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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 about the Trails End family and friends.  This is another way to preserve one’s family heritage and pass it along to future generations.

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Cooking with the Trails End Quilters

 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

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

Why not start writing down these memories and memories-in-the making?  These are part of your family legacy and should be saved!

If there is interest, I’ll make this a regular feature, where I share quilting memories and tell you about research I’m doing as I develop my Trails End Quilters legacy.   I’ll ask you to start your own memory journal and share your progress here in the comments.  You’re welcome to share memories, too.

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Recording Your Quilting & Family Legacy

Nanny would have her cup of tea while my aunts often sipped their coffee.  When I visited them at Trails End Farm, I looked forward to 3:00 when we stopped quilting, sewing, cooking, cleaning or other tasks and sat at the table with tea, coffee, milk and cookies while we laughed and chatted.

For Christmas this year, my daughter gave me a glass mug with tea infuser.  I’d seen one of these…a glass tea pot with infuser at a friend’s home.  But I hadn’t realized they came as individual tea makers. 

 It also included a “tea flower” consisting of green tea scented with jasmine flowers.  This made delicious tea, actually cup after cup to keep me going the whole afternoon.  Now I’ve got to experiment with different teas and get some more flowers.

Do you have a favorite tea?  Or tea ritual?  I like to start the morning with English breakfast tea or Darjeeling.  Earl Grey is one I enjoy during the day.  I must see what flavors I can find for tea flowers, too.

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Tea Breaks for Quilters