Nearly 50 years after a group of Athens elementary school students stitched together a quilt to celebrate America’s Bicentennial, one of those students has been reunited with the piece after a chance find at an out-of-state antique store.
Today, the quilt is on display in Athens as part of local celebrations marking the nation’s 250th anniversary.
The quilt was created in April 1976 by students in a second-grade class at Julian Newman Elementary School. Each student designed and stitched an individual block, signing their name alongside their artwork. One square bears the inscription “Julian Newman Elementary April 1976.”
Among those students was Roy Patton, who created a block featuring the Statue of Liberty and carefully stitched his name into the corner.
Patton never imagined he would see the quilt again.
Then, decades later, a family member browsing an antique store in Tennessee made a surprising discovery.
“She asked if I wanted it, and I immediately said, ‘Yes!’” Patton recalled.
How the quilt made its way from an Athens classroom to a Tennessee antique store remains a mystery. What is known is that somehow, among dozens of student-created squares, a relative spotted Patton’s name and recognized it.
The odds seem almost impossible.
Now the quilt has returned home.
Patton has loaned the treasured piece to Athens Arts League, where it is being displayed at The Scout House, 313 Washington Street East, as part of Athens-Limestone County’s America 250 celebrations.
When Athens Arts League board members approached him about exhibiting the quilt, Patton had a ready response.
“I’ve been waiting 50 years for you to ask me,” he joked.
Jennifer Hilton Sampieri, president of Athens Arts League, said the quilt serves as both a work of art and a piece of local history.
“We appreciate Roy honoring us with the opportunity to share this quilt with the public,” Sampieri said. “The quilt is a wonderful piece of art that honors America’s 200th as well as our local history. I’m sure there are many in town who will recognize some of the names on the quilt blocks.”
The exhibit is part of a broader local effort to commemorate America’s semiquincentennial. Also on display at The Scout House are selected entries from the Athens-America250AL Committee’s “My American Inspiration Art Contest,” which invited students to create artwork highlighting historical figures who inspire them. Additional student artwork is on display at Athens City Hall and the Athens-Limestone Tourism office.
You can see the quilt at The Scout House at 313 Washington Street East during the morning art classes on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays or during set public hours:
Friday, June 12, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Monday, June 22, from 9-11 a.m.
Friday, June 26, from 2-4 p.m.
Saturday, June 27, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Patton’s quilt tells a remarkable story: stitched together by Athens schoolchildren in 1976, lost for decades, and unexpectedly returned home nearly 50 years later.
Sometimes history has a way of finding its way back.
