Okay, this special day calls for a GIVEAWAY in celebration of a GIVEAWAY (just to keep you on the tippy top of your bargain-hunting tippy toes). Today is the day we begin our eight-day FREE magazine subscription GIVEAWAY marathon. But I have another burning question that will net another lucky winner a new MaryJane’s Home chenille bedspread worth about $100.
Here’s today’s question for you (answer below in the comments section) that will enter your name to win a brand-new old-fashioned chenille MaryJane’s Home bedspread:
What’s your favorite memory of your grandmother? Here’s why I ask this question. In the 400 or so retail stores like Belk and Fred Meyer where we sell our chenille bedspreads, clerks tell us that women, upon seeing a bed dressed in one of our chenille bedspreads, bring a hand to their heart region, and say things like, “Oh, this sooooooooo reminds me of my grandmother!”
So, what’s your favorite memory of your grandmother?
I would go with my Dad to visit Grandmaw every Saturday right after breakfast. Which for us was about 9:00. The entrance to her house went through a bedroom that had been added on. The white chenille bedspread smelled of sunshine and the lace curtains would be fluttering with the breeze. I was always amazed that she was sitting at the kitchen table working with whatever she had picked from the garden, and at least two pies, and a cake would still be warm from just coming out of the oven. How could she do all of this before 9am? Well, I have never been able to match her stamina, but I do hang out my sheets and bedding every chance I get, and think of Grandmaw when I pass through the room and smell the sunshine!
My favorite memory is of grandma always cooking. She had a large family and every Sunday everyone would go to her house for dinner. There was never a formal invitation but we all knew where to go and about what time. Her house was not big or fancy and we would often have just a large table set up in the middle of the livingroom but we were all together.When I was very small we lived upstairs in her house and on sundays I would wake up to the smell of sauce and Italian music from her kitchen.
My favorite memory of my Grandmother was how she loved to play Go Fish with me and include my doll. Grandma could make it seem like the doll was real and there was always a twinkle in her steel blue eyes. Her health was not very good by the time I came along, but she could sit and play with me for hours which I relished in a very busy household of older siblings. I also remember her treadle sewing machine and a big tin box of wonderful buttons that she let me look at and enjoy while she sewed. Grandmothers are so wonderful!!
When I was little and spent the night with my Grandparents….Momo (my Grandmother) & I would share her bed (Grandpa would sleep on the couch). To relax me so I would fall off to sleep Momo would have us listen for the hoots of owls…I would lay there cuddled up next to Momo until my eyelids got heavy and fell off to sleep.
I had minor surgery when I was seven years old that turned into major complications and a close brush with death. When I woke up in the hospital, my grandma was there. She’d ridden the Greyhound bus from Sacramento to Ashland, Oregon, all night, I’m guessing! to be with me. She was the red-headed, blue-eyed, tiny little woman that we all adored. How I wish my own grandkids could have known her!
My favorite memory of my grandmother is of her baking bread, rolls and cinnamon rolls! She did it once a week her entire life, both in her kitchen in Iowa, and at our house in California when she came to visit us!
My Grandma (Dad’s Mom) slept on a very thick feather bed that she fluffed every morning after breakfast and spread with a chenille bedspread. When we were little she would let the grandkids play on the bed when we visited. My other Grandmother pieced and quilted quilts for all of us, I still have mine, it’s a tulip design. Both were very loving and hard workers. Thanks for your generosity! Blessings, Cathy in Orofino
As she aged she became less able to care for herself and for her own safety my mother and her siblings had to find an assisted living facility for her. But, as an eighty-something, she would consistently run away from home. Sometimes to get her hair done, sometimes to go to the drug store, sometimes just for a walk.
Grandmama Witcher would sit with me for hours and hours out in an old garage and let me play house. We would cook and cook and cook, with mud, sticks, rocks, flowers and anything else I decided to use. She never corrected or judged what I did and she would share he cooking skills with me as we played. She could also grow flowers out of rocks and this is where I got my deep love for cooking and gardening. Oh and crocheting, knitting, embroidering, sewing and just about anything else you can think of. I woud love to win the subscription because financially I am not able to renew my subscription right now. Love ya’ll at MJF.
