ATHENS, Tenn. – The McMinn County Living Heritage Museum’s newest exhibit showcases quilts and fabric arts from across the nation, including examples from California, Idaho, Ohio, Tennessee and Wisconsin.
“This truly will be a national show,” said Diane Hutsell, museum executive director.
The National Heritage Quilt Show, which opened last week, will be on display through Oct. 29. The quilts will be judged by nationally certified quilt show judge Madeline Hawley, of Athens, Ga.
Coinciding with the show, Amish quilt specialist Janice Tauer Wass, retired curator of decorative arts at the Illinois State Museum, is scheduled for an Oct. 22 lecture and an Oct. 23 workshop. The 6 p.m. lecture is $5 for museum members and $10 for nonmembers. The workshop, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., costs $70 for members and $75 for nonmembers.
Five days before the quilt show opening, the museum introduced the public to its general store permanent display.
The museum has had a general store area for years, said Lisa Chastain, curator of exhibits. But the new “store” draws on artifacts and features from some early 20th century stores in the McMinn County area and is more school-tour friendly.
“We wanted to focus on the era of the 1920s and a little earlier, the heyday of the country general store,” Chastain said. “After that time comes World War I, the Great Depression and World War II. By the 1940s the general store wasn’t as popular as it once was.”
For the quilt show, many entries this year are fabric art instead of traditional quilts, although there are plenty of those, too.
“It seems to be a popular movement across the country, as quilters seek to express themselves in unique and individual ways,” Chastain said.
In the display are wall hangings that incorporate old family photos and newspaper headlines among other items.
The quilts on display are not the only ones at the museum now. Like so many other private and public places in Southeast Tennessee, the Heritage Museum has joined the Appalachian Quilt Trail. The museum’s eight-foot-square Schoolhouse Quilt recently was installed above the front entrance. The quilt trail now includes much of Middle and East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia.