Connecticut Freedom Trail Quilting Bee Project


Windsor Freedom Trail Committee members Iva Allison and Gay Gardner-Wilson volunteered as quilters for the Connecticut Freedom Trail Quilting Bee Project, a grassroots effort launched in 1997. (See more below.)


Quilters and volunteers from across Connecticut created blocks representing each Freedom Trail site, including Windsor’s Joseph Rainey House, Nancy Toney, and Archer Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church sites. On September 20, 1998, bicyclists carried the blocks to the State Capitol during the Connecticut Freedom Trail Bicycle Tour. Over the next several days, the blocks were stitched into large regional quilts at Faith Congregational Church in Hartford. Final touches were completed on September 26, 1998, at the Hartford Civic Center, and the quilts were unveiled the following day during the Connecticut Freedom Trail Quilt Presentation Ceremony at the State Legislative Office Building. Windsor’s sites were featured on the Northeast Region quilt against a beautiful turquoise background.