Question about a vintage quilt
 

My friend has a vintage quilt that her great grandmother sewed and in one corner of the quilt - it feels like there is a penny sewn inside the quilt. Has anyone ever heard of this? I know I have accidently left pins but never money. I just wonder if it was an accident or if there is a reason to sew a penny into a quilt.

How sweet no matter how valuable the coin may be!

i like the idea of that. i googled many forms of putting a coin in a quilt and came up completely empty. my only thought about that, though, is that the coin may wear through the fabric over time.

I like Tartans idea about why the penny is in the quilt.

Is she going to open the quilt to see what it is?

My grandmother believed that you put a penny in your shoe on your wedding day for luck. Even had a special little blue pouch for it. She gave that to me when I married. Perhaps it WAS the wedding penny. When my cousin's daughter was married a few years ago, I lent her the penny/pouch as her 'something borrowed'. She and I were our grandmother's favorites. I did make sure I got it back though!

I also have a very old quilt which has an interesting quirk about it. The written provenance that came to us with our family quilt dated ca.1790 or earlier (by the Textile Museum at Colonial Williamsburg) includes a statement that the fabric (which turned out to be linen) "was grown, spun, and woven on the plantation through a finger ring." NO ONE in the museum or any antique appraiser has been able to tell me the significance of this.

Yet, as I child I distinctly remember regularly placing a ring over a birthday candle on cakes before the candles were blown out, to make a wish. Mother says she doesn't think we did this at all. I can only assume the idea came form my father's side of the family, from which the quilt also came. And that makes me wonder if this was a regional Virginia idea, maybe Irish or English in origin.

Who knows where these wonderful old traditions originate, as they are so often lost over the years. Sadly.

Jan in VA

Jan--is the linen in your quilt very fine? I remember (alas so vaguely) reading about young women weaving their (wedding?) kerchief from threads so fine the finished product could be pulled through a finger ring--perhaps the wedding ring. I think maybe 17-18th cent. England. This may or may not be relevant...
--Nanibi

No Nanibi,
This linen isn't that fine, it looks like linen does at Joannes, sort of, though with slightly more nubby-ness. The thread it was quilted with is also linen, we believe, and it looks about like our 30wt. Cotton quilting thread.

I've heard of what you are talking about, too, although I thought is was knitted shawls made of the finest yarns, so wispy that they could be pulled through a ring after they were knitted into the shawl. I've actually seen some like it today , and would maybe learn to knit if I could afford to do stuff like that!!

In reference to my quilt, when I first read the provenance, I immediately got the impression that the spinning and weaving through a finger ring was a tradition for fabric being especially made for, maybe, trousseau items.....like a wedding quilt. Of course, that could have been my imagination rather than fact.

Linen is the background fabric and the backing fabric of this 1780 quilt, and it is appliqued in the middle with Broderie Perse Flowers. Then around that medallion there are several pieced borders of "chintz" fabrics imported to the Colonies from England. That was a very expensive purchase in the 1700s, which was indicated in the provenance letter which claimed they were purchased "for $12 a yard in those days".

Jan in VA

This is really interesting to hear the responses - I love to hear all these stories - I hope others will chime in with stories of their own. Thank you to all who responded. I don't know if she will open the seam to see - she doesn't want to open the seam - I just told her I would ask and see if this is something that may have occurred in the past.

Jan, what condition is this 1790 quilt in?

My mother told me always put a coin in a purse or handbag which you are gifting, as it will ensure many more will follow, and the recipient will never be poor. Perhaps your coin was placed for the same purpose, especially if the quilt was a gift.

My mother told me if you put a penny in the hem of a quilt it means you'll have good luck and never be broke

That's the only thing I know about pennies being put in something...other than a purse or piggy bank!
Jan, love reading about your family history and interesting quilts.

... also when giving a gift of scissors or a knife, place a coin with it for good luck (??)....another ol' wives tale?

I would be worried about it wearing a hole in the quilt like QuiltnNan mentioned. Is it padded???

Totally unrelated, but I have a foreign-born daughter-in-law who cringes when someone tries to hand her a knife. She says it is bad luck (must be set down between hands).

My family went to pick up this quilt from a very aged family member I'd never met when I was about 9 years old. I didn't see it again until my father (it was in his family) mailed it to me in TX decades later because I was the quilter in the family.

I was shocked when I opened it one thew floor in the living room because it appeared there were little cock roaches in it! But that turned out to be chips of the chintz fabrics that had been dyed brown and set with iron mordants....they were "rusting" to pieces. It was incredibly fragile in the chintz, but the applique and the linen were in perfect condition.

