Where the Quilt Trail Begins
The Nathanael Greene Museum, the largest regional museum in Northeast Tennessee, now displays a 64 sq. ft. School House quilt square. It was unveiled on Saturday, October 18, 2008, and is set in a diamond-shaped pattern of yellow brick relief work near the Museum entrance. This event marked the “First of a first” because Greeneville was the first municipality included in the Northeast Tennessee Quilt Trail and the Museum Quilt Square was the first quilt square to be featured in Greeneville. The schoolhouse quilt block was chosen because it pays homage to the fact that the Museum is located in the building that housed the first Greeneville High School in 1916.
The Greeneville Historic Zoning Commission approved the idea of placing the quilt square on the Andrew Johnson School Building in November 2007. The next few months were devoted to modifying the original quilt square design to fit within the dimensions of the brick diamond. Billie Roberts, a founding member of the Museum, initiated the idea of the Museum joining the Quilt Trail and she selected the quilt pattern. Museum Director, Earl Fletcher and Museum Board Member, W.C. “Bill” Riley, constructed the base, and Randi Nott, Museum Board Member, designed and painted the quilt square. The Quilt Square was installed in October 2008 to commemorate the Museum’s first Quilt Exhibit, “Crazy Over Quilts.” In 2009 the Museum hosted the second Quilt Exhibit, “History Of Greene County Quilts”, which went on the road to the American Quilters Society quilt show in Knoxville in the summer of 2010. In October 2010 the Museum designed and created a permanent Quilt Gallery, “History Of Greene County Quilts: A Stop On The Appalachian Quilt Trail.” The photo is courtesy of Randi Nott.
