Anna Blackwood Howell outlived her husband and six of her eleven children. The children that predeceased her all did so from illness rather than accident. She wrote in various documents of her suffering. Her faith seems to sustain her as she tries to reconcile losing those she loved dearly. The title of this mourning quilt Night-Thoughts comes from the title of a book by Edward Young from 1742, The Complaint: or Night-Thoughts on Life, Death & Immortality, from which Howell quoted in her writing. 

Quilt constructed of linen and cotton fabrics hand-embroidered with Anna Blackwood Howell's handwriting of her thoughts on the loss of her children. Additional typographic blocks are stitched with the names and dates of her husband, all her children, and other excerpts from her papers. The quilt top is pieced by machine and quilted by hand with cotton thread.