Since my recent travels to Madison County, Illinois, the past couple of days when I have not been out to the family farm to admire the new sign that heralds its sesquicentennial designation:

and my cousin’s amazing grape arbor:

I have spent most of my time in the genealogy room at the Edwardsville Public Library reading old issues of the Edwardsville Intelligencer on microfiche looking for any news of my grandmother, Nora Buchta.

And while I have yet to have any luck finding news of my grandmother, I did find an interesting column titled “Pretty Fancy Work” which noted:

The strongest and handsomest finish for pillow slips is a pretty handmade crocheted or knitted edging, made in cotton for cotton slips. An acceptable gift is a bolt of such edging for a set of pillow slips.

The column, in addition to this mostly sage advice, continued with this crochet pattern:

Eventually, however, I was able to set my research and visiting aside and make some modest progress on my second granny square basket to be:

I still have a number of newspapers I hope to read through before I leave, a crochet friendly yarn shop to visit, and, if possible, more rounds of the basket to crochet, one stitch at a time.