I saved for my Lane Hope Chest with my babysitting money and bought it when I was a young teenager. My only daughter, 21, while she doesn't want mine, wants an updated version to store her "treasures" in for "one day" when she gets married. When she was a teen and up, each Christmas I would get her something for her hope chest (which as a plastic tote). Things like bakeware, glass ware-things that don't break down with age. For our sons, we would buy basic tools. When they moved out-they had a complete toolbox filled! To me, a "hope chest" is just that, the special place where we tuck the treasures of our heart away - for the future - and from the past. I offered my girl my chest and I could have it refinished and her response was "but where will you put all your treasures?" Good question-so---we are on the look out for her special treasure chest!

I still have my Lane cedar hope chest, but now it's filled with memories and treasures from my children's younger years. I also have collected some memorable newspapers and magazines. Reminds me to go through it and see what's in there.

This is a fun topic! My "hope chest" was the trunk that my great-grandmother brought to the U.S. in 1905. I had all kinds of projects that I made for 4-H and a bunch of cutesy salt and peppers in it. My sister now has the trunk (I think), and I have no idea how or when I dispersed the contents. Who cares? The fun part of it was putting things into the hope chest and dreaming about the future. All of this was before women's lib, and I wasn't married until I was 28, so I imagine I just used most of the stuff, except the salt and peppers, which probably went into a garage sale.

i had a friend who referred to her hope chest as the "despair barrel". we were on the end of the generation that got cedar/hope chests. i love my mom's, from back in the 40s--but it's out in a shed, in storage. i'd like it at the foot of the bed, but hubby does too much damage with his walker. there are still things in there that mom had when she was a girl, and quilts that my grandmothers made. need to get them out before the cedar wreaks havoc on them!

I was looking thru an antique store/consignment shop here in town yesterday with my daughter. We saw a couple cedar(hope) chests there. I was thinking they were a thing of the past. It's nice to see some are still interested in them.
Rodney

I have had hope chests made for my grandaughters...Quilts for my grandsons.

I bought a chest recently a modern one I was going to store my bedspreads ect in but it has a weird smell to it so it just sits in my livingroom as decoration. I finally came up with an idea that will save my bay window a lot of space. I'm going to store all of my youngest son's Motocross trophies in it with bubble wrap. So it will now be a storage/decoration in livingroom. Someday I will have a good antique Hope Chest to fill for one of my grand daughters.

My Lane hope chest is SO heavy. It had a tapestry fabric top the kind you can sit on. But over the years I had to recover the top fabric. Mine still smells like Cedar. You are not suppose to put metal, or paper in them only fabric. At least that's what I was told when I got mine about 40 yrs. ago. During my senior year in high school the furniture store that sold them gave out small all wooden "hope chest" to any girl that went into the store to look at them. I kept mine for years then gave it to one of my daughters.

When I was a teenager we couldn't afford a hope chest so I just had a sturdy cardboard box! Plus my father
would keep referring to it as my "hopeless chest"........all my friends were getting married around 18 or 19 and
I didn't get married till I was 25. But I remember how much fun it was to collect things for my "hopeless chest"

When I was a young teenager, I just loved the idea of having a hope chest. We didn't have any money and certainly not for this. Fast forward 40 years later, my dh and I was at a flea market/antique show and seen a hope chest that was beautiful. We bought it, it blended so well with our oak sleigh bed. So I finally have my hope chest and I keep extra pillows in it! Silly me.

Around here, the hunters want cedar chests to hold their hunting clothes so they will smell natural in the woods. I expect more of those chests in this area have camo clothes in them than the beautiful handmade things they were meant for! My husband fishes but isn't a hunter so there are some beautiful handmade linens in mine. I have used them but not much. They have become more treasures and heirlooms than useable items in my mind.

I should take these out and put notes on each indicating what I can remember about the maker and approximate dates. The poster who is still using her great grandmother's divided bag should put a note with it indicating where it came from. It would be a shame if many of these things appeared "old fashioned" to those who clean up and clear out after us and went to the dump for lack of knowledge. On the other hand, I hope some of my quilts are so worn out from use that that's the only place left for them to go. LOL!

don't forget the new trend for reuseables. My niece had me make a dozen dish cloths and hem some cheese cloth for her. Now she wants to know can I crochet some potholders and scrub cloths for her. She has my sisters hope chest. Only she always " Hoped to be Happy!!" thanks for this thread!

my 'hope chest' is a Lane I received when I graduated from high school in 1958. Has keepsakes in it, clothes I made for my daughter when she was young, sweaters my MIL made for my sons, my wedding dress and my majorette outfit. Memories. My grandmothers 'chest" came with her from Norway. I have it filled with old quilts of hers. My DIL has my mothers "chest" It is not fancy but she loves antiques. She uses it for storage in her living room. Fun to see it is being used and loved. I make dish towels for my kids, my oldest granddaughter asked if I could make her a T-shirt quilt for her graduation. She is 16 so by then I should be able to conquer that task.
again thanks for all your ideas.

