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White Horse Farm.
We invite you to tour the Chatt Hills Barn Quilt Trail and learn more about the rich rural heritage of beautiful Chattahoochee Hills. Visitors are welcome to take photos from the public road, and are invited to shop in the local businesses.
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White Horse Farm Mailbox (ST-1)
9120 Wilkerson Mill Rd 
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A warm welcome. . . at the mailbox
Julie and Ron White, owners of White Horse Farm, have one of the coolest barns in Chatt Hills, complete with its own heritage story. But since their barn can't be seen from a public road, they didn't qualify for the Chatt Hills Barn Quilt Trail.
When Julie saw a barn quilt on a mailbox down the road, she offered to pay for a mailbox barn quilt if someone could paint one that resembled her family's Log Cabin quilt. Julie & Ron's story inspired the Chatt Hills Barn Quilt Trail to create a "Side Trail" of mailbox barn quilts. This offers residents who don't qualify for the main quilt trail an opportunity to participate, while offering visitors more opportunities to view barn quilts and learn about our rural heritage. |
At the center . . . of the Log Cabin Quilt
Julie has many quilts made by her mother, but only one made by her mother-in-law, Helen White. As Julie recalls, Helen made the quilt top in 1983 but didn't give it to them until 1984, the year she and Ron had their house warming party at their new home place in Chatt Hills. Three years later, Helen completed hand-quilting the top.
According to a history of the Log Cabin Quilt by Karen Griska, early Log Cabin blocks were hand-pieced using strips of fabrics around a central square. In traditional Log Cabin blocks, one half is made of dark fabrics and the other half light. A red center symbolized the hearth of home and a yellow center represented a welcoming light in the window.
Julie's heritage quilt follows a similar pattern in that her mother-in-law hand-pieced the quilt using strips of fabric. However, the quilt is unique in that the center square is divided into a triangle with one half red and the other half yellow.
The volunteer who painted the mailbox barn quilt replicated the log cabin pattern and color, and stenciled a patterned similar to the flowered fabric used in the original quilt.
According to a history of the Log Cabin Quilt by Karen Griska, early Log Cabin blocks were hand-pieced using strips of fabrics around a central square. In traditional Log Cabin blocks, one half is made of dark fabrics and the other half light. A red center symbolized the hearth of home and a yellow center represented a welcoming light in the window.
Julie's heritage quilt follows a similar pattern in that her mother-in-law hand-pieced the quilt using strips of fabric. However, the quilt is unique in that the center square is divided into a triangle with one half red and the other half yellow.
The volunteer who painted the mailbox barn quilt replicated the log cabin pattern and color, and stenciled a patterned similar to the flowered fabric used in the original quilt.
The heritage of . . . the old cattle barn
Built in the 1940s on the Trotters’ property in Fairburn, Georgia, the old cattle barn was scheduled for demolition to make way for a new subdivision when Julie learned of its fate. Seeing potential in the old barn, Julie offered to rescue, re-home and restore the barn on her property. The builder said she could have the barn if she could remove it within 10 days. To hold her to her word, he required she put up $1,500 in earnest money. Working like a woman possessed, Julie enlisted the help of many good friends and completed the task on-time, with $1,500 still in her bank account.
As it turned out, the story of Julie’s barn would also become the story – and the essence – of her White Horse Farm. Each of the eight horses she has owned over the years have come her way by being rescued, fostered, or acquired free for the taking. Each needed a little Tender Loving Care to recover from their former circumstances. And through Julie’s determination, each horse was successfully rehomed – five horses to new homes; two horses remain on her farm. To get a better idea of what her horses went through along their journey, we asked her to share a few of her horse tales.
Read Julie's article, which was written for our community newsletter in 2019:
[THE HEALING POWER OF HORSES' Julie White: White Horse Farm]
As it turned out, the story of Julie’s barn would also become the story – and the essence – of her White Horse Farm. Each of the eight horses she has owned over the years have come her way by being rescued, fostered, or acquired free for the taking. Each needed a little Tender Loving Care to recover from their former circumstances. And through Julie’s determination, each horse was successfully rehomed – five horses to new homes; two horses remain on her farm. To get a better idea of what her horses went through along their journey, we asked her to share a few of her horse tales.
Read Julie's article, which was written for our community newsletter in 2019:
[THE HEALING POWER OF HORSES' Julie White: White Horse Farm]