The Trails End Quilters

This name for my quilting column at www.bridgtonnews.com/c_quilt.html and another web site I’m creating, evolved from my family heritage. My mother grew up on a farm at the end (or beginning if you started from their home) of a dead end road which became known as Trails End Farm. As I looked into the quilting and patchwork tradition of my family, I realized it apparently had begun with the generations of quilters at this farm.

I did my first quilting there at age eight, sitting beside my grandmother in the farmhouse kitchen. We cut blocks, many of these from the printed feed sacks so popular at that time. Then we sewed them by hand. My grandmother made a quilt for each of us four children. I was so pleased, years later, when my mother revealed she’d saved mine. Even though it’s well worn, I treasure it. It reminds me of my quiltmaking origins.

To see my daughter and granddaughter carrying on this quilting and patchwork tradition is exciting. We attend quilt shows together, haunt fabric shops as we search for new items to use in our projects, and read books about quilting and quiltmakers. It was fun, too, when we three participated in teaching a quilting workshop at a local school.

Even though we don’t live at Trails End Farm and it’s no longer owned by our family, I still consider us part of the Trails End quilting heritage, each quilter with her own story to tell.