We all have many reasons for doing the things we do. But if I had to pick just one reason for stitching, I think I’d pick my granny.

My grandmother, Margaret Mellon, was one of those ordinary, extraordinary women. She was born in 1881 and lived deep into the next century. She lived, in fact, until she was nearly 100!

In between, she met and married my grandfather, moved to Maine and then back to New Brunswick, had nine children (two of whom she lost as babies), and helped run a farm. She also made things with her hands – everything from quilts to socks. She knit and wove and hooked and quilted.

My Aunt Mary tells me she and Grandma even knit socks for the boys off in the Navy. (“I used to feel terrible for the poor souls who had to wear them!” my aunt confesses now). The thought of those lovingly crafted, but probably scratchy and bulky, socks makes me smile now, as I count stitches and pull thread in my home in Hamilton, Ontario