I never met my Great Uncle Harry, but his photos are the gift that keeps on giving. Thanks to him, I’ve been able to see my grandmother & great aunts as they were in their youth, with tiny waists, long full skirts, often in crazy hats, and full of life.
My grandmother, Isabelle, learned necessary hand sewing skills to make and repair her limited wardrobe of the times. Her journal is filled samples of her school sewing projects and is such a treasure!
Last fall I found several old grain sacks at Madison, Indiana’s River West Antique Mall. I wasn’t looking for anything in particular that day – “just browsing, thanks.” But these well worn sacks spoke to me. “We would make awesome kitchen aprons for your friends,” they whispered. It’s like they knew me…
I’m a “keeper.” Not a hoarder, mind you, but a keeper. I hang on to those small things that remind me of someone special. A wedding ring, a thimble, a hospital baby bracelet. Little objects that take me on a memory journey of things they’d told me about their lives, stories I’ve heard about them, or moments we shared.
It’s a wrap! The “Flo & