About 30 years ago, when we were cleaning my grandmother’s house in Wausa, Nebraska, when she moved to a nursing facility, I stumbled upon a quilt. The top was this beautiful orange, cream, and brown flower pattern. The back was a spring green. I have no clue who made it or what the significance was, but I took it home and used it for the next 15 years until it literally disintegrated.

Quilts and the art of quilting have been a tradition since, well, for thousands of years. Quilting is believed to have started in Egypt. In America, quilting dates to the 1700s.

How does quilting tie to Nebraska? In Lincoln, you’ll find the International Quilt Study Center and Museum, where you’ll discover the largest collection of quilts in the world.  Over 3500 quilts are housed in the state-of-the-art building.

The center is part of the University of Nebraska system, located on the East Campus at 33rd and Holdrege Streets. In 1997, Ardis and Robert James donated their collection of over 1000 quilts to UN-L. After a donation from the James family and other private funding came about, the new building opened in 2008. Now, over 30 different countries are represented in the collection.

The study center and museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 1o AM to 4:30 PM and Sundays, 1 – 4:30 PM. Admission is charged.

The quilt study center and museum is a fabulous artistic and historic resource that highlights and retells an American story through fabric.

Come here and I’ll show you something. Go ahead. Take a peep.

The York, Nebraska Peeps Show, now in its fourth year, brings visitors to this sprawling town located along two of the busiest and most traveled routes in America: Interstate 80 and U.S. Highway 81.

Sponsored by the York Chamber of Commerce, displays made with Peeps (the marshmallowy used-to-be-for-Easter-but-now-its-year-round candy) are checked in on a Saturday morning and voted on by official judges and visitors during the day. Winners are then displayed in the Chamber office.

This year’s show drew visitors from California, Colorado, Iowa, and Kansas, as well as many towns from across Nebraska.

The winner? Peep Arc.

Every state has some odd laws on the books, but some of Nebraska’s rules and regulations make you wonder what the heck?

• Persons with gonorrhea may not marry. (Protection?)
• It is illegal to fly a plane while drunk. (Good! I have enough trouble flying when I”m sober!)
• If a child burps during church, a parent may be arrested. (Obviously, my church congregation did not know about this law.)
• It is illegal to go whale fishing. (Right. Because there are so many in the Niobrara River.)
• It is illegal for bar owners to sell beer unlease they are simultaneously brewing a kettle of soup. (I’ll take a bowl of minestrone to go with my pale ale.)
• It is illegal for a mother to give her daughter a perm without a state license. (OK, I can maybe understand this one. Hair is a delicate matter!)
• In Omaha, a man is not allowed to run around with a shaved chest. (But it’s ok if he waxes, right?)

When pioneers crossed into Nebraska, they were greeted by waves of prairie grass, rippling with the wind. As society progressed, that prairie vanished, making way for crop and livestock production and urbanization.

Now, nine miles northwest of downtown Lincoln, the virgin prairie – known as the nine-mile prairie -  covers 230 acres. Formerly, it covered 640 acreas. The majority of the land has never been plowed ( a small corner was at one point) and livestock grazed on some of the grass.

In the 1920s, the land was part of a University of Nebraska study of plant ecology, led by Professor Weaver. Today, 392 species of vascular plants have been identified on the prairie, along with 80 species of birds. UNL continues to use the area for the study of conservation, management and restoration of tall prairie grass.

Big Bluestem grass, cottonwood and honey locust trees, sumac and eastern juniper are just a few of the species located on this plot of land.

Mmmm. Mmmm. Such good chocolate, it melts in your mouth.

Meltaways, made by Baker’s Candies, are a Nebraska tradition, and have been for over 20 years. Kevin Baker started what is now known as the Midwest’s premier chocolate manufacturer in 1987. The family-owned business operates from its plant in  Greenwood, Nebraska, where more than 2000 pounds of meltaways are made a day.

Meltaways come in a variety of flavors: milk chocolate, milk chocolate caramel, milk chocolate raspberry, dark chocolate, milk chocolate mocha, milk chocolate mint, dark chocolate mint, and milk chocolate peanut butter. They also produce three sugar-free varieties: milk chocolate, dark chocolate, and milk chocolate mint.

Unwrap a Nebraska-made Meltaway and satisfy your chocolate desires!