Colonial Williamsburg has it in climate-controlled storage for a research item; it's too fragile to show. I even had to allow them to handle it, instead of me, when I last saw it 3-4 years ago to photograph it and match fabrics to reproduce it.

They keep it because of its extreme age and the written provenance. They told me it was "at least 1780 or earlier". There is only one other similar quilt in their collection, in better shape, but they know nothing about it at all.

I am SO thankful my father, who at first wanted to sell it, sent to me for study and safe keeping!:shock: Knowing about this quilt, the Dabney side of our family, and being able to research that it passed through the female line (Daddy was the only male to have it by default for a while) has changed who I am.:o

Jan in VA

Question about a vintage quilt
 

:):)So Interresting , I just got a quilt my DGM had,she hand pieced it . it was stored in a garage attic, in a plastic bag. I'am not opening till after Christmas ,when I can lay it out on a lg. table its from the 50's or 60's ,, DottieBug

tradition in our family was that you never "gave" someone a blade, lest it be unlucky. even when i got my first pocket knife from my dad when i was 11, i had to "pay" him a penny, so it would be an "honest" blade. the tradition goes on--a gift of cutlery of any kind "needs" to be paid for, and often, a penny is included so the giver can be paid.

I found this. The pulling through the ring seems to be a "hand" test, to guage the fabric.

https://books.google.com/books?id=3a...20ring&f=false

Quiltmouse,
I read what you posted, but really doubt it has anything to do with the ca. 1780 quilt I was mentioning, as the linen was woven for personal use as far as I could tell, rather than for retail use. And the "ring" in the article was unlikely to have been a "finger" ring, which was definitely used for my quilt's fabric.

Interesting facts, though. :)

Jan in VA

My mom volunteers at the National Quilt Museum in Paducah and I just called her. She said she's heard of a coin sewn in quilts before and she thinks it's for luck...she's volunteering tomorrow so will ask the historians the significance...but yes, she's familiar with the custom, just does not know the whole story. It wouldn't be a penny carried in the wedding if it was sewn in the wedding quilt because those quilts are made long before a wedding...most were kept in hope chests. But it could have been a later quilt using the wedding penny. Maybe we'll know tomorrow evening.

How exciting for both of you. I'm jealous!

Yes, I received a knife from a Doctor as a gift and there was a penny taped to the knife, I found out I was suppose to give the penny back to this doctor so I would never cut myself with the knife.

It is considered good luck. They do not know where the custom originates or much about it, but occasionally, you'll find a coin sewn in the corner of a quilt.

the Victorian era rhyme was "Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue, and a sixpence in her shoe."
No self-respecting Irish or Scots bride would marry without that 6-pence… Those coins were then sewn into a piece of household-use bed linens to keep the good luck going, especially to bless the marriage bed. Quilts were a very durable part of the bedding.

I am familiar with Russian Orenburg shawls made of spun goat down, and then combined with silk. A 5’x5’ shawl will pass easily through a ring. Similarly Irish Aran Island baby shawls. I suspect a piece of the linen fabric was thus similarly gauged by this technique. It does not sound at all like a finger weave, but a “fineness” measure of the weave.

Is there a possibility the date on the coin could be the date (at least year) the quilt was made? But I like the idea of a good luck penny better. Everyone needs good luck!

I think all of this interesting information would make a wonderful story AKA the Elm Creek Stories. Wish I was a writer I would steal you tale and turn it into a best selling novel. :)

Well, I guess most interesting would be if she decides to open the quilt to see if it is a coin; then she could certainly date the quilt (circa) by the date on the coin. Seems like the coin has been in the quilt a long, long time and hasn't hurt or damaged the quilt any. I think it's a pretty cool idea to add a coin to a quilt.

From what my grandmother told me, yes, coins could be added for good luck. I have also been told that sometimes coins were added as a bit of weight to weigh a part of the fabric down in certain styles of clothing. However, seeing that there are not coins in all four corners, it is unlikely that this is the reason. I suspect, as many of you do, that it was a sweet, sentimental gesture! What a delightful intrigue!

CPfrog
I was going to tell my story about a coin taped to a knife that is a gift. My boss gave me one and I did not know what the penny was all about so she told me.

I read in one of my books that a penny was put into the quilt so that the quilt could be dated. Actually, a good idea. I'd worry about the penny making a hole in the quilt with use.