‘Textiles & Tea’ event coming to Appalachian Women’s Museum

The Appalachian Women’s Museum brings “Textiles & Tea” to the house at 100 Homestead Way in Dillsboro from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. Saturday when The Quilt Alliance and the Appalachian Tea Company come for a visit. The event is a warm-up to the museum’s own Airing of the Quilts, set for May 6.

Everyone is invited Saturday to sip on a cuppa and “set for a spell” on the wraparound porch.

Based in Bryson City, the Appalachian Tea Company holds that “... a cup of tea is the perfect way to pause from our busy lives and make space for one another.”

They offer over 35 different loose leaf teas, tea lattes, baked goods, freshly squeezed lemonades, gourmet Popsicles, and Southern sweet tea. Visitors to the museum can sample a variety of their teas.

“The tea company will be offering samples of hot tea and selling hot tea and packaged tea, according to Rebekkah Watkins, chair of the AWM board. “This is the first time we are doing an event like this so we are excited for people to come out.”

The Quilt Alliance will again document stories of people’s quilts, and community members who own quilts and/or make quilts are invited to bring their quilts to show, talk about and document.

Quilt artists will join to help Quilt Alliance staff demonstrate easy quilt documentation methods using simple equipment. The events welcome everyone, including those who don’t sew but own heirloom quilts. Organizers hope word of the events might spur folks to take a look in their attic and rescue their past.

“It’s a free event unless visitors decide to purchase tea, and donations for the museum are always welcome, Watkins said.