We are so delighted that you chose to visit with us. Most of us are from the South: Texas, Missouri, and Mississippi. And those who are not, Canada, New Zealand, and Maine, are proud to call themselves honorary Southerners. The front porch, or as KeepYouInStitches’ grandmother used to call it – the “gallery,” has been a gathering place for family and friends for generations.

Before the days of air conditioning when the sun beat down unmercifully, deep porches helped cool the home and made sleeping at night a little more bearable.

In towns and on dusty country roads, families gathered on their front porches in the cool of the evening. Grandpa and Grandma held the place of honor in their rockers, Daddy and Mama held hands on the porch swing, and the children lounged on the steps with the family pets after chasing lightning bugs to put in a Mason jar. Perhaps in the middle of summer they ate a bowl of homemade ice cream…back in a simpler time when quilts were a necessity but were still made with pride.

Perhaps that is what we feel tugging at our heart strings; our grandmothers begging us not to forget…not to forget the warm summer nights sitting beside Grandpa on the front porch as we take another scrap of fabric and stitch it into a design we remember from our childhood.

KeepYouInStitches held by her Little Mama on the “gallery”

Lettering and Graphics by: