Inspired by the Homeplace

Rick Rack, Station Wagon

It’s Sunday. We are headed to my grandmother’s house.

Decisions! To wear my Charlie’s Angels T-shirt or my butterfly sleeve blouse with flared jeans. Or, maybe I should wear my rolled up blue jean shorts.

We are OFF! … in the station wagon, we go!

We climb the steps to the old wooden porch and I can already smell the purple hull peas cooking on Mimmaw’s old white stove. I run to the kitchen to stir them and steal a bite when no one is looking. Mimmaw’s purple hulls are my fav!

Out the back door, grab the empty Coke bottles and stroll across the next-door neighbors yard to Mr. Billingsly’s little corner store. With the Coke bottle money, I choose a hand full of Double Bubble and an RC Cola.

Flip the bottle cap open and BAM, Another 10 cents! Woo hoo! Grab a couple Now n Laters to snack on up in the old cedar tree.

Don’t get sap on my rolled up shorts.

It’s so fun to see these styles coming back in! Even the Rick Rack and pompon trim that Mama sewed on my blouses is back in style! I flipped open my emails this morning and Maurice’s shorts and graphic tees took me back to those retro days. Gosh. SO, so fun!

Grandma’s Old Sewing Basket

Grandma’s Sewing Notions

My great-grandmother. A creative fireball. An active lady who lived to be 100 years old.

Oh, how I wish I could have seen what she would have made if the embroidery machines and sewing tools of today had been available back in her day!

We called her Big Mama. However, she stood less than five feet tall.

Big Mama was a character! Always ready with a joke to tell. You could hear her laughter from the other side of the house.

A crafty little lady who wrapped her left-over thread around torn away pieces of her church bulletins. I occasionally peek inside her old sewing basket which I inherited many years ago. I chuckle at her creativity and frugalness.

My great-grandmother sewed with the same needles for years. She swiped the worn old needle tips over a piece of sharpening stone. She kept them tucked away in the old sewing basket. Her pin cushion was handmade out of country red velvet and an antique piece of white trim.

I love to imagine what she had in mind for the old hat pins and lace remnants which are tucked away in the old basket.

Although the old wooden thread spools are chippy and the fabric remnants are rusty from the old needles weaved through them, I will treasure these goodies for life!

I am so thankful to have these memories of the lady who passed her crafty skills to a family full of women who enjoy them. We honor Big Mama by putting those skills to use with the technology and clever tools of the craft today.

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