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Burial quilts

Comfort, legacy and a touch of home

Quilts accompany us throughout our entire lives. They are often the first gifts given to a child, so it seems fitting that they stay with us through the end.

What is a burial quilt?

Simply put, burial quilts are wrapped around the body to protect it and celebrate the life of the person who has passed. The quilt is secured with ties, placed on a board in a carrier, and either buried simply like that, placed inside a casket, or cremated.

Burial quilts are part of a long history of wrapping a body in cloth in preparation for burial. For nearly all of human history, we have tended to our loved ones’ bodies when they passed away. It’s only in the last 150 years or so that death care has been taken out of the home and turned into an industry with embalming fluids, metal caskets, and concrete vaults, all of which deprive the soil of the nutrients locked inside our bodies. Burial quilts help reclaim an age-old tradition of allowing our bodies to return back to the earth. They are designed from all-natural materials like cotton, linen, silk, and wool that will biodegrade naturally over time.

The burial quilts I design are intended to serve two purposes: to be enjoyed in life, and then put to use as a burial cover when that life comes to an end. Burial quilts are custom-designed to fit, which for most adults will result in a king-size quilt.

Why use a burial quilt?

Natural burial offers a number of advantages:

Natural burial allows us to give our bodies back to earth as a gift. When wrapped in cloth, our bodies can recycle easily back into the soil. Placing the body in a box of metal or wood and then placing the box in a concrete vault seals off the organic materials of the body from returning to earth.
Natural burial can be a more intimate experience. You have more control over your burial. Often times family members and friends are more involved with natural burial.
You tap into your own innate wisdom. For millennia we have buried our loved ones. Our hands and our hearts instinctively know what to do.
Shrouding gives us time to be with the body and say good-bye if you choose to do it yourself. Our last visual of our loved ones will be them wrapped in a favorite quilt, soft and colorful.
Commissioning a burial quilt gives us a chance to take a positive step in planning our own end-of-life care. Burial quilts can be made years in advance, and just knowing that it’s been taken care of can bring peace of mind.

How do I use a burial quilt?

Some people say that wrapping a body in a burial cloth is a lot like swaddling a baby: similar movements, similar tenderness. The body can be wrapped at home by friends and family or at the funeral home by the care staff.

It is recommended to practice first if you plan on your friends and family wrapping your body. Make sure the right people knows how to wrap the quilt. You can give them these instructions to help.

A couple things will need to purchased separately if your burial grounds don’t provide them: a cradle-board to support the body and lowering straps. Both can be purchased from any hardware store.

I can provide a carrier with handles for six people to help transport the body to the gravesite. Please let me know if you’re interested.