SHAWANO, Wis. — A little bit of Shawano will be featured at the 2025 NFL Draft in Green Bay this month.
Michelle Eron and Jim Leuenberger spent the last several weeks creating two identical NFL-themed barn quilt squares. One of the squares will be displayed at the NFL Draft Experience, the other will be inside the Shawano Country Chamber of Commerce.
It was because of Leuenberger, a local photographer, that Shawano County has become known as Wisconsin’s Barn Quilt Capitol. He created the Shawano Country Barn Quilt Project in 2010 to highlight the area’s agricultural heritage, after seeing similar squares on barns in other states. There are now more than 400 brightly-colored squares scattered around the Shawano community.
Eron, Shawano Country’s tourism manager, designed the square that will be featured at the draft. Using specific brand-color guidelines the Green Bay Packers and NFL sent her, she proposed four different designs. Once the NFL approved one of the designs, she and Leuenberger began the painting process.
“It’s two four-by-eight sheets of plywood,” Eron said. “We put three different coats of white primer on them and then from there we tape and lay out the design, make sure that everything is graphically correct, and then from there we kind of paint by number almost.”
While Leuenberger has been creating quilt squares for years, it was a new experience for Eron.
“This was my first time painting one so it was definitely an eye opening experience,” she said. “This quilt was a little bit more detail oriented with the NFL Draft logo so it was a little bit more tedious and time consuming.”
The quilt square at NFL Draft Experience will be used as a photo opportunity for fans.
“Hopefully this gains some exposure for the Shawano country region,” Eron said. “Barn quilts are part of what we represent but we definitely have a whole lot more to offer with our waterways and recreation type things, restaurants, superclubs and stuff like that.”
Shawano Country’s full list of barn quilt squares can be viewed, here.
