Barn and Sunflowers

The sixth square installed on the Calvert Barn Quilt Trail is 'Barn with Sunflowers,' designed and painted by Marie Dawson. Marie is an artist who has lived in Calvert County more than 30 years. She enjoys taking photos of the barns in the County and loves to see a field of sunflowers in bloom. Wilma 'Willie' Sickle and her son, Bob Sickle, owners of The Barn at Pleasant Acres at 5415 Mackall Rd., St. Leonard, MD, chose Marie's design to welcome visitors driving along Mackall Road and those who are coming to have a wedding or other celebration in their beautiful event barn up the hill. Willie and her husband Robert came to Calvert County in 1970 with their seven children and found this lovely farm where they grew tobacco, strawberries, watermelon, corn and other vegetables. Years later, when one of Willie's granddaughters wanted to be married in the old tobacco barn, her father Bob Sickle had a new barn built for her wedding. It was such a successful event that now it has become a family business.