SALISBURY — The Barn Quilts of Rowan 2020 calendar, featuring frame-worthy photographs from December 2019 to December 2020, is now for sell at numerous outlets.

The calendar is produced by the all-volunteer Rowan Barn Quilt Trail Alliance, which promotes the county’s ever-burgeoning number of barn quilts dotting the rural landscape.

“The alliance is everybody who has a barn quilt, any group that sells the calendars and everybody who supports the barn quilt trail (including the N.C. Grange), who are many,” said chief organizer Adele Goodman.

Featured on the calendar cover is a large barn quilt at Patterson Farm off Caldwell Road.

Businesses and organizations selling the calendar include West Rowan Farm, Home & Garden Center; Goodnight’s Southern States; Mount Ulla Historic Preservation Society; Millbridge Elementary School; Rowan Cooperative Extension Agency; Country Life Museum at Sloan Park; Father & Son Produce; Rowan Animal Clinic; Patterson Farm; Corriher Grange; and Mary Mae’s Mercantile in Spencer.

The calendar costs $10, and whoever sells the calendars keeps a profit of $5.28 per calendar.

“We did this as a way to help local nonprofits and small ag-related businesses use it as a fundraiser, while promoting the barn quilt trail,” Goodman said. “The entire barn quilt trail has been a grass-roots effort and wonderful to watch grow and bring so many people together.”

With pre-orders of 1,117, the alliance already has surpassed sales of the 2019 calendar. The pre-order number doesn’t include Millbridge Elementary School, which plans to use the sale of 2020 calendars as a fundraiser once school is back in session.

The 2019 calendar sold 1,063 copies, with a few still available at West Rowan Farm, Home & Garden.

The 2020 calendar dedication says, “Dedicated to Rowan’s true treasures … our beloved farmers, their families and all those who support them.”

The driving forces behind the calendar were Goodman, Elsie Bennett, Cotton Ketchie, Vickie Ketchie, Leigh Walther, Mikayla Beatty and Steele Creek Printing.

Goodman wrote descriptions for the barn quilts that are highlighted each month and assigned photographers well in advance to capture the barn quilts in the appropriate season.

Bennett, an artist behind many barn quilts and co-owner with her husband of West Rowan Farm, Home & Garden, helped  round up photographers to help the main photographer, Cotton Ketchie. Bennett also markets the calendar, a project that Goodman said is a 16-month process.

“Everybody involved donated their time 100%,” Goodman said.

The photographers were Cotton and Vickie Ketchie, Walther and Beatty.

“Everybody knows and loves Cotton,” Goodman said. “His photos have been published many times, and they regularly show up on WBTV highlighting our lovely rural areas.

“Cotton has been photographing barn quilts since the first few were up — he loves them. Cotton’s wife, Vickie, is also a talented photographer and incredibly talented. … They’d often go out on shoots together, searching for the perfect shot.”

Barn quilts featured in the calendar include those owned by Jenny Booe on N.C. 801; Eric and Dana Corriher on Corriher Springs Road; the Corriher Grange on Corriher Grange Road; Lonnie and Max Corriher on Corriher Springs Road; Rowan Cooperative Extension on Old Concord Road; Patterson Farm on Caldwell Road; The Country Life Museum at Sloan Park; B.J. and Joe Owen on Graham Road; Millbridge Elementary School on Millbridge Road; West Rowan Fire Department on Graham Road; Adele Goodman on Corriher Springs Road; the Tinsley family on Providence Church Road; and the Corriher family on Shue Road.

Artists for the quilts featured include Bennett; Pam and Susan Bostian; the Tinsley family; B.J. and Joe Owen; Lonnie Corriher and Melvin McAllister; and Booe.

“They were out there in freezing cold, snow, blazing heat and climbing up on things they should have to get the perfect shot,” Goodman said of photographers Walther, Beatty and the Ketchies. “Cotton climbed up a ladder at Patterson Farm and stood in the back of a pickup to get West Rowan Fire Department.”

Jenny Booe’s barn quilt off N.C. 801 was in memory of the late Sally Graham Murphy, “a beloved member of the Bear Poplar community and a strong advocate for farmland preservation,” Goodman said in her description.

“Leigh was hiking through snow and climbing fences to get Sally Murphy’s — but I told them I’m not responsible for any injuries incurred while shooting barn quilts,” Goodman said. ‘Thankfully, all survived.”

The 2019 and 2020 barn quilt calendars now “paint a beautiful portrait of our rural areas and how we’re all connected,” Goodman said.

Each calendar showcases 20 barn quilts.

Besides the photographs for 13 months and the cover, the back of the 2020 calendar has photographs of six other barn quilts, including those of Wanda and Franklin Corriher of Lipe Road; Jackie Wilson on Sherrill’s Ford Road; Rod Lowe of Amity Hill Road; Gerry Smith of Centenary Church Road; Meredith and Wes Jones of Corriher Grange Road; and Mount Ulla Elementary School on N.C. 801.

“I have to give props to Steele Creek Printing in Pineville,” Goodman said. “Charles Wilkinson and his staff are professionals and have produced very high-quality calendars. They also have very big hearts for nonprofits and are huge fans of our barn quilts.”

Goodman and Bennett had some other updates on the barn-quilt front:

• A Barn Quilt Celebration & Community Barn Quilt Dedication is planned from 4 to 8 p.m. Sept. 7 at West Rowan Farm, Home & Garden at the intersection of N.C. 801 and Graham Road.

A 504-square-foot community barn quilt, or mural, went up in July on the side of the store, featuring individual barn quilts painted by many people from the western Rowan County area.

• Since the community barn quilt went up, Goodman says, “Elsie has had tons of visitors to stop by, including many from out of town and out of state. One group even came from the Netherlands. They’d heard about it online, so they stopped by after leaving Patterson Farm.

“About five quilters guilds from out of town have also brought groups in, so it’s been great.”

• Bennett is finishing her work on two more barn quilts — 12-by-12-foot and 6-by-6-foot squares — for the Country Life Museum. Goodman said they should be in place by a Sept. 28 fundraiser at the museum.

• Bennett also is working on a 16-foot-square barn quilt for the Malt House in Cleveland. It will be the county’s largest barn quilt when in place.

Contact Mark Wineka at 704-797-4263.