by Jennie Lee Castrogiovanni

November 28, 2019

The quilt in the pictures was given to me by my mother when Great Aunt Libby died. It is a spectacular family heirloom for which I am grateful, but which is also full of mystery.  Who made it? How/When/Why did they put all the pieces together? What is the significance of the dog carrying a basket? Who was MAR? What was the Garfield Club? It’s sad to me that this quilt holds stories within its squares, triangles and odd pieces, stories that I will surely never know. Still I treasure it as a piece of art, a connection to my ancestors, and I wish that I had asked more questions when I was younger.

Hence this Blog…

I’m a want-to-be crafter, the one looking on enviously at the craft shows, thinking that I could make that beautiful knitted scarlet poncho, the finely detailed baby sweater, the gorgeous table inlaid with bluestone from a local quarry, if I only had the ambition, time, talent, and true desire. For as soon as the thought goes through my mind that I should try to crochet mittens for my granddaughters, I remember the pillows that I embroidered for my daughter when she got married. Er, actually I mean the one crookedly stitched pillow that I finally finished and presented to her on her first anniversary. The second pillow to the pair still resides palely in its lonely box. Occasionally I think about finishing it…maybe someday. Or the baby blanket I started to knit or crochet, can’t remember which, for my cousin’s baby some 20 years ago. Alas, it turned into a bookmark, and I never gave it to her. Or the pressed flower greeting cards I was going to make, or the old horse cart that our neighbors pulled out of a falling-down shed for me to repair and repaint.  They used to hitch their horse to it in the old days and take it to town.  My husband can remember seeing it when it was beautiful.  I had visions of fixing it up and painting it the original cheerful red with yellow wheels and hitching up my Amish-bred horse to it and giving people rides and maybe even showing it off during the town’s annual 4th of July parade. Never happened and I hang my head in shame.

The only hobby I am really good at is reading, which maybe explains why I fail at all the others I endeavor. I’m too busy reading in my spare time.

The other thing I like to do sometimes is write. When my kids were little and I was a stay-at-home mom I used to write a bi-weekly column called “Meandering” for a local farm newspaper.  I gave it up when I went back to work full-time, but still sometimes in my mind there is a breezy whisper that I need to keep on writing.

So this Blog is my quilt. I thought about calling it “Still Meandering”, but as I head toward my green-pasture years, “Gallivanting” in the sense of “travelling about for pleasure” seems more fitting. This Blog will be my craft for my children and grandchildren and for anyone else who cares to read and hopefully enjoy some of the stories of my life and some of my thoughts as well.

Thank you for reading!