Local quilters made "cot quilts" for use by local funeral home

A chance reading of a "Facebook" post launched a project back in October that was finally completed in early February. Bonnie Hellman, with the Community Quilters at the American Lutheran Church in Chinook, saw the random post by a quilter who was making "cot quilts." Bonnie learned a cot quilt is a special covering for a corpse being removed on a funeral cot from the site of a death. The cot is a gurney-like piece of equipment that evolved over the years for removing a body from where a death occurred. The cots are narrow and maneuverable to access sometimes difficult places to reach a body.

Bonnie discussed what she learned about cot quilts with fellow quilters Mildred Dawson and Terry Grabofsky. They wondered if the local Wilderness Funeral Home and Cremation Services might have need of such quilts. They contacted Daniel Dahl, owner of both the Chinook and Malta Wilderness sites. He told them he did have a need and had a cot set up that he could show for them to have a better idea of how the cot quilts were made. Here's the rest of the story how the local quilters designed and produced four cot quilts that will soon be put in to service at the Wilderness funeral homes in Chinook and in Malta.

Designing and making the cot quilts

At the first meeting with Daniel Dahl the ladies were shown a funeral cot equipped with an older type of cot quilt. That particular quilt had the name of the former owners of the funeral home. Daniel explained he was looking for something a little more "homey" and not so formal looking. He added that cot quilts with a patriotic theme were also popular. He asked the ladies if they could make "two gender neutral" (the quilt appearance not indicating a male or female body) and "two patriotic themed covers." The latter often used for military veterans, male or female.

The quilters were trying to figure sizes of the covers and how they should be made to cover the corpse and fit a funeral cot. Daniel gave them the cot dimensions: 26 by 80 inches. They noted the strip that came off the sides of the quilt and covered the cot were 12 inches long. From that they began to tinker with pieces of material to get a final, workable size. Terry Grabofsky, whose specialty was cutting the material said, "We modified the width of the strip along the edge to 14 inches, that allowed us to cut three equal widths from one length of material."

Another design issue involved the corners of the strip around the quilt. If the trip was cut down each side of a corner the metal part of the gurney would be visible. Some manufactured quilts, they noted, had elastic to keep the strip in place. They created their own "split corner" which overlaps the ends of the strips at the corners of the cot. They explained, "This allows the cover to be spread to cover the body, then when the strip is lowered along the sides nothing of the cot shows."

Then there was the quilt cover design-colors, styles, etc. The patriotic quilts were fairly straight forward with patriotic symbols available on available pieces of fabric. For the gender neutral "tops" they made blocks from purchased materials, much like regular quilts but smaller blocks in this case. The second gender neutral top was made from small blocks left over from a project of one of the former members of the quilting group.

I asked about how long it took to make one of the cot quilts. They answered this question by first telling me about their "specialization of labor" approach. Terry begins the process by cutting out the strips that will be used. Bonnie sews the blocks together into a top and adds the side strips. Mildred Dawson does the "tying" of the final product. Tying, I learned, is a process of "stitching a heavy yarn or thread through the layers of the quilt, then tying a knot to permanently secure the layers together." The quilters estimated a time on each step and figured, "It took us about 10-12 hours to make each of the four quilts." Though they started in October they only get together on Fridays and they took December off because of all the holiday activities. As a side note, they shared that it takes a good bit of time to set up and take down their quilting project each time they gather. They have to keep things picked up because they work in space used for other functions by the church.

One interesting side note to how this project was funded involves the Milk River Churches (MRC). After overhearing the ladies discussing the project, Roxanne Townsend, also a quilter and Treasurer for the MRC, asked if the organization of local churches could help purchase the materials. The MRC group did help buy materials. All labor was donated and the quilts will be donated to Wilderness funeral homes for use in Chinook and Malta.

What's next?

The ladies beamed when one said, "The four finished quilts are up in the church sanctuary at the front of the church. They will be blessed this Sunday and given to Daniel." In an earlier visit Daniel told me he was really impressed with the design and quality of what the local quilters were making. There's obviously a lot of love sewn in to those cot quilts.

This is not the first community-oriented project of the Community Quilters. In December, 2021 when a wildfire destroyed a number family dwellings in Denton, Montana, the group donated quilts to help those who lost places to live. They've done quilts for the local nursing home, for a battered women's shelter and for local families who lost a house to fire or another calamity.

The Community Quilters welcome others to join them who share a passion for sewing. The group would also consider providing quilts for other charitable groups with a need. You can learn more about joining the group or suggesting where quilts are needed by calling 357-2373-the church office at the American Lutheran Church.