As I read my grandfather’s writings, Fifty Years Ago, Rural Life from 1876, I was delighted to realize he had included information about his mother’s quilting at Trails End Farm, in Dutchess County, NY.  I know from this that my quilting heritage definitely traced back to my great grandmother, Mary Barker Coon.

 Papa Coon, as our family referred to Burton Barker Coon, writer and farmer, mentioned the women getting together for afternoon tea and cutting out pieces for quilt blocks. 

“They would take their sewing along and have a very pleasant time.  All the girls were brought up to piece quiltsk, bake bread and do all kinds of household chores,” he related.

Then he mentioned quilting bees when four or five neighborhood ladies came to help.  “Needles and tongues would vie with each other in making bed spreads and history,” he wrote.

Papa Coon called each quilt a “sort of souvenir piece.”

Are you researching your ancestry to see if you have quilters in your heritage?  Are you making quilts now as souvenir pieces for future generations.

I’d love to hear about the quilts in your family history.

(c)2008 Mary Emma Allen

Post from: Blisstree

Trails End Quilters of the 1870’s – My Quilting Heritage