You have great suggestions! Dunster

Thanks for all your thoughts and ideas. My idea was to try to stay with pretty much basic and neutral colors; beige,
white etc. I just love this site; hope everyone feels included and appreciated as I do.

Dorrie

My 16 year old cousin is busily filling her hope chest which her father made her for her last birthday. There are some folks out there who like the idea of a hope chest, so have at it.

I have started to make lap size quilts for each holiday thru out the year for each grandchild. I have asked their mother to put them away, after I wrap in tissue paper and put their names on them for when I am gone. One for Easter, Halloween, Christmas and one for no special day but for them alone. I am having fun doing it. I hope some day they will cherish them. Mine are all appliqued.

I would just make a couple of quilts for each grandchild instead of a bunch of other types of gifts. Make one snuggle quilt for the couch and one for a queen/full size bed.

Is it ok to put quilt in a cedar lined hope chest? Ihave been hesitant to do this. I would love to though. It would be a great place to store them.

Young ladies should also "save" other things that don't fit in a hope chest.

Sandy

I still have my little Lane.

When I was 17 my husband, then my boyfriend bought me a hope chest. Don't think my parents were too thrilled at the time. I use to buy stuff each week for our future apartment with my weekly paychecks. Really came in handy. I had small trash cans, dishes, silverware all kinds of stuff. It really came in handy when we got married. I still have the cedar chest 33 years later...it will go to a future grandchild someday.

Oh this thread brought back so many memories. My two sisters had many things that they and our mother made before they got married. I was a much later addition to the family and times had changed but our Mom had not been idle and gifted my DH and me with many handmade household items. I still have many of the beautifully embroidered flour sack tea towels, gingham aprons (never learned how to wear one but I have plenty!) and tablecloths, and lace edged pillow cases. We have moved many many times over the 41 years of our marriage--20 homes, 5 provinces, 4 countries--but my 'hope chest' has always traveled with us.

I still have my hope chest from 1959, its cedar and the lock is broke and traveled around with us during Air force moves, it wholes some blankets , but I don't know what will become of it after I'm gone, most people don't know the reason for them,,

I had a hope chest and loved collecting it in my preteen years. When I got married my hope chest became a memories chest and I put in all my preteen and teen scrapbooks, stuffed animals, summer camp stuff. It stayed at my moms, it is a huge antique domed trunk I found in my grandmother's attic. What fun it was to go thru it when we closed out my mom's house.

I have a friend who is now in her 80s. She raised five kids, so has a number of grandkids and now a bunch of great-grandkids. She has made every one of them a bed-size quilt. She starts when they are babies. The quilt is to be received by the child at his/her high school graduation. The youngest, who's about 8 or 9 right now, has had his quilt waiting for him since he was four years old. She has enough room to store the quilts for the younger kids in her house until the graduation.

Just an FYI- There was a spot on the news about kids suffocating in hope chests. It said the chests made prior to the 1990's had a lock on them so the chest couldn't be opened from the inside. If somebody gets in and the lid comes down, someone on the outside has to push the latch in to open the top letting the person out. They also said Lane did a recall and if contacted will provide a safety latch to prevent suffocation.
I can't image a kid playing in a hope chest or exactly why someone would be that far inside one, but never the less kids can do the most unusual things. If you have a hope chest, here's the link for the new safety lock

http://www.lanefurniture.com/custome...placement.aspx

I made a quilt for a nephew when he went off to University. He thanked me as it was the only warm thing in residence.

i remember my mom breaking the lock off of her 1940 Lane. The grands were toddlers at the time and Mom took the notice seriously. I did not blame her.
sandy

I think MOST kids would love to have things that were made especially for them by their grandparents. I only had one grandparent and she wasn't a quilter or crafter. BUT I did get her cedar chest and an initial ring of hers (we shared the same initials). I refinished the cedar chest and my daughter has it now...filled with our quilts and my son has the ring...I still cherish those items even though they now belong to my children, who love them, even though she died before getting to meet them.