Hello everyone! It is sort of dreary here today all overcast. It has been busy busy and is going to stay busy busy as we get closer to my mom’s memorial service on Saturday. But I want it to be nice as like the final thing I can do for her, a send off to honor her.
Wyatt and I are back to homeschool, and he is learning about Harriet Tubman and the underground railroad. He loved an activity that we did yesterday, having to do with the quilt maps that enslaved people used to help guide them north. I was fascinated as well to be honest. He was less interested in the quilt aspect and more in the secret code, but whatever works. We read a book called The Patchwork Path, and every time we came to a new secret code block in the text, we found one I had printed out, and he colored it and added it to a Quilt Code Key that we made. It turned out really cool honestly, and he had fun decoding.
Afterwards, I was still thinking about quilts so I listened to an Ologies podcast about quilts. It was super interesting. I love learning all these quiet ways that women rebelled expressed big feelings, through crafts, and quilting has played its part in political history. The AIDS Memorial Quilt comes to mind, which was not only about remembrance but a big gesture that demonstrated that despite how some people felt about AIDS patients, we were not going to forget them. They were used as I said during the Civil War, and also during the suffragette movement. So quilts not only preserved traditional handiwork and avenues for women to get together and be social, but also helped people find freedom and helped women get the right to vote. It’s wild to me. I love stuff like this.
I also love old vintage quilts. I have one of my aunt’s that someone gave her, and another that my besties great-great-great grandmother made. My friend didn’t want it so I scooped it right up! It needs some repair work done which I hope to figure out at some point. And just last month we got a handmade crazy quilt from our local Buy Nothing! It is on Wyatt’s bed and looks really cool. And is super warm!
I was also thinking about how my family is losing its storytellers, our older family members who have shared their stories with us and now my brother and cousins and I need to pass that on to our children for them. My family is very Scottish in background, on both sides, and my mom and my aunt were Highland dancers, and my uncle was the drum major in the pipe band. I even did a little highland dancing as a child too. We ate desserts that were Scottish that my grandmother made, heard all the stories, and I want to preserve some of that for Wyatt, and hopefully for my nieces and my cousins’ children. So, I applied to join the St. Andrews Society here in my area, which is all about being Scottish. Lol. I heard back and they said my application looks good (I had to prove I had Scottish heritage!) and that I will be initiated soon. I think it will be neat to take Wyatt to some of the Scottish Sunday Night dinners and to the Highland Games. Although now we all need to get articles of clothing in our tartan and I need to sort that because I am not sure what we will get? I did find a cute kids t-shirt that has a dragon in your family tartan on it so Wyatt can wear that. I was also thinking about getting a scarf not just in my tartan, but in the official witch tartan, which was created to in remembrance of the women that lost their lives during that horrible time in history.
I am all about fabrics and statements today, and I didn’t even realize it until just now, that these two things dovetail.
Anyway, I am excited about the St. Andrews Society. I am really committed to creating more community for our family in anyway that I can. Which for an introvert is really hard!! But I believe really strongly in community, in people coming together, and so I push myself out of that shell when I need to, and I think that this will be a fun thing to do. They have all sorts of neat events, like a Robbie Burns dinner which I would love to go to, and like I said, the Sunday dinners. I would love to move to Scotland, which I am sure is not in the cards for us, but I will take what I can get.
Wyatt’s baseball wrapped up for the year, and while it was a good time I was ready for it to be done! I will miss the sunsets and the evening sky that I could see from the field though this fall, and the big smile on Wyatt’s face when he and Billy ran the bases!
I’ve been caught more than once woolgathering while looking out at the skyline and enjoying the evening. There was just also a certain contentedness those nights too. I would chat with my friends, laughing and catching up as our kids were playing, and then when the game was over, we would go home to our house and cats, dinner already made, either a slow cooker meal or leftovers and for some reason that food just always tasted better. So while it was tough at times and made our days long, I will miss it. But I am still glad it is over for the year!
I’ve got to get dinner started in a minute, just chili and rice, but I will leave you with some photos from the old camera roll!
I hope that whatever you do this evening, you do something that makes you smile. Or, I hope that something made you smile today! Feel free to share!
I didn’t know about the quilt codes; my boys would have LOVED that! I have a real affinity for quilts too. I have one that my great, great grandmother made for me.. and I don’t let anyone use it as I am so afraid it will fall apart.
Oh I love that you have one someone in your family made! And I wouldn’t let anyone use it either. LOL.
The codes were really clever and we loved reading about it. There is a museum near us that has an exhibit that includes them and I am hoping to go soon. It’s our year of codes so far – Wyatt has learned about morse code and the quilt codes so far lol.
I love that you’re teaching this to Wyatt! We had a picture book about the quilts in fourth grade, but I can’t remember the name of it. There are so many wonderful stories about quilts, aren’t there? I don’t have a single one that wasn’t bought in a store. I have always wanted to quilt, but I don’t have the patience for it. I really, really love that you applied to the St. Andrews Society! I’m sure you’ll be accepted and have that wonderful bit of social-ness added in. I truly love your idea of community and miss that in our new but not so new town. Unfortunately, my generation is the storytelling generation, but I’m not sure we’ve got our facts straight. It sounds like a good blog post, though, right?