Grandma’s house was always filled with all
Our cousins whom grandma babysat… I miss
Those days.
My favorite memory of Grandmother (yes, that’s what we called her!) is planting a garden with her in my parents’ backyard at age five. She had been raised as a farmgirl and went to the city as an adult to earn a living. She never failed to raise a garden if she had even the smallest piece of terra firma to work with.
Our garden included peanuts because she wanted to show me that surprisingly good things can be harvested from underground as well. After we dug them up she and I roasted them in in my Mother’s kitchen oven. It was magic!
My favorite memory would be of my Grammy Kimball. My brother and I would spend two weeks with her, and my grandfather, in their trailer in York Beach, Maine during the summer. We would spend our days at the beach, watching the horses down the dirt road, poking through town or, if we were lucky, going to the carnival that was right behind the trailer park. Grammy would cook dinner for us and call us to the table where we would have crispy-edged hamburgers and home fries, creamed carrots ( one of my favorite things still!), macaroni with hamburger and stewed tomatoes, hot dogs sprinkled with celery salt and a ribbon of mustard with Boston baked beans and brown bread slathered in butter- we gobbled it up!! After dinner, Grammy would bring out the “marble board” that she had made and we would play marbles, listening to the music of the carnival through the windows until it was time to go to bed. Grammy would take down the table and make up our bed and tuck us in under crisp cotton sheets and, a chenille bedspread. It’s funny how things can trigger fond memories. Thanks for giving mine a little jog, Meg!
My best memory of my Grandmother is that I am named after her, so I always felt special. She taught me how to crochet and embroider and I still enjoy making gifts and my own fun things. My neighbor said my latest project looks like it belongs in your magazine, lol. It is a red thread embroidered chicken hanging up clothes on my clothes pin bag.
My grandmother was a very wealthy woman who lived in a huge house on the side of a mountain. Her house was all fancy and untouchable. As children we were expected to sit in her house and not touch anything. She was an alcoholic and had a hard time expressing any kind of love and warmth to her grandchildren. Her bedroom was so grand, it was all bright pink and yellow satin with heavy curtains and gold mirrors. It was amazing but it was not a place for snuggling. So this bedspread does not really remind me of my own grandmother but this bedspread reminds me of the Grandmother that I will be someday. I will be warm and simple and ready for snuggling and story telling and sick days with chicken soup and lots of used tissue. This bedspread says everything about delicate, inviting, practical, romantic, sweet, available femininity that I want to express in my life and to those who I love. I am grateful to my own mother and grandmother for being who they were which helped to make me who I am.
How do you choose just one?? Being 50 and a Grandma myself, I’m so Blessed to have a Grandma still here. Ive just in recent years began losing my Grandparents and was even Blessed to have Gt Grandparents well into adulthood. I treasure my Grandma who has also been one of my best friends. There days I don’t think I could have made it. And I adored her Chenille bedspreads they were always so soft & inviting!! Pure love!!!
My grandma was not a chenille bedspread, homemade cookies and cakes kind of grandma. She spent time in prison as the get-away driver during a bank robbery, she smoked like a chimney, and always had a little bit of tomato juice in her vodka. She was a tough old bird, that told it straight, and lived her life on her own terms. While she never taught me how to make cookies, she did teach me many valuable life lessons. She was always good for a laugh. My favorite memory of her is sitting in her living room watching TV and have her call out, “He could put his boots under my bed anytime!” to which I replied, “Grandma!!!” Then she gave me the look and said, “Child I may be old but I’m not dead!” So true Grandma, just because your birthdays keep coming, life doesn’t end, in fact life just like keeps getting sweeter.
My favorite memory of my Grandma Taylor is that every time we went to go see her she gave my sister and I some necco candy so that we would stay quiet when the adults were talking. My Grandma was sick all the time so going to see her was fun because I think it cheered her up. She as really special to me. Thank you for all of your posts they are so fun to share with my friends!
