Curiosity leads to Quilts on Campus

Curiosity. It is what led to the long drives and the countless searching. It is what led to the breakthrough.After retired guidance counselor Brenda Sloans's first discovery, she was hooked.

"It is addicting. After you see one, you look everywhere to try to find those quilt squares," said Sloan.

The quilt project began in Ohio when Donna Groves painted a quilt square on a barn in honor of her mother. Since then similar projects have started in Iowa, Tennessee, and Kentucky. Tennessee's Appalachian Quilt Trail has become a tourist attraction. Many quilt squares are replicas of family patterns that have been passed through the generations. The states hope to create a "Clothesline of Quilts."

According to Sloan, her husband, Carson-Newman's Interim President Joe Bill Sloan, jokingly refuses to go anywhere with her anymore because 'they cannot go anywhere without looking at barns.'

Taking out on a journey across the Appalachian Quilt Trail to find all the quilt squares in the six-county region of Knox, Blount, Sevier, Cocke, Hamblen, and Jefferson Counties, Sloan realized that our own Jefferson county, was the only one in the region without quilt squares.

This curiosity led Sloan and her partner, Annette Loy, to contact Eston Williams, the coordinator of the quilt square project. Williams managed to work with the Smoky Mountain Resource Conservation and Development Council, a part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture dedicated to encouraging and providing grants for such projects, to obtain a grant to do six quilt squares for Jefferson county. The catch? The grant money had to be used by February 1, leaving only about two months to create and place the six quilt squares. Thus, Jefferson County's Quilts of the Smokies project was born.

"We saw an opportunity and got permission to run with it. And we did!" said Sloan.

Determining the location for the six squares was the next task. Sloan called places and people from each of the six towns in the county to find places of interest. Carson-Newman College's Appalachian Center, Surrett Hardware Store in downtown White Pine, a barn near Rush Strong in Strawberry Plains, a barn near the Sevier County line in Swansylvania, a barn on Chucky Pike in Talbot, and a courthouse or barn in Dandridge became the intended recipients of the six squares. Each site was then allowed to choose their patterns.

Sloan and Loy received permission from Bill and Glenda Kinder to use the Jefferson City Flea Market building to draw and paint the quilt patterns on the wood. Sloan and Loy then found volunteers to assist with the quilt squares.

"It became an assembly line. We were determined to involve the whole community," said Sloan.

Special plywood, ordered from Nashville, which had been primed twice and was supposed to last 25 years, was used for the squares. The 8 by 8 squares were divided into two pieces. Computer projection was used to project the design onto the plywood so volunteers could trace it. Volunteers then taped off areas on the wood (to prevent the paint from running) and began to paint.

"After that it became, sort of, like paint by numbers," said Sloan.

Volunteers spent four weekends painting "School House" for the Appalachian Center, "Tall White Pine" for White Pine, "Bears Paw" for Strawberry Plains, "Dresdan Plate" for Swansylvania, "Bridal" for Talbot, and "Stars over Tennessee" for Dandridge.

Sloan then reached out to the local fire departments for help. The fire department from each of the six areas of the county receiving a square, are assisting with the placement of the quilt squares. Ondes Webster and Tracy Lane, with Carson-Newman's maintenance, are also volunteering to help with the placements of the six squares. The paintings are mounted to wooden frames, which are then affixed to the buildings.

The first quilt square, "School House," was placed on the side of Carson-Newman's Appalachian Center on January 15 at a 3 p.m. ceremony. Aramark donated refreshments and the Jefferson City Fire Department assisted with the placement of the square.

"They wanted Carson-Newman to have a square. Deciding which quilt square we wanted was important. I was pleased with the 'School House' because we are an institution of learning and I thought the history of the quilt fit well with our history," said Ernest Lee, the director of the Appalachian Center.

"School House" is based on a quilt made by Sarah Moore, a noted East Tennessee quilt maker from slave ancestry.

In association with Martin Luther King Day, Rush Strong held a ceremony Monday in honor of the placement of their quilt square. Wednesday, January 23, White Pine received their quilt square. Swansylvania, Dandridge, and Talbot are set to receive their squares before February 1.

Jefferson County's Quilts in the Smokies has started a domino effect. Twelve other locations want quilt squares already and Sloan has plans to place 20 more squares throughout the county, even hoping to place a few on the interstate.

"The whole idea is to start tourism. When you go to places as a tourist, you end up talking to the locals," said Sloan. "For a county that did not know much about quilt squares, they have gotten excited. It gives us a reason to work together, as a county, instead of individual," added Sloan.

Sloan says that the project promotes Appalachian heritage of quilt making. She hopes to be able to take the plywood and paint out into the individual communities, including schools, because finding a central location is often difficult for volunteers to travel to. Classrooms plan to get involved in the quilt squares as art projects also.

The Standard Banner is also using the project as a theme for their annual February "Community Magazine."