In honor of the country’s bicentennial in 1976, a quilt was made by the Wapping Community Church Women’s group to highlight important sites around South Windsor. It features scenes and buildings from the town’s past. Today, the quilt hangs proudly in Wood Memorial Library & Museum and an accompanying booklet describes each of the 42 quilt panels and its maker.
The description of the quilt by the 1976 WCCW Spring Fair Committee is as follows:
In this bicentennial year of celebrating our country’s two hundredth birthdy, it is only fitting the theme of the Wapping Community Church Women’s annual Spring Fair be … “one nation, under God.”
In the early planning stages of the fair, the committee thought it would be appropriate if a Town of South Windsor Quilt was constructed. Instructions were written, materials gathered, scenes selected, volunteers solicited: and, in May 1975, over forty ladies set out “to do their thing,” creating in applique, embroidery, and needlework the scenes of our Town. Next came the job of assembling the completed squares, trying to balance the brilliant colors and coordinate the scenes. Lastly, the slow labor of love, quilting the forty-two squares together. The quilt has involved more than seventy-five ladies (and several men) from all major faiths, from all part of Town, from ages literally spanning eight to seventy—!!
To the memory of all the men and women of our Town from all faiths and all walks of life who gave us our precious freedoms, we gratefully dedicate this quilt, a symbol that truly we are… “one nation,” one Town, “under God…”
The quilt is composed of forty-two squares, each measuring 12 1/2 inches. There are six vertical rows and seven horizontal rows, each separated by a 2 inch boarder. The finished quilt measures 89 inches wide and 103 1/2 inches long.
Wapping Community Church Women Officers, 1976
President Jean Wetherell
1st Vice President Fran Neal
2nd Vice President Jean Clay
Secretary Virginia Dzen
Treasurer Joyce Mackie
Wapping Community Church Women Spring Fair Committee, 1976
Marion Hallowell
Shirley Pierce
Joan Thompson
Gail Woodard, Chairman