Submitted by Leona Farris

Dotty Benson gave a presentation about the Underground Railroad Quilts. We all enjoyed her talk. Most of us have ancestors who fought in the Civil War or are familiar with that time period.  I hope you are lucky enough to have a quilt made by one of your ancestors.  What a wonderful gift.   According to Family Tree Magazine the earliest-known quilt dates to 1704; it was made by Sarah Sedgwick Leverett and her daughter in Massachusetts.  Quilting bees became an established tradition by 1820.  Tradition dictated that a young woman should complete 12 quilt tops before her engagement. No silliness for the teenage girls of that time period, they were busy.

Susan B. Anthony reputedly made her first speech about suffrage at a Cleveland quilting bee.  After a late 19^th-century decline, quilting regained popularity in the lean times after the 1929 stock market crash.  I remember my mother buying flour in sacks with bright prints to use for clothes.  Clothes were recycled into quilt tops.  I guess the LaCasa Quilters have a quilting bee each Monday morning.  We have many talented women in LaCasa.

Why do men’s clothes have buttons on the right while women’s clothes have buttons on the left?  When buttons were invented, they were very expensive and worn primarily by the rich.  Since most people are right-handed, it is easier to push buttons on the right through holes to holes on the left.  Because wealthy women were dressed by maids, dressmakers put the buttons on the maid’s right.  And that’s where women’s buttons have remained since.  So we’re stuck with buttons on the left side and we have to dance backwards.  It’s a good thing we can adapt.

Why are many coin collection jar banks shaped like pigs?  Long ago, dishes and cookware in Europe were made of dense orange clay called pygg.  When people saved coins in a jar made of this clay, the jars because known as pygg banks.  When an English and potter misunderstood the word, he made a container that resembled a pig.  And it caught on.  Is that right LaCasa Potters?