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The Stars & Stripes Community Quilt

Celebrating America's 250th: Eagle Nation Joins the Semiquincentennial

July 4, 2026 marks the Semiquincentennial, the 250th anniversary of the United States of America. Lincoln Charter will honor this historic moment with a series of student-centered celebrations that connect our community to the story of our nation. 

 

The Stars & Stripes Community Quilt

Quilting has been a thread running through American history since the early 1800s. Long before that, though, women were already stitching the nation's story into cloth, from the needlework samplers of the colonial era to the flags and banners sewn for a young republic fighting for its independence. Quilts raised money for the abolitionist movement before the Civil War, comforted soldiers during it, and gave enslaved women like Harriet Powers, whose work is now in the Smithsonian, a medium to tell stories that the world wasn't otherwise willing to hear. When America turned 200 in 1976, quilting surged back into national life as communities coast to coast stitched bicentennial quilts to mark the moment: the New York City Bicentennial Corporation commissioned quilts that hung at the World Trade Center; 15 African American women in Portland, Oregon spent two years creating the Afro-American Heritage Bicentennial Commemorative Quilt, which was exhibited at the U.S. State Department; and 5th and 6th graders in Menard County, Illinois made their own quilt and presented it to their county historical society. Those 1976 quilts are now coming back out of storage specifically because of the 250th anniversary, the ones made by ordinary people in ordinary communities have become artifacts of who those communities were at that particular moment in time. Lincoln Charter's Stars & Stripes Community Quilt carries that same sentiment forward to commemorate the anniversary, and to stitch a permanent record of who Eagle Nation was in the year America turned 250.

Every student and staff member at Lincoln Charter is invited to contribute a swatch of fabric to a school-wide community quilt in the shape of the American flag. The result will be a lasting piece of art to be displayed on campus, made from the actual fabric of our community, and collection begins September 1st! 

Please submit a 4”x4” square of fabric in red, white, or navy to our project by October 30th! For some students, this will mean heading to the fabric store to choose something that fits their tastes, and others may choose to submit fabric from something they already own.  While all submissions will be handled with care and respect for the thought our community has put into their selections, materials will touch many hands during this process and in some cases be out of our possession, so while we hope many people will submit something meaningful, we ask that you do not submit anything irreplaceable.  

Guidelines:

  • Please sign up for the color you would like to submit in the ParentSquare post going out Monday, August 31st. 
  • Fabric should be clean and dry
  • Avoid materials that are very thick (leather, vinyl, canvas) or very fragile or stretchy (lace, old tshirts)
  • Solid colors or fabrics with small prints are great - please make sure your square is predominantly (at least 90%) the color you signed up for 
  • Fabric should not have words, symbols, or added decoration
  • Fabric squares should be 4”x4”  and will be trimmed during creation of the final product

Submitting:

  • Place your square in a Ziploc sandwich bag (or similar) with an index card (or similar) noting
    • Your First and Last Name
    • Your grade and homeroom
    • Optional: One sentence (10 words or less) telling anything you’d like to say about your submission
      • “My dad’s mechanic coveralls”
      • “Shopped with my mom after school”
      • “Part of a baseball jersey I outgrew”
      • “Chose from my grandma’s craft bin”
  • Elementary Schools: Turn your submission into your homeroom teacher
  • Middle and High School: Turn your submission in at the front office of your building

Timeline:

Like many facets of living, working, and creating as a community, this project will require care, creativity, and flexibility.  The goal is a lasting piece of history and art employing the help of many careful hands and volunteers.  It is our expectation that it will take a long time to finish! 

Volunteering: 

Are you a local quilter, artist, or lover of a good project? There will be opportunities to help with organization, precision cutting, pressing squares, and the final creation of the piece. Please stay tuned for opportunities to help.

 

This project is currently open to Lincoln Charter staff and students only.  However after the initial collection is complete, there may be an opportunity for community members, parents, younger siblings, alumni, etc. to make submissions as well. 

 

 

 

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