My favorite memory of my Grandma Taylor is that every time we went to go see her she gave my sister and I some necco candy so that we would stay quiet when the adults were talking. My Grandma was sick all the time so going to see her was fun because I think it cheered her up. She was really special to me. Thank you for all of your posts they are so fun to share with my friends!
(sorry I missed the “W” in was)
My favorite memory is of her rolling her wheelchair up to the stove to make the super-sized Sonoran flour tortilla for us. She didn’t speak much English (and I didn’t speak Spanish) but her love for me & my sisters was shown in the food she prepared and the hugs she gave.
My grandparents are long gone, but not forgotten. I’m blessed to have my Mom’s sister who is 88 and doing well considering! She has a white chenille bedspread and when I visit her, I take it off the bed to wash a sits difficult for her to manage. Oh my, when it is done drying it is so fluffy and beautiful. She makes the bed by tucking the pillows in as we always did growing up (in my house anyway). She has the craziest, yet pretty purple flowe wallpaper in her room from the 70’s….nothing has been updated since then!
My favorite memory of my Paternal Grandma is actually a conglomeration of several memories of her teaching me how to do things. She taught several types of embroidery, taught me the basics of crochet, how to bake, was starting to teach me how to cook and sew when she passed away. My favorite memory of my Maternal Grandma was us walking her dog. She had this little terrier mix and used a harness instead of a collar to take him out. He actually walked sideways with his rear-end almost even with his head. She just accepted that that was how he walked and never tried to correct it. I always loved that.
My favorite memory of my paternal grandma, is that she sewed and crocheted so many wonderful things for us: dolls & clothes for them, mittens, hats, scarves, ponchos. I still have the afghan that she crocheted for me over 30 yrs ago.
My favorite memory of my maternal grandma, is her cute giggle, and that our big family was always cooking wonderful fresh foods from the farm. 🙂
I always remember Grandma in the kitchen of her little trailer. It was our alarm clock whenever we stayed over, her banging the pots and pans around to get ready to fry up some breakfast. Her sink always seemed half-full of hot soapy water to do the dishes, and I loved putting my hands in it even while being frightened of cutting my finger on hidden knives under the suds. We always gathered around the formica dining table, and Grandpa would tell stories from the farm while Grandma cooked, and there would be laughing and wonderful smells and always enough food for everyone. And coffee. And the random friends who would just drop by for a cup of coffee and a chat. The heart of my grandma’s house was the kitchen, and the day she passed away, I drew a picture of that kitchen, just as she’d left it, so I would always remember. I miss her.
My favorite memory of my Grandmother is when we would put on our sun hats and go for a long stroll around her neighborhood. We would stop and talk to the neighbors who were gardening or doing something outside, and when we got back I would always pick a couple of her petunias out of her flower bed and give them to her as a gift. She always seemed happy when I did that, but I can imagine now in the back of her mind she was saying By the time summer comes I wont have any flowers left. Ha! Ha!
My Grandmother lived two doors down from my elementary school. Several times every year, until I was in the sixth grade, when we were at recess, she would walk across the narrow street to the playground with a large basket of brightly polished red apples for everyone in my class. Everyone loved it. I remember one year we were all fascinated by a new boy who ate the whole apple, seeds and all. This was back in the 50’s and life was so much different.
My favorite memories revolve around her very small, sparsely equipped kitchen. She made the most amazing shrimp creole when we came to visit and she always had a jelly roll for me in her bread drawer. The window sill and kitchen shelf had all types of glass chickens and she made pretty curtains with red accents that blew in the breeze over her sparkling white sink. Red vinyl upholstered kitchen chairs with a grey topped matching dinette table is where my grandfather rolled his cigarettes and we gathered for meals. It was small but full of love!
My Grandma Curry loved Avon Rose hand cream. When we would use the bathroom, all the little grand daughters would get into her Rose hand cream, smear it all over and come out thinking no one would notice. The house would soon be full of little Roses! The single bathroom was constantly in use. HA
My favorite memory of my grandmother involves pillowcases. Every year she embroidered a set for each of her grandchildren as a Christmas gift. I wonder if I can find some of my old ones the next time I am home!
