People browse the quilts on display Saturday at the Canaan Farmers Hall in Canaan. A group of volunteers worked with students at Canaan Elementary School to create 28 barn quilts, shown on the stage. Jake Freudberg/Morning Sentinel

CANAAN — Across Maine and throughout North America, wooden sheets painted with geometric patterns meant to resemble quilt squares adorn barns and other buildings.

Barn quilts, as they are known, are a rural tradition. Some people travel around the country just to see them.

This fall, students at Canaan Elementary School, with the help of older members from the community, painted 28 of them that were on display Saturday at the Canaan Farmers Hall.

The goal of the project, organizer Kathy Perelka said, was to bring together people from different generations in the community and connect children with the hall. The former Grange hall at 296 Main St.  was purchased by a local nonprofit in 2012.

“There was a lot of good connection,” said Perelka, who grew up in Canaan and lives in the town of just more than 2,000.

Led by Perelka, a group of about 20 volunteers, all older than 68 years old, worked with the elementary school students over nine sessions since September to paint the quilts, she said.

During the sessions, groups of students, totaling about 150 from kindergarten through fifth grade, came to the hall to learn about the building and to paint the patterns on 4-by-4-foot wooden sheets, which Perelka’s husband cut. The older volunteers taped off the shapes for the children to paint several coats each session.

“Then, they had milk and cookies,” Perelka said, “which they were thrilled about.”

A $5,000 grant from the Maine Humanities Council covered the cost of materials and allowed the group to bring in artist Saskia Reinholt to help lead the workshops, Perelka said. Reinholt, of Phillips, is the founder of the Maine Barn Quilt Trail and has created more than 70 barn quilt murals, according to her website, www.saskiareinholt.com.

Six of the 28 finished barn quilts are to be hung around town, at the Canaan Fire Department, the Canaan Historical Society, Canaan Elementary School, the Canaan Farmers Hall, the Canaan Public Library and the town office, Perelka said. The rest were set to be auctioned off Saturday evening — following a lasagna dinner and ice cream social — with proceeds supporting future projects of the Canaan Farmers Hall.

Also on display Saturday were two “postcard quilts” that Canaan students helped make this spring. Each drew on a small rectangular piece of fabric, which volunteers sewed together over the summer.

During the day Saturday at the Farmers Hall, the barn quilts, the postcard quilts and others made by community members were on display, along with several crafts for sale.

There were no elementary schoolers there between 11 a.m. and noon — Perelka was expecting some to come for the ice cream later — but several of the volunteers who helped with the project were looking at the quilts and helping out with the event.

Eight women, who Kathy Perelka dubs “the posse” — from far left, Rhonda Allen, Winnie Hayden, Bev Goodridge, Jeannie Dickey, Pam Clark, Perelka, Andra Burrill and Brenda Holt — worked with Canaan Elementary School students to make the barn quilts on display Saturday at the Canaan Farmers Hall. Jake Freudberg/Morning Sentinel

Perelka calls the team of women “the posse.”

“I put out an idea,” Perelka said. “They’re the ones that say, ‘Oh, that sounds like fun.’

“Then, they get to do a lot of work.”

Bev Goodridge, Perelka’s sister-in-law, was among that group of quilters.

“I said, I really don’t work with little kids,” said Goodridge, who has older grandchildren. “But I went the first day — the first time was kindergartners — and I loved it. And I went back every day.”

Some of the barn quilts that a local group of volunteers made with Canaan Elementary School students are on display Saturday at the Canaan Farmers Hall in Canaan. In total, the students helped make 28 quilts on wooden boards, and six are set to be hung at public buildings in Canaan. Jake Freudberg/Morning Sentinel

Perelka said she credits Principal Myla Kreider of Canaan Elementary School for helping with the idea to foster that intergenerational connection.

“She’s just looking to bridge generations and set up everything in the community so that there’s a feeling of community in the community,” Perelka said. “And kids is the way to do it.”

The Canaan Farmers Hall, as it is now known, has always been important for the community, Perelka said. Perelka, who attended elementary school in Canaan, remembers attending graduations, plays and Christmas events at the hall, about half a mile down the road from the elementary school.

Many of the people involved in the hall are older, Perelka said, so getting kids and their parents involved is key to its future.

“The idea, really, is to connect kids with this building,” Perelka said.