Track 8 of the album Vacancy Sign · 2011
Quilt Stitched from Mile Markers
“My grandmother's quilt lived on the back seat and every square was a place she had been. I wanted to stitch a song the same way.”
americana · heirloom folk · front-porch americana · 4:06
Lyrics
My grandmother kept a quilt on the back seat Every square from a place she had been A scrap of a dress from a county fair A flannel from a cousin's cabin She'd say, baby, you don't need a suitcase Just a needle and a little bit of thread Every road you take leaves a piece of it with you So stitch it down before it's said Oh, I've got a quilt stitched from mile markers Every patch a place I've known Blue for the river and gold for the wheat fields Grey for the nights I drove alone And when the cold comes down on the interstate I pull it up around my chin Every mile I ever travelled Is keeping me warm again Now there's a square from a rainy Tuesday Where I finally said goodbye And a bit of red from a roadside diner Where a stranger made me cry Oh, I've got a quilt stitched from mile markers Every patch a place I've known Blue for the river and gold for the wheat fields Grey for the nights I drove alone And when the cold comes down on the interstate I pull it up around my chin Every mile I ever travelled Is keeping me warm again She is gone now, but the stitches hold Tiny and crooked and true I leave a corner empty at the edge For the road I haven't been down yet, too Oh, I've got a quilt stitched from mile markers Every patch a place I've known Blue for the river and gold for the wheat fields Grey for the nights I drove alone And when the cold comes down on the interstate I pull it up around my chin Every mile I ever travelled Is keeping me warm again Keeping me warm again Keeping me warm again