Definitly a family heirloom!
thanks for the info!

These coffin quilts are really cool, kind of creepy yes but also fascinating ... I've seen several different ones incl. this one
Also very interesting are the mourning quilts and child & baby mourning quilts that were often made
People back then embraced and accepted death so much more readily than we do today -
Also, it was very common to have photographs or early daguerrotypes made of the departed, as if they were just "asleep" - esp. touching are the ones made of babies and children, they were often posed on a bed or chaise (not in a coffin)

Creepy Quilt but nice :twisted: :? :hunf: I am very interested and just might have to get the book also!! :thumbup:

I find the whole thing fascinating . . .keeping track of familial history and passed down from generation to generation. I would imagine it was a way to not forget those who'd passed on. Maybe the blanks left in the border when someone had died could be replaced with new family members as they were added.

I wonder if women who married into a family were placed on their husband's family's quilt or remained on their parent's quilt . . .

This is really interesting. I have never heard of coffin quilts.I wonder if this is a regional cultural tradition?

I have read the book referred to (few years ago) and was under the impression a "coffin" quilt was one made by the family from clothes of the "passed on" member of the family, and given to members of the direct family (parents, children, sibblings) in rememance of the departed loved one.

I guess it might make a perfect October quilt project for those doing genealogical studies of familly histories with complete info on cemteries, dates of birth and death. at one time, I had 2600 names on record in my computer, but the computer crashed. May be it was too many coffins in storage of my family records.

Yikes, I don't know quite what to think. I have never known of this type of quilt before this. I am always interested in historically based quilts and read a lot. I am surprised that I hadn't run across coffin quilts before this, but I am also very pleased that you have given me something to research. Thanks a bunch!

The museum in Paduach has one. It's very fragile. I saw it several years ago. I find them very interesting.

Any other info that you may find, if you don't care, would you pass it on? I love the history involved with quilts also, I keep a very detailed scrapbook and want to add these to my quilt scrapbook.

My mother is going to call my great-aunt. She said she remembers someone in the family doing or having one of these when she was a little girl! She said it was a source of a family arguement, because some thought they were bad luck.

I'll let you guys know what I find out.

I've never heard of a coffin quilt either. When I saw the thread title I thought it meant a quilt that went INTO a coffin. A long, narrow one. Is there such a thing as that too?

Going to have to look into the coffin quilts, always interested in quilt history.