Americana Quilts 250!

The Quilt Index has announced a new project (to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence) on July 4 2026, a little over a year from now. Americana Quilts 250! History Project: Patriotism and Celebration hopes to add more than 25,000 quilts to the Index that celebrate local and national history.

The non-profit offers a superb online archive of quilts that has documented 97,050 quilts so far. This is one of the premiere digital humanities projects in the country and it is part of Michigan State University's Matrix center. The quilt images and history have been carefully assembled with the help of state documentation projects, private collections, museums and historic homes.

In a recent "Quilt Journalist Tells All" Newsletter, Meg Cox asks readers:

-Have you ever made a commemorative quilt for a local or national milestone anniversary?

-Have you ever made a patriotic quilt?

-Are you making a quilt for the 250th anniversary of our country?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, the Quilt Index would love to include a photo and details about your quilt in their digital archive. The Index isn't asking you to send your physical quilts to them in Michigan. What they need is clear, full photographs and detailed stories of quilts.

To help people prepare for the submissions, they will be offering special virtual workshops in the fall "to assist individuals and organizations in preserving and adding their quilts to the Index." But you can get started now. What is required isn't just the typical information included on a quilt label, but the kind of expansive detail that museum curators seek. You won't need to fill in every box, but you will have a form that gives you a lot more space for detail.

In addition, the Quilt Index team plans to work with scholars and artists to create digital lesson plans, galleries and exhibitions for teaching and research. The thing that makes the index magical is that quilts that will never physically hang side by side can still be studied together. Whether it's a scholar writing a book about patriotic quilts or a future quilter looking for inspiration for their current project, a quilt you made or collected can be included in the group of quilts they examine and study.

The Index is especially interested in adding quilts honoring veterans and current military personnel, quilts featuring flags and other symbols of American patriotism, quilts that commemorate important events in United States history, community history quilts, United States Centennial quilts, the hundreds of quilts made as community history projects during the Bicentennial and the new quilts that are already being made to celebrate Americana250 through a variety of initiatives.

Literally, they are anticipating thousands of quilts that can be documented and added to the Index.

Meg Cox continues: I believe this would be a terrific project for quilt guilds. Maybe your guild even participated as a group in making one or more commemorative or patriotic quilts for a previous milestone, so you may already have the images and info required for submission. Or maybe the guild announces an individual or group challenge to make a quilt, themed on the 250th founding anniversary, and part of that project is helping submit those quilts to the Index.

To be sure, there are already many patriotic and commemorative quilts documented within the Index, so your quilt will be in excellent company - like the quilt at the top of this post, made in the late 19th century by Birdella Miller. If you click the link here for the full record of this quilt in the Index, you'll get an idea of what sort of information they'll want about your quilt, too.

"Bold Stripes, Bright Stars, Brave Hearts!"

The Quilt Index also welcomes individuals and organizations to add quilts they own or have made to preserve the history of quiltmaking. If you would like to add other quilts, you must provide written permission from the owner or maker. For individuals: please submit your quilts though Quilt Index Submit A Quilt page.

Also, although it is not related to the Americana250 project, Meg added one of her own quilts, "Still Holding Him", to the Index as part of its Public Submissions protocol and you can check that out here. She shares that it will take a little time and patience, but it's not that difficult to submit a quilt - and very satisfying.

I invite you to take a peek at the gorgeous memorial quilt that Meg made from her late husband's shirts. Read through her detailed descriptions that document the quilt's history; and be sure to read her description of the back of the quilt, then view the photo at the end.

1776 Old Glory - Long May It Wave

My four patriotic quilt blocks (shown above) were part of a Temecula Quilt Company stitch along. We made blocks with a particular number of fabrics (shown above with 4, 5, 8 & 7). I had completed dozens of 4" and 2" blocks (with 1-9 fabrics), then photographed several finished blocks. I continued to collect colorful red, white and blue fabric to create additional patriotic blocks. My UFO was placed in a project box to finish one summer, but did not survive the wildfire. I am thankful that the photos remain and I could share them here.

Are you or your quilt guild working on a commemorative quilt for the Semiquincentennial of the United States of America? Now, more than ever, each of our creative projects holds a special story worth sharing.

Thank you for stopping by.

XOXOX