My quilting heritage descends from the Trails End Quilters.  The ladies who lived at Trails End Farm were my ancestors.   My mother and aunt also grew up there.
I’ve been fortunate to have a cooking notebook that my aunt compiled.  In it she includes recipes from her grandmothers, her mother, other relatives, friends and neighbors.  It’s somewhat a cooking history of the ladies associated with Trails End.
 (Incidentally, it was called Trails End because….the farm was at the end of a dirt road or “the trails end.”)
Ah…to have the time to compile these recipes into a family cookbook, with photos and stories …read more

Creating a Memory Quilt of a special person or occasion in your life can be an enjoyable project.  There are so many ways you can do this to make it meaningful to you and others.  Sometimes this quilt or piece of fabric art may be designed and made by one person; it also could contain contributions by many family members.
*Use a number of blocks that relate to various occasions in the person’s life.  These may be symbolic, or they could be pictorial. 
*Make a small wall hanging that  is reminiscent of one aspect or occasion in that person’s life.  My daughter made a …read more

Quilters, from early days, have had stories to tell.  They may not have realized they were making history, contributing to women’s heritage, and leaving a legacy in fabric art.  Their stories fascinate their descendants and encourage women everywhere in the quilting world.
What’s your quilting story?  You must write it down for yourself and your family, for other quilters who might be inspired by what you’ve accomplished and what you have to relate.
Even if no one else in your family quilts or works in fabric art, nor have in the past that you know of, your story is important and should be written …read more

In addition to doing a Back to the Basics series, I’d like to answer some of the questions I receive, perhaps a Q & A section of the blog.
So…send me your questions about the information and resources you’d find helpful.  Also, I could run a Reader’s Tips section, as well.  Something like a virtual Quilting Bee Tea, without our getting together in person, but getting to know one another online.  (My grandfather wrote, in one of his articles about life in the 1880s, how his mother and the neighborhood ladies liked to get together to quilt, have tea, and chat.)
Simply send …read more

Thinking about my daughter’s mini quilt album, inspired me finally to put together an album about my Trails End Quilters heritage.  I’ve been researching my Trails End ancestry and the quilters who lived on this farm that was in my mother’s family for nearly 200 years.
My grandmother, Emma Tipple, who taught me quiltmaking when I was 8 years old, married Burton Coon in the early 1900s and lived the rest of her life on the farm.  As my daughter and granddaughter have taken up quiltmaking and fabric art, I began to realize we came from a family of quilters…if they didn’t quilt, …read more

For those desiring to learn more about America’s quilting heritage, the history of patterns, and fabrics, check into books researched and written by Barbara Brackman.  Since our quilting history and patchwork heritage fascinate me, I enjoy learning from Barbara’s books. 
Barbara also has done much research into the quilters and quilting of the Civil War era, along with other pioneer eras.
Below are just a few of her many books and topics.
 
                 

Some quilters like to know more about those in their past who influenced their quilting of the present.  As I research the story of my Trails End Quilters heritage http://trailsendquilters.blogspot.com ), I find I want to know more about those women who played a role in my past and who were quiltmakers, too.
I imagined that my great grandmother, Mary Barker Coon, must have been a quilter.  However, I didn’t know for sure.  Then I came across some of my grandfather, Burton B. Coon’s writings, which described his mother as a quilter and talked about the quilting bees the neighbor ladies …read more