Stars, Stripes, & Stitches: Textiles & American Identity

March 20-21, 2026 Winston-Salem, NC

 

Stars, Stripes, & Stitches: Textiles & American Identity
March 20-21, 2026
Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Textiles function as utilitarian, decorative, and documentary objects, often sharing the maker’s values, aspirations, and personal history. As we commemorate America’s semiquincentennial, this seminar will explore the ways that women in the colonial and early American periods created textiles—particularly quilts, needlework, and woven baskets—to reflect and create a burgeoning American identity. 

Please plan to join us in Winston-Salem or online for this two day seminar. Participants will engage in two days of lectures, including a keynote address by Alden O’Brien, as well as opportunities to engage in pre-conference workshops and an open house of textiles in MESDA’s study galleries.

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REGISTRATION (Opening in September)

More information coming soon!

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ADD-ONS AND WORKSHOPS: Friday, March 20, 2026

 

Pictured: Sampler, Ann Clair Tinges, Baltimore, Maryland, 1798, Gift of Mr. Philip Hanes, et al in memory of Mrs. Howard Gray.	Join Adjunct Curator of Textiles, Jenny Garwood, for an hour-long exploration of MESDA’s needlework collection, featuring recent acquisitions.
Pictured: Album quilt, E.C. Deckel, Baltimore, Maryland, 1848, Gift of Bridget and Al Ritter.	Get up close with a stack of MESDA’s quilt treasures. MESDA curators Lea Lane and Jenny Garwood will lead a lively discussion as we explore these many-layered textiles.
Pictured: Coverlet, Possibly Salem, North Carolina, 1820-1860, Gift of Mrs. Blevins Vogler Baldwin.	Join Cassie Dickson, Traditional Pattern Coverlet Weaver, for a fascinating workshop on coverlet patterns. The four-harness overshot coverlet has a limitless number of ways to create patterns. By understanding the individual motifs that group together within any given pattern, you can train your eye to identify what makes up the overall design. This workshop is an opportunity for weavers and non-weavers alike to gain a deeper understanding of the overshot coverlet.
Pictured: Sampler, Margaret Mutter, Granville County, North Carolina, 1793, Nancy James Purchase Fund.	Join Cissy Bailey Smith of Gentle Pursuit Designs for an hour and a half long needlework workshop. During the workshop, participants will receive a kit, and Cissy will teach a pin wheel and sewing case based off of Margaret Mutter’s sampler. The sewing case will be self-lined, 7 inches wide, 4 inches high with a wool needle page and an inner pocket that the heart pinwheel can be tucked into. The pocket will be large enough for embroidery scissors and thread.  Included in the kit will also be the sampler chart for the Mutter sampler. The kit will be 40 count linen.   In order to acquire materials in time for the workshop, registration for this workshop will close on 1/12/2026.

 

SPEAKERS

Alden O’Brien, Curator of Costume and Textiles, DAR Museum

Johanna Brown, Chief Curator, Old Salem Museums & Gardens

Jenny Garwood, Adjunct Curator of Textiles, Old Salem Museums & Gardens

Martha Hartley, Director of Moravian Research, Old Salem Museums & Gardens

Lea Lane, Curator of the MESDA Collection, Old Salem Museums & Gardens

Matthew Monk, Linda Eaton Associate Curator of Textiles, Winterthur Museum

Tessa Payer, Assistant Curator of Textiles and Historic Dress, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

Dr. Hayley Salo, Senior Lecturer, University of Louisville

Kathy Staples, Independent Scholar

Alicia Thomas, Executive Director, Virginia Quilt Museum

Emily Wells, PhD Candidate, College of William and Mary

 

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SCHEDULE

Friday, March 20

10:00 am	Needlework Tour with Jenny Garwood at MESDA
1-2:00 pm	Quilt turning with Lea Lane and Jenny Garwood at MESDA
2:30-3:30 pm	Finding the Pattern Coverlet Workshop with Cassie Dickson at MESDA
2:30-4:00 pm	Margaret Mutter Needlework Workshop with Cissy Bailey Smith in the Wachovia Room
5:15 pm	Opening Reception
6:30 pm	Keynote: Alden O’Brien

Saturday, March 21

8:30 am	Breakfast
9:15 am	Johanna Brown, Welcome & New to the Collection
9:35 am	Alicia Thomas, Stitching Together History: The Virginia Quilt Museum’s Commemoration of the Semiquincentennial
10:10 am	Tessa Payer, “1876 pieces of calico”: Commemoration and Centennial Quilts
10:35 am	Break
11:00 am	Lea Lane, Southern Comforters: Quilts and Coverlets from the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts
11:25 am	Emily Wells, “We sat at our works and each read out by turn”: Sewing, Sociability, and Sisterhood in Nineteenth-Century Delaware
11:50 am	Lunch
1:00 pm	Hayley Salo: Tense Threads: The Culture and Labour of Embroidery at Valley Town Mission School
1:25 pm	Johanna Brown, Cherokee Girls at Salem and Their Needlework
2:00 pm	Martha Hartley, Cherokee Baskets in the Old Salem Collection
2:20 pm	Matthew Monk, Double Woven: Cherokee Rivercane Basket Collecting and Cultural Continuity, 1690-1950
2:55 pm	Break
3:15 pm	Jenny Garwood, Louisa H. Roger’s 1824 Asheville Sampler
3:45 pm	Kathy Staples, From Family Record to Legal Document: The National Archives’ Embroidered Samplers
4:25 pm	MESDA Open House

 

NOTE: This program and schedule is subject to amendment. 

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GENEROUS SUPPORT PROVIDED BY

 

 

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