I love hearing people tell their stories about how cotton makes them feel, so much so I have welcomed a series of posts on the topic. It isn’t the factual pieces I write like what a cotton plant looks like as much how warm it makes hearts as well as bodies. There have been several of these that I just love!

Well, last week, as I was getting back in the swing of things after the holidays, I stumbled on a post by a writer I met earlier this year while I was in Austin. Addie Broyles does a great job of writing about a family quilt from generations ago. I had to ask if it was cotton and she said she was certain it was! So here’s a short excerpt of it and a photo from her blog… I’m sure once you read it, you will want to follow the link over to her site! I skipped part of it that you’ll want to catch back up on!

….. Like always, I slept on the couch under the fern, but this time, I had a new source of warmth: my great-great-grandmother Lena’s postage stamp quilt.

Lena and her husband, Gustaf, have given my family more than they ever could have imagined. Maybe they knew the roots they were planting when they left Sweden’s Gotland island, 10 years apart, in the late 1800s, but I doubt she could have guessed that her granddaughter would still be making pies with her rolling pin, much less than her granddaughter’s granddaughter would Instagram it.

She could have never guessed that that quilt she made when she got to Springfield (at least we think), would still be in such good condition that the newest member of the family, 7-month-old Nash, would chew on its corners.

via Sleeping under a quilt that’s older than all of us | The Feminist Kitchen.

The post Wrapping Up in History, Family & Cotton appeared first on Hundred Percent Cotton.

It been a couple of years since a college kid seemed to stumble into my social media world. Okay, other college kids stumble in, but this one — Kelly Rivard took up residency! I got to know Kelly through Twitter (@kmrivard) and before long she was appearing all around me! Facebook, Skype, the now nearly forgotten Google Buzz and blogging (you really should check out https://kellymrivard.com). Its been great watching her grow as a person, as a communicator and as a member of a dynamic social media community I love being part of.

When I put out the request for guest posts about cotton, Kelly let me know early she was trying to decide which direction she wanted to go with it. She had a few ideas she was mulling around and she wanted to settle in on just the right one. Well, she hit this one out of the park if you ask me! She’s found a way of showing who she is and how cotton is the fabric of her life in a way that nobody else could do. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

I’m at a stage in my life where I am almost constantly on the go. I juggle different jobs and career-building gigs, a heavy class load, homework, and all the mental strain of wondering where life will take me. There’s of course the demands and desire for a fairly functional social life, too, and volunteer projects, and family obligations. College is exhausting. I think I figured out that at one point in time in my senior year, I was regularly putting in a 70-hour “work week” with jobs, homework, and class. Needless to say, sleep is rare.

I have these “happy places” that allow me to escape from the stresses of college life. They allow me to shut off the world and just “be.” One such place is the creek on my parents’ property. Another is the westward facing deck on my childhood home, where I can watch storms roll in and the sun sink down. My most consistent de-stressing location?

My bed.

I’m a college kid. Let’s be serious here: if I could get paid to nap, it would be my full-time job. If I could take all my classes from here, you betcha I would. As much as I love to get gussied up and impress the world, sometimes sweatpants and a flannel hand-sewn quilt from my grandma just sounds “right.”

I’m picky about my sheets. I like the “t-shirt sheets.” You know, the ones that are pre-softened and a little thicker than normal cotton sheets? It’s like wearing your favorite worn-in t-shirt from that concert you went to years ago, every time you crawl into bed. And my quilt here at school? It’s one of those hand-sawn grandma quilts. You know the type…you can use them forever and ever, even when there’s a split seam or two. They just seem to get warmer and more fluffy with age. I’ve got two of them here at school with me, one made of a lighter cotton and one made of the softest most cuddliest flannel on the face of the earth.

Yeah, you’re jealous.

(Sidenote: my sister is notorious for stealing other people’s grandma quilts. My grandma made about 20 of them in one year and give a quilt to everyone in our family for Christmas. Grandma quilts abound, and if you can’t find one it’s normally because my sister has stolen it.)

Cotton really is the fabric of my life. It’s my safe little warm cocoon of happiness here at school. My cotton grandma quilts are always here to offer a warm hug of comfort and support, even when my family is a hundred (or more) miles away. And, my relationship with cotton goes much further than this. I’m a jeans-and-t-shirt kinda gal, so in a way these cotton articles are a part of my identity. Some of my favorite keepsakes from my late father are the paisley cotton hankies that he always had poking out of one (or more) pockets. (He didn’t always remember if he had one or not, so he’d accrue them in different pockets over a working day as he happened across them.)

On that note, I should probably shake myself out of my “cocoon” and face the day. Sorry, cotton comfiness, until laying in bed is a high-paying professional sport, I need to find other ways to pay the bills!

You can read more stories of people sharing how cotton is the fabric of their life or read about how cotton is produced by checking out some of the other things on the blog.

The post Wanted: Job that Pays Well for Napping / Cocooning in Comfort appeared first on Hundred Percent Cotton.