbird square design installed two years ago at Hummingbird Farm Nursery and Gardens on Zylstra Road.

“I said, ‘Do you think we could do this?’,” Joyce said. “He figured out how to get it up on the barn before I figured out how to make a block.”

The result is an 8-foot-by-8-foot square of the Ohio Star, a popular quilt block pattern. The pattern includes geometric shapes in red, white, blue and yellow, a patriotic tribute to Joyce Kuhn’s father and neighbor Harvey Lasell, a World War II veteran.

American barn quilts date back almost to the country’s beginning, originating on the east coast. The patterns often reflect or honor a family’s past and became identifiers for travelers.

It wasn’t until around the 1830s and 1840s, when paint became less expensive, that barn quilts started to take off. They peaked in the early 20th Century until advertisements started to take their places.

In 2001, barn quilts experienced a North American resurgence, starting in Ohio and have made their way to the West Coast through what is referred to as the American Quilt Trail Movement.

Tillamook County established the first barn quilt trail on the West Coast in 2009. Kittitas County followed suit in 2013 to become the first in Washington state and now has more than 100 quilt blocks on display scattered throughout the county.

Joyce Kuhn sees Island County as a natural fit for its own barn quilt trail, particularly on Whidbey.

“It would be nice to pique someone’s interest to do this in Island County because there are a lot of barns and lots of barns on Highway 20 that can be seen,” she said.

“It might be something for the Chamber of Commerce to use to advertise Oak Harbor.”

Lori Spear, owner of Hummingbird Farm Nursery and Gardens, said she tried to generate interest in creating an Island County barn quilt trail two years ago. She held meetings and even visited Ellensburg to speak to the organizer of the Kittitas County quilt trail.

The idea never gained traction on Whidbey.

“It hasn’t gotten very far,” Spear said.

Knowledge of the Kuhns’ quilt square has renewed her enthusiasm, she said.

Spear’s farm is believed to be the first in northwest Washington to join the American Quilt Trail Movement.

Bill Kuhn devised a pulley system to lift the quilt square about 20 feet before fastening it to the wall.

The Kuhns envision expanding their idea. Well at least, Joyce does.

“We’re thinking about doing seasonal ones,” she said.

“Seasonal?” Bill said.

“I don’t think so. Maybe the 21st Century.”