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Quilting and Patchwork

Searching for Your Heritage Quilters

by Mary Emma Allen on June 24th, 2006

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 held at one another’s homes.

So….Great Grandmother truly was a quilter.  Are some of those squares I found in my mom’s memorabilia ones she made?  I probably won’t ever know for sure, but I’ll have to research more closely their age by the fabrics used and the patterns.  Or they might be some made by my grandmother who taught me to quilt when I was eight.

If you want to know more about the quilters in your family, check into the genealogy.  You might look for family writings (old letters, journals, diaries), through census records, newspapers, and talks with older family members. 

Search through old photos, too, and see if any quilts appear on a couch, a bed, over someone’s lap.  If you recognize the patterns and fabrics, you may be able to recreate them these quilts or at least some of the blocks.

Those who enjoy genealogy, as well as quiltmaking, will find this search fascinating in many areas.  You’ll learn more about your heritage while becoming more familiar with quilts of your ancestors.

 

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POSTED IN: General Quilting/Patchwork, Quilting / Patchwork Memories, Quilting/Patchwork History

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