My favourite memory of Grammy was during the summer evenings when a large storm would roll across the fields towards the house. We would all go the front of the house. It was a large room the span of the house, all windows and beds and pillows around the edges with quilts – crazy quilts, pastel chenille spreads, little pouffy quilts, knitted quilts in the most God-awful colour combinations. We would anxiously listen to the rumblings of thunder, smell the rain we couldn’t yet see, waiting for the first chains of lightning to both scare us, awe us and tickle us! Grammy would fix things in the kitchen, after what always seemed like an entire day cooking, and then come settle in with us to watch the show. Grampy sometimes put the radio on out there so he could listen to the Blue Jays demolish whatever American team they were up against. She’s been gone for many years; we all have. The house is falling down – there was no one who wanted to live so rurally, so alone and with so many memories of a matriarch that kept everything together when she was alive. I run to these memories of innocence, of freedom and unconditional love – she was my half-sister’s Grammy and not really mine – like many people wrap up in a warm blanket on a chilly day, so grateful that I have a treasured place so safe and such a part of the everyday me.
Sleeping in her little tiny mobile camper where I dreamed that it would end up being my home. She had parked it by my uncle’s house and late at night we felt a bucking and lifting sensation and the dogs could be heard going bonkers. Blows were landing on the outside walls and growls we filling our heads with terror. Yep, bear was trying to get in. I have forgotten many things in my life, but not the love of my Granny trying to hide me in that teeny tiny little trailer.
My grandma, God Love her, was a little bit funny 🙂 She and grandpa lived on their own little mini-farm with chickens, goats and a big garden. Growing up, my sister, brother, cousins and I would play in their huge chicken pen but being a chicken pen, we had to wear the appropriate footwear. She made us wear her old rubber boots, but they of course had holes in them, so we had to first wrap our feet in plastic shopping bags and then put the boots on. We live on the Oregon Coast so it was always rainy and muddy. As we got older she would tell us that she was giving us “funny ha-ha” gifts for our birthdays so we never knew what it might be. I did get a bowl of peanuts for my 21st birthday and my new husband got an eagle bolo tie! She was a funny one!
I have to correct one part of the story…the bags weren’t just plastic grocery bags, they were plastic bread bags that she had saved 🙂 She always had a bucket of water filled with oasis she was soaking for her flower arrangements that she made weekly for church. The wet oasis was lots of fun to stick our fingers in. Oh, the memories…..secretly eating frozen store brand cool whip from the downstairs freezer, interesting things drying in her food dehydrator and of course a cushy toilet seat.
Watching my super conservative in every other way grandmother dance the can-can in the annual Days of 49 parade. We have pictures of her in the outfit. At 96 she isn’t dancing any more, but she is still “kicking”. And knowing that she had that wild side to her. Once when I was teasing her about her “speed-demon” driving ( she had a lead foot that she passed on to me) she told me that she would have liked to learn to drive race cars.
My grandmother was not known for her culinary skills. She would put everything on high and it would inevitably get burnt. But there were 2 things that she cooked wonderfully that I had fond memories of. She was from the Maryland area and she made incredible shrimp creole. She must have used Old Bay in her dish. (Years later, when she came to visit, she would bring us a container of Old Bay since it was hard to find in FL at that time.) The other fond culinary memory was on Saturday mornings she would fry up some chicken wings for me, sit me on the floor in front of the cartoons with the wings on top of a large paper bag. It made me feel warm and taken care of.
