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From commemoration to inspiration, we’ve gathered 30+ exhibitions, events, and resources to help you join the festivities.
Karen Elting Brock5 min read
As America approaches its Semiquincentennial in 2026, needleworkers across the country are celebrating 250 years of creativity and craft that helped shape our nation’s story. With so many activities at museums, galleries, guild meetings, craft fairs, and other venues across the country, we’ve gathered a curated list of needlework exhibitions and resources. This collection is just the beginning. If you know of an event or resource that we should include, we’d love to hear from you—please write to us with all the details, so we can expand this community guide.
—PieceWork editors
Mary E. Mangan discusses the research that she and the New England Lace Group have done to learn more about the industry and the Revolutionary-era practitioners of Ipswich lace at a 2025 lacemaking event: "Weaving Threads of Lace History." Photo courtesy of the New England Lace Group
America 250: Common Threads
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, March 14, 2026–July 27, 2026.
A 250-year journey through American history told through textiles, art, and objects that illuminate our nation’s evolving story.
American Girlhood: Needlework, Memory, and the Making of a Nation
Webb Deane Stevens Museum, May 1, 2006–October 31, 2026.
Exhibition of schoolgirl samplers, including pieces created by African American, Indigenous, and immigrant needleworkers.
America’s Tapestry
Multiple Venues throughout 2026.
A national storytelling project that consists of 13 embroidered panels, designed and stitched to tell lesser-known, often overlooked stories from early American history—especialy around the American Revolution and the founding era.
Becoming America
Stitch Buffalo, Wednesday, April 1, 4:00–6:00pm in person event and national online submissions through August 2026.
A calling for artists and makers across the country to share their hope for America’s future through original visual artwork.
Dressing the Revolution: Fashion and Politics 1760–1789
Historic Deerfield, April 18, 2026–January 3, 2027.
The exhibition showcases over 20 garments and related objects to reveal how clothing shaped and expressed political identity, class, race, and gender during the American Revolution.
Folk Nation: Crafting Patriotism in the United States
American Folk Art Museum, April 10, 2026–September 13, 2026.
An exhibition drawn from the American Folk Art Museum’s vast collections shows how artists across time have used diverse media to express patriotism while also exposing the tensions and contradictions within those expressions.
Happy Birthday! American Milestones from Lafayette to Today
Fashion Archives & Museum at Shippensburg University, April 23–November 19.
The exhibition explores how Americans celebrated their independence in 1826, 1876, 1926, 1976, and includes fashions from each time.
Handwork: Celebrating American Craft 2026
Craft in America, multiple ongoing exhibitions, classes, and events throughout 2006.
A nationwide Craft in America initiative that showcases the importance of the handmade both throughout American history and in contemporary life in recognition of the Semiquincentennial.
imagiNation: Fashioning A Nation, 1776–2026
Avenir Museum of Design and Merchandising, April 30 to December 19, 2026
A look, at 50-year intervals, into how fashion and textiles have acted as expressions of national identity, remembrance, and nostalgia.
In Pursuit of Life, Liberty & Happiness
Smithsonian National Museum of American History, May 14, 2026 to the end of 2026.
An immersive exhibition, exploring the ideals of the Declaration of Independence and featuring 250 objects across the museum’s three public floors.
Material Nation: 250 Years of American Quiltmaking
International Quilt Museum, June 5, 2026–December 19, 2026.
This exhibition charts the evolution of American quiltmaking from the nation’s founding to today.
A Colonel from Massachusetts joins the Women's Club of Odessa, Delaware, to stitch on the America's Tapestry project. He stitched using long and short stitch, split stitch, and Bayeaux stitch, using Paternayan wool and Appleton wool. Photo courtesy of America's Tapestry
Meet the Revolution
Museum of the American Revolution, ongoing throughout 2026.
A series of costumed living history programs that explore the voices, viewpoints, and experiences of the diverse people of the Revolutionary era.
Myth and Memory
Historic New England, May 15–November 15, 2026.
