I look at the old quilt I made with my grandmother more than 50 years ago and note some of the small repairs I must make so that the fabrics don’t deteriorate further.  For a quilt that’s well used, it’s in surprisingly good condition.  Those feed sack fabrics have endured the years well.
When you restore family quilts, you’re restoring memories, too.  I recall sitting at Nanny’s side when I was about eight-years old, selecting fabrics, cutting them, and then hand stitching the blocks together.  While we worked in the farmhouse kitchen, Auntie bustled around with housework and cooking.  Ah! What …read more

When discussing books with a children’s school librarian, I mentioned Twilight and the fact that so many youngsters are fascinated by Stephenie Meyer’s books.  The librarian said that the series becomes a little more risqué in the subsequent books.  So at that school, they limited the reading to Twilight, unless the student had written permission from the parents.
This was considered an appropriate policy, especially since students as young as fourth grade wanted to check out these books.  This gave the parents input into their children’s reading selections.
This raises some interesting questions:
Do you think a school should limit a student’s reading material unless he/she …read more

Do you have memories of working on crafts with your grandparent(s)?  Are you a grandparent who provides activities of this type of your youngsters?  These help develop a family heritage and bond the generations together.
My fond memories:

Learning to make a quilt for my bed with my grandmother
Writing letters with her.
Sewing clothes for my dolls with Nanny
Baking bread with Nanny and my aunt
Doing spool weaving

Crafts with my grandchildren that I hope create memories:

Scrapbooking
Cooking
Coloring Easter eggs
Quilting with my granddaughter
Making collages with mixed media

What are your crafting memories with your grandparents or as a grandparent?

There was once this old lady, a lovely Southern woman, who was a very good cook. The secret ingredient to the meals – tireless labor and sugar. She had a house full of children who grew up and had houses full of children, who in their turn, grew up and had houses full of children.
Every once in a while some of these grandchildren and great-grandchildren would visit the old lady and marvel at the yumminess of all the food. Plate upon plate of sugared squash, cornbread and biscuits both at meals, sausage gravy, black-eyed peas, home-made jams and jelly’s and relishes, sliced …read more