Southeastern Quilt & Textile Museum

The Southeastern Quilt and Textile Museum (SQTM) is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) institution in Carrollton, Georgia, dedicated to the collection, exhibition, preservation, and interpretation of quilts and textiles from the southeastern United States. Established in 2012 after more than a decade of planning by regional quilt advocates, it stands as the only museum in the Southeast devoted exclusively to textile arts. The museum serves as both a cultural repository and an educational hub, connecting visitors to the heritage, artistry, and production techniques of quilting and textile craft in a region deeply shaped by cotton agriculture and textile manufacturing.

The origins of the Southeastern Quilt and Textile Museum trace back to 1998, when members of the Georgia Quilt Project and the Georgia Quilt Council began advocating for a dedicated quilt and textile museum in the southeastern United States. After years of sustained effort, the Georgia Quilt Council formally selected Carrollton, Georgia in 2009 as the museum's permanent home, choosing the city for its proximity to Atlanta combined with its small-town atmosphere. The museum opened to the public on September 15, 2012, realizing a fourteen-year vision of regional quilt preservationists. Since its founding, the museum has developed partnerships with academic institutions, notably the Center for Public History at the University of West Georgia, to deepen its engagement with local and regional textile history.

The museum's collection encompasses more than 300 quilts spanning from the late 1700s through the early 2000s, all originating from the southeastern United States, defined by the museum as Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida, and Tennessee. Collection volunteers process and catalog new acquisitions annually, with select quilts made searchable through an online database. The institution actively collects quilts, textiles, and related materials connected to this seven-state region, prioritizing pieces with documented personal stories and diverse stylistic and pattern traditions. The collection ranges across traditional and contemporary works, reflecting both historical craft practices and evolving artistic approaches to fiber and fabric.

The museum's exhibition program rotates three to four times yearly, showcasing both solo artists and regional guilds in traditional and contemporary quilt forms. Specific named installations have included Susan Lenz's The Cocoon, a large fiber installation constructed from vintage textiles, buttons, lace, doilies, and household linens that invites viewers to consider the stewardship of family textile possessions, and her Clothesline over the course of the pandemic. The Bess Miller Memorial Exhibit presented embroidery works created between 1971 and 2009. The museum has also hosted traveling exhibitions such as Matriotism by the East Cobb Quilters' Guild, celebrating 250 years of American women through patchwork, applique, thread painting, and embroidery, and Georgia Mountains to Shores featuring the Upcountry Fiber Artists. Upcoming scheduled exhibitions include a traveling project by the American Quilt Study Group on 19th-century blue quilts and Sacred Threads, a biennial exhibition exploring personal and spiritual journeys through quilted artwork.

The museum occupies a renovated historic cotton warehouse at 306 Bradley Street in Carrollton's Historic Downtown, just outside Historic Adamson Square. The 1,220-square-foot gallery space is housed within this repurposed industrial building, a structure type that directly reflects the region's cotton and textile manufacturing heritage. The site offers free on-site parking and is situated near an interstate highway, making it accessible to regional visitors. The warehouse conversion preserves the architectural character of Carrollton's commercial past while serving contemporary museum functions.

The Southeastern Quilt and Textile Museum operates Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., open year-round indoors. General admission is $8.00, with reduced rates of $7.00 for seniors aged 65 and older, $6.00 for groups of ten or more, and $3.00 for students aged 5 to 12. The museum offers self-guided tours with maps and brochures, and welcomes group visits with advance arrangements. Educational programming includes quilting workshops, lectures by textile experts, classes for all skill levels, and an annual summer camp for children over nine years old teaching sewing machine use, hand sewing, and quilting fundamentals. The museum maintains a gift shop and provides research access to its collections and library by appointment, with requests handled on a first-come, first-served basis by volunteer staff.