Drawn from the museum and archival collections of Historic New England, the objects in this exhibition tell the stories of men and women, rebels and loyalists, enslaved and free whose lives were linked by the shared experience of revolution.
The Revolution Is Here
Colonial Williamsburg, ongoing events throughout 2026.
Year-long celebration of 250 years of liberty and 100 years of Colonial Williamsburg with myriad events, including reenactor weekends, traditional crafts demonstrations, and The Great American Birthday Quilt.
Ringleaders of Rebellion: Charleston in Revolt, 1775–1783
Charleston Museum Textile Gallery, January 31, 2026–September 20, 2026.
A special exhibit on Revolutionary War history and eighteenth-century material culture in the Lowcountry.
Wethersfield 250 Jubilee: Revolutionary War Encampment and Traditional Trades Fair
Webb Deane Stevens Museum, Saturday, May 23, 2026, 10:00 AM–4:00 PM.
A free, family-friendly day that celebrates Colonial heritage and the traditional trades that built America.
"American Colonial Clothing 1775–1800": Edward St. Germain, AmericanRevolution.org
"'By Measures Taken of Men': Clothing the Classes in William Carlin’s Alexandria 1763–1782": Katherine Egner Gruber, Early American Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, vol. 13 no. 4, 2015, p. 931–953.
Commemorative American Quilts: Stitching Our Heritage from 1876 to Today: Sandra Sider and Foreword by Pamela Weeks, Schiffer Publishing, 2026.
"Early American Clothing 1675–1775": Edward St. Germain, AmericanRevolution.org
Fighting for Freedom: Black Craftspeople and the Pursuit of Independence: Edited by Torren L. Gatson, Tiffany N. Momon, and William A. Strollo, University of North Carolina Press, 2025.
Handwork: Handcrafted Objects that Made America: Emily Zaiden (Editor), Carol Sauvion (Foreword), Monacelli Press, 2026.
Stitching Together History: 250 Quilts Commemorating the Commonwealth of Virginia: Mary W. Kerr and Donna Marcinkowski DeSoto and With Virginia Quilt Museum, Schiffer Publishing, 2026.
"Stars and Stripes Sampler" designed and embroidered by Nan Heldenbrand Morrissette, for PieceWork's July/August 1999 issue.
PieceWork July/August 1999: Patriotism
PieceWork Spring 2026: Celebrate American Needlework
“Mapping America, One Stitch at a Time,” by Lynne Anderson and Stacy Whittaker.
“Elizabeth Terry’s Embroidered Coverlet,” by Kathy Augustine, PieceWork, March/April 2016.
"First Lady Ida Saxton McKinley and Her Crocheted Slippers," by Betsy Butler, PieceWork November/December 2013.
"First Lady Grace Coolidge and the Story of a Knitted Counterpane," by Kristine Byrnes, PieceWork January/February 2011.
"Never Just Sit: Eleanor Roosevelt and a Life of Knitting," by Mary Ann Colopy, PieceWork January/February 2009 .
“America’s Tapestry: An Embroidered Revolution,” by Karen Elting Brock.
“The Liberty Bell Pillow—A Filet crochet design," by Meg Grossman, PieceWork July/August 1999.
Meg Grossman's Liberty Bell pillow worked in filet crochet. The design is based on a crocheted coverlet made by first lady Grace Coolidge. Photo by Joe Coca
"Sewing with Martha Washington," by A.K. Fielding, PieceWork Spring 2020.
"Sewn in America: Mastering the Skills," by Alden O’Brien.
"Sewn in America: Making," by Alden O’Brien.
"Sewn in America: The Meanings Conveyed in What We Sew," by Alden O’Brien.
"The Art and Tradition of Colcha Embroidery," by Julia R. Gomez, PieceWork Winter 2022.
“The Pocketbooks and Purses of Mary Wright Alsop,” by Susan Holloway Scott.
“All the World Is Needleworking! Florence Yoder Wilson and America’s Immigrant Needleworkers,” by Susan Strawn, PieceWork November/December 2012.
Enjoy the celebration,
Karen
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