My Father was career Army, so we didn’t grow up around our grandparents in fact, there were many times we didn’t get to see them for years at a time due to being stationed in Europe. Fifty years ago, my Father had a 30 day leave and we spent half of it with his parents in Ohio, and the other half with Mother’s parents in Kentucky. Although I was only eight years old, I remember one summer night very vividly. Mother’s parents were poor farmers, living in a century old farmhouse high on a Kentucky mountain. There was rudimentary electric, but no indoor plumbing. There was a pump in the kitchen and after dinner Mamaw pumped water and boiled it on the wood burning stove to wash the dishes. Everyone had to help, even my brothers who thought dishes were women’s work. She just smiled and said, “everyone has to pull their weight on a farm.” Pull our weight we did indeed! That day we gathered eggs for breakfast, retrieved ham from the smoke house and helped make biscuits from scratch. We helped do laundry with an old wringer washer and hung sheets on the line with clothes pins my grandfather had carved. We milked cows, mucked stalls, fed the cows, horses, chickens and pigs, watered and weeded the vegetable garden, picked vegetables for lunch and dinner and helped Mamaw can green beans and corn. Later that night my Grandmother handed us each a Mason jar and said, “Come children…” We followed her out into a field beyond the pasture that we hadn’t known was there. The moon was SO bright and the field was sparkling with flowers. The stream was bubbling and owls were hooting. It was warm and the slight breeze smelled so wonderful! Then my grandmother pointed out what we had never seen before: fire flies!! She showed us how to catch them and soon we were running all over the field filling our jars up. We were dancing around, and playing tag and I look around and saw my Mamaw sitting on a rock holding and rocking my Mother back and forth on her lap. My whole world stopped as I watched MY Mother interacting with Her Mother, being the child and being nurtured. It was the first time I realized how hard it was for my Mother and Grandmother to live apart from one another. I think of that wonderful night often and remember it as being one of the best days of my life. Mamaw passed away last year at 101 years of age, leaving me with 50 years of wonderful experiences and memories, but none as sweet at that night on the mountain
I loved going to my “Bigmomma’s” house. She loved to cook and always made the best food with whatever she had. We had a big family and everyone would always go there on Sunday’s to eat. My best memory of her home would be…on Saturday’s was her day to get the house ready for company (you could eat off her floors all through the week). She didn’t have any grass on her front yard, she lived in the city, but she had a yard broom. She would sweep that dirt like it was her favorite part of her house. She didn’t have much, but she sure had pride in what she did have.
My favorite memory of my grandmother was when she taught me how to apply makeup at her vanity table. Her sweetness that day was something I will treasure forever.
I have a lot of great memories of my Grammie. One of them is picking wild blueberries in the thickets and fields near her farm when I was a young girl. We’d walk up an old gravel sideroad and wander off into the fields until we found a patch or two of blueberry bushes. We’d take along our little pots and pails and pick away until we had enough to take home. Of course, we’d taste a couple along the way. Then we’d get back to her house and she’d make a pot of Red Rose tea. Of course, we had to drink it out of bone chine teacups. She made the BEST tea in the world.
My favorite memory of my grandmother was spending the night on Fridays. She would share with me all her special treasures she had in her top dresser drawer. She had a silver brush and comb, lots of costume jewelry, scarves and embroidered pillowcases. I would try on the jewelry and scarves. I am now the proud owner of two of her scarves. We would watch television and she would make me a root beer float in a tin mug. She always said the tin mug kept it colder. I would brush her hair and she would give me a dime. I slept in the big bed in the guest room and it had a white chenille bedspread with pink flowers. My grandmother passed away last year at the age of 103. I miss her a lot but treasure the times we spent together.
I have so many. I spent most of my early childhood at their house which was just down the road from our house. But, the memory that comes to mind that is particularly warm is watching her bring a special meal to the table … a Sunday meal or a holiday meal. None of her dishes matched, they were pieces of ‘this & that’ china and I loved that they were all different. Many of the pieces had belonged to her mother … homesteaders. One dish at a time, Grandma and Momma would bring the meal to the table. My mother is a great cook, but childhood memory raises a grandmother’s cooking to the divine level. I loved mer mix & match dishes, I loved the ‘made from scratch’ meals, I loved everyone seated around the table … and I loved my Grandma with all my being … she at the table, having never removed her apron. My little sister sat next to her and I sat next to Grandpa. Even now, I get tickled looking back and watching Grandma cut meat into little bitty pieces for my sister … talking to her softly and coaxing her to try something new.
So looking forward to receiving your magazine. I haven’t seen it available here.
