America 250 – America’s Quilt

As part of the events celebrating America 250, Visit Williamsburg is conducting a nationwide art project called The Great American Birthday Quilt.

People are invited to submit a 12×12 (or other size listed on the web site) quilt square illustrating what they want to celebrate most about America. The squares will then be combined into a giant finished quilt and put on display at the Colonial Williamsburg Visitor Center.

I am excited, to a pretty dorky extent, about the America 250 celebrations and decided to submit a square to The Great American Birthday Quilt project. I wanted to include some kind of embroidery aspect, into the quilt square so I searched around for various patriotic embroidery patterns and found a pattern based on a vintage drawing that I really liked.

This cross stitch pattern is based on the woodcut published by Benjamin Franklin in 1754. The severed snake is the first known American political cartoon that represented the colonies and was intended to urge colonial unity against the French and Native Americans during the French and Indian War. It was based on a myth that a cut snake could revive if joined¹. It was revived in 1765 against the Stamp Act and later adopted as a potent symbol of American patriotism and (relevant to my quilt square) independence during the Revolutionary War.

I added 13 fabric stars to my cross stitch snake in order to symbolize the 13 colonies that were in existence at the time of the Revolutionary War. The fabric I used for the stars holds a little extra meaning for me. I used some fabric scraps that were left by my Great Aunt ‘Rene (Irene).

She was a prolific crafter who enjoyed knitting, crocheting, sewing, and quilting. She made me so many lovely gifts when I was little. I’ll have to devote a post just to the various items she made me that I cherish to this day, but it made me happy to include fabric from a lovely woman who I imagine probably did some fun crafting of her own at the time of the bicentennial in 1976,

I’m pretty sure this will just be the first of several America 250 crafts I create this year, but I’m excited to be part of a huge project involving people from all over the country. I’ll plan to take a trip once the quilt is on exhibit, see it all combined and post a few pictures!

There’s still time to get a quilt square submitted if you’re interested. Blocks just have to be dropped off or mailed by February 28, 2026. You can use any number of techniques including sewing or gluing fabric together. It’s a fun opportunity for us all to work on a project together and I hope lots of people will get involved.