This quilt square was pieced by Lydia Preston Meade before her death around 1897. The quilt top was left to her daughter Martha Jeanette Meade Bartlett, Mommy as she was called by the grandchildren. The quilt was kept in a cedar chest or trunk and Mommy never got around to quilting it. The flood came in 1937 and the Ohio River overflowed its banks and the town of New Boston. The family had to leave their house through an upstairs window and ride in a boat to safety. The quilt was left at the house where it was immersed in flood waters. Because of some metal in the trunk there were rust stains left on the quilt top. Mommy gave the quilt top to her granddaughter, Robert Jo “Bobbie” Bartlett one day while Bobbie was helping her mother, Lucille Reynolds Bartlett, make some quilts for some bunk beds. Bobbie was given the quilt top because she was the only child or grandchild of Mommy’s who was interested in making quilts. Bobbie married James L. Bray who was in the Air Force. They traveled the world and took the quilt top with them. These are the places they lived: San Antonio & Marfa, Texas, Greenville & Camden, South Carolina, Warner Robbins, Georgia, Orlando & Cape Canaveral, Florida; Camp Springs, Maryland (Washington, D.C.) – this is where the quilt top was when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.); Biloxi, Mississippi; Yalova, Turkey; the island of Guam & Anchorage, Alaska. As you can see this quilt has had quite a history. Bobbie brought the quilt top to her sister, Lee’s house and while there was gracious enough to cut the quilt apart so that several of us would have a piece of this history. Three pieces were left at her sister Lillian’s house and I, Lillian’s daughter, took the pieces and quilted each of them. It was amazing to be able to quilt squares of fabric that my great, great grandmother had pieced together. My husband framed each of the quilt squares in frames that he made. They were given to Lillian, Bonnie, and Patsy Atkins Jackson, Lillian’s daughter in-law. The quilt squares were to be passed down to Lillian’s granddaughters, Kristy Hanes Stace, Holly Ann Hanes and Tracey Elizabeth Jackson and hopefully they will pass them down to future generations to enjoy and to remind them of their history. Since that time, Lillian has passed on and her quilt square was passed down to Kristy Stace.
The outside of our addition is complete except for dressing it up a bit with lattice and shrubs/plantings and stepping stones and painting the door. Handyman finished the siding, got the gutters on today and actually cleaned up the mess that was on the driveway. He still has several days of work on the interior to get it ready for the building inspectors to come. I can't wait until I can load up the shelves in the pantry. 
We had a wonderful visit with our daughter and her family this week. They arrived late Saturday night and stayed until Thursday morning. We went out to dinner on Sunday, but otherwise we mostly just stayed around the house. The girls seemed content to just be here and play with the toys and the dog. Gabby was so cute with her doggia and Tobia. We haven't been around her nearly as much as we were Kate at that age. It thrilled me when Gabby came running down the hall toward me yelling "Gam!" I didn't think she'd ever learn my name. PawPaw has been a standard for quite a while now. Kate is growing up. She spent quite a bit of timing playing by herself back in their bedroom. She no longer needs us there every minute. I was glad that Kristy is feeling better, most of her "morning sickness" is over. Justin got drafted to help handyman husband with a few things on the addition. It has been so hot here that we weren't outside much. The girls played outside a little bit -- watered my flowers and themselves. Hopefully we'll get to see them again before the new baby arrives in November. Maybe we can make a trip out in August. Just love my grandbabies!!!
I had thought about having an alarm system installed for quite a while. I've been seeing them pop up in the neighborhood quite a bit lately. I'm sure it's due to some breakins at several apartments in the area. It seems that the burgler would just kick in the back door of apartments when the owners were away, probably at work since most of them were during the 8-4 time period. Our house seemed fairly secure. The garage hides the car so they aren't sure if we're home or not. The back door is surrounded by our sunroom which has 5 sliding patio doors. Knowing they'd have to break in twice was probably a deterent, plus we have a fence around our back yard with locking gates, another deterent. But with our addition we're adding another door to our house which seems more vulnerable than the others. It's on the side of the house, no locking fence, not on the front so it's less likely to be seen. So, we ordered us an alarm system, complete with door alarms, motion detector, key chain, yard sign, and a carbon monoxide alarm. The first morning after we had set the alarm, I woke up to a beep,beep,beep. Upon making my way to the kitchen the alarm panel told me that the motion detector and key chain had failed. The beep-beep-beep had driven the dog out of his bed and upstairs. He sheepishly came down while I was resetting the alarm. The next night I woke up about 2:30am and heard the beep,beep,beep, so I got up and went out to check on it and the key chain had failed once again. After resetting the alarm, I felt so sorry for the dog that I let him come into our room thinking he'd lay down by the bed and go to sleep. No, he just paced all around. I finally got up and put his bed in the bathroom so he was contained, but still away from the alarm. Last night Handyman disconnected the keychain from the system and we all slept thru the night. As annoying as the little beep,beep,beep is I cannot imagine what it will be like if the actual alarm goes off. As soon as we get all the bugs taken care of we'll contact the security company and have them monitor the system for us. They'll call us if it ever goes off and depending on what is necessary may call the police department.