My favorite memory of my grandmother is how she loved my children and me. She had 11 children, 24 grandchildren,over 5o great-granchildren and 3 or 4 great-great-grandchildren when she died at the age of 98.
My grandma always put out a tea set with little cookies for me & my sister Jackie when we came to visit. Grandma was a professional seamstress & made some exquisite doll clothes for my favorite doll. I also remember her sewing a gorgeous Toile bedspread, ( with matching drapes & dust ruffle), for my 2 older sisters. Later on she taught my sister Jackie & I some tips about sewing by machine. She was one of the kindest, most thoughtful persons I have ever known. When we moved to away she became my “pen pal”. I miss her every day. I now collect teapots in memory of her. I celebrate her memory by sharing tea with my daughter, Emily.
Every summer I would get to spend one glorious week with my creative grandmother and grandfather. I cherished those weeks and looked forward to them each year. One of my favorite memories of my sweet grandmother Clara was when she made clothes for my Crissy doll. I sat right by her side at the sewing machine and watched her every move. I was amazed that she could take several scraps of fabric and transform them into a beautiful dress for my doll! I will never forget how hard she worked and those precious moments we spent together.
Washing the dishes! Grandma (Pauline aka Polly) didn’t have a dishwasher, so I was it! On the edge of her sink, she always had a can of Bon Ami with the little yellow chick on it. The feel of the warm water, the bubbles, the pretty dishes, Grandma singing along to Dinah Shore on the radio… I adored washing the dishes with my grandma!
My favorite memory of my paternal grandmother involves a trip to go fishing for crabs…buying trays of chicken wings, tying lengths of string to the chicken wings, and throwing it out into the water…feeling the tug on the line and bringing them onto the dock…one got loose and chased my brothers and I around the dock. Then we took the catch of the day home and cook them, which apparently inspired me to ask what the squealing noise was coming from the cookpot! Somewhere I have a picture of me holding a big crab upside-down, which puts them to sleep. I also fondly remember watching her play solitaire, talking to a nonexistent “dealer,” which was very entertaining…:-)
My grandmother didn’t live near us so she came to visit several times a year and stayed for about 2 weeks each time. We adored her. She would arrive on a Greyhound Bus and always had several suitcases with her. Inside those suitcases were small gifts for us, each wrapped in colored tissue paper. One of those gifts was always a bag of M & M’s. I now carry on the tradition by wrapping gifts for my own granddaughter in different colored tissue paper!
A soft cuddly teddy bear she had for me when I went to visit her as a child. And when she told me she thought my sister was adopted that made me laugh. I think it was her way of telling me I was her favorite 🙂 for all I know she told my sister the same about me haha
My grandmother lived just across the road from us on the farm her father bought.so i have memories of her teaching me how to cook.which i still like to do to this day for my grandkids and family.some of her tricks like how to keep the crust on a chicken fried steak.her chocolate cake with marshmallows on top with homemade fudge frosting to top it off.
I spent the summers with my grandma and papa, they only had 3 acres, but they made the most of it. Chickens, ducks, and turkeys, and a large garden. Ladies, would come by and place an order on their way to the grocery store or etc. and my grandma, would slaughter, dress, and package the order. This was a daily accurrence.
The garden was always wonderful, and tho, my papa worked a full time job, and pastored a church full time, the garden was mostly his. She always had meals prepared so if anyone stopped by, they HAD to eat! Her chicken–n-dumplins, fried fruit pies, and coconut cakes were the greatest. Her house was always clean, and she was one who ironed everything, including papa’s underwear. lol! Loved sitting out under the pecan tree in a swing, and her in her apron, and glass of ice tea, telling stories of old, and making her list of things to get done. I will never forget her, and was thrilled she got to know my children. I often wonder if she looks down and sees my little farm, I feel that she would be so proud. I learned a lot from her. Thanks for letting me share.
My Grandma lived on a lake and would set out trotlines to catch catfish. I remember eating delicious fried catfish, lots of fresh veggies from her large garden out back, and peach cobbler for dessert. She was a wonderful cook and I remember helping her cook in her tiny little kitchen barely big enough for two!