Home again, home again, jiggety-jog!

These are two of the quilts that my grandmother made. I'd guess them to be from the 50's. They are both wool, are incredibly warm and I love how she put them together. The one with the smaller squares has some velvets in it. My mom remembers that some of these pieces came from her and her twin sister's coats and suits. Some of the the black wool bled through to the back, but for some reason, I think it's kind of pretty. It would probably drive someone else crazy. As we have already determined that I am crazy... what's a little faded wool? I have the remains of a third wool quilt in my possession, and I am thinking that I need to make re-assembling it a bigger priority. She had large scrappy wool blocks of about 12" sashed in feed sack. The feed sack disintegrated, so I took it all apart and am hoping to replace the feed sack with more wool- not easy to find cream-colored wool.

Things I learned in WV...

• When traveling, always pack a few T-shirts. We had a relative heat-wave and I had to borrow from my Dad.
• "Sissy" isn't always a put-down. I had forgotten that all girls in WV are called "Sissy" at some point. Whether you are an older sister- most likely cause, or just a customer.
• Swinging from vines isn't just for Tarzan. And it is a lot of fun to watch once you decide that you have enough sons to lose one or two.
• Pride and Prejudice- the A&E version is probably too long, but I never tired of watching Colin Firth.
• When Grandmother makes cookies twice in one day- dieting is a lost cause.
• Corn grown in your own garden, dried, shucked and popped- topped with real butter and salt, tastes nothing even remotely like that stuff in the microwavable bags.
• 38 is an age that seems old when dangling by your own questionable strength over a 20' ravine strewn with moss covered boulders.
• Moss is soft, but there is entirely too little of it covering those rocks when you slip on that same moss.
• Wood fires can provide enough warmth to heat a house to the point of leaving the windows and doors open in January.
• Sudoku can be addictive and I would consider it an entire waste of time if it didn't force me to work with numbers- something I usually avoid.
• Counting to 36 is apparently proof positive that I avoid numbers. I somehow managed to make only 35 log cabin blocks for my coal mine quilt- when I needed 36. I distinctly remember counting and recounting...
• Toilet tanks can drip a copious amount of condensed water when flushed incessantly. Sorry Dad.
• My four-year-old daughter has way more energy than I ever realized.
• I have too much stuff.

Well, I need to go tackle some of that "stuff." It's good to be home.