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Was it the Patchwork Path? That is what we read and it was excellent. I for certain can’t quilt. My uncle wanted to teach me once, but I was too young to realize that one day I would want that experience, so I didn’t do it darn it. But I was like 16-17 so I can’t blame myself too much.
I am excited! My brother and cousin are considering it too now, which would be awesome.
Lolol!! I know that some of the stories we were told didn’t have their facts straight either. But that is ok!
I just love that you are exploring your Scottish heritage and passing that on to Wyatt. Share with us, too! And I’m a quilt fan and have some vintage quilts, most of which I’ve picked up at antique shows or from my friend who goes to auctions. But I never knew about the quilts as used as escape maps. Fascinating.
Thanks Jeanie! I am excited to have access to their genealogy databases. LOL. I can’t spring for the international Ancestry membership so the trail gets cold for me right away. I just love old vintage quilts! Especially when they are all soft from wear. And isn’t that awesome! The Detroit Historical Museum apparently has an exhibit about it; I will check it out and report back!
I don’t think I ever realized until you recently told me about your Scottish heritage that your family was so Scottish. I definitely didn’t know until I read this post about your mom being a Highland dancer. I really need to find a photo and share it. That would be really cool. Of course you know I have a Scottish heritage as well. We can’t get our ancestor leaving Scotland, but we know that they were Scottish and we’re able to sort of make a connection back to Grant Castle in Scotland. Our tartan is hanging in my dad’s dining room and one of our relatives travel to Scotland to try to do some more research. All I know is I’ve always been drawn to Scottish and Irish things and recently found out my mom’s family had some connections to Ireland. So maybe that’s why I am drawn to both of those countries.
More than anything else, we are Scottish. Everyone thinks I am mostly Irish because of my name but apparently we hail from Scotland. My mom was a rebellious highland dancer. She didn’t want to perform and would run away at the highland games and my grandma would have to track her down. I want Billy to draw me a little rebellious dancer for a tattoo. That is so my mom. Lol. She and my aunt even did the sword dance, which is so crazy to me.
I was trying to figure out what tartan I would be? I guess I will find out. Would I use Baird as my married one? The one for my grandma’s dad, or mother’s family? Or my dad’s family? Maybe my dad’s?
I would thing your dad’s family.
I remember becoming so interested in Harriet Tubman when I was working on my handwriting by copying passages from a book about her. Love that you do that lesson with Wyatt! How cool about your Scottish background, as I am now obsessed with all things Scotland after the Outlander series. My sister moved there back in 2019 and I have only had the chance to visit her once. I need to go again. Good luck with the St. Andrew’s Society, that is so cool too!
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Wyatt really enjoyed learning about her too! She was such a brave woman.
Lol! Outlander revived my interest in Scotland too. I would love to visit there one day. And thank you!
The St Andrews Society sounds really cool! I know there’s Scottish heritage on my dad’s side – I can’t remember what Clan though … I should look that up – maybe we’re long lost cousins! 😉
Quilts … you’re speaking my language 🙂 My mom has been sewing since she was 4, and taught me early. I was laying out a 9-patch quilt at like, 4 or 5? For high school, since I was homeschooled, I had to make a quilt for every year – I didn’t quite get the senior year one finished before graduation, but it was extremely ambitious, lol … I’ve got several I need to finish now actually – when we were home during C*vid, I designed and made a quilt top, but it needs a little bit more added to it to be able to use it on our bed. Oh quilts … I love them so much. And what a great find on the crazy quilt! 😀
Lol that would be awesome!!
And wow!! A quilt every year is amazing!! I don’t know how to quilt. It seems super hard!!! I have to rely on vintage finds sadly. 🙁 I still am amazed you were doing that at 4 or 5. What a cool thing to know how to do, and to have learned it so early too!
It’s one of those things that gets as hard as you make it, lol … Like, if you break it down it’s as simple as sewing straight lines/pieces together, then making a sandwich with the top + filling + back fabric, and then stitching through all the layers to keep things in place. (That’s the part that takes me FOREVER to do). But it can definitely get more complicated, depending on pattern … and there’s math involved. 😦 Maybe I’ll drag out my quilting projects this cozy season …
I think that is what gets me, that math part. And placing the pattern? So intricate! I don’t have a sewing machine or I would try. But I guess all those early quiltmakers didn’t either. Lol.
Quilts in general and the codes for helping people escape slavery in particular are so cool, aren’t they. I love that you’re exploring your heritage for the next generations, too. I’m hoping to get to Seville in the next year and looking at where my forebears lived – I think I’m the only one of my cousins to be interested but at least I can share some information with them all (two have two children each and one is a grandfather!).
I thought it was so cool. I am hoping to get to the museum in Detroit soon to see a few examples of real life quilts that were used for that purpose.
I think it will be fun! I am always looking for more community for Wyatt and for me, honestly, and I think that will be a good place to find some. And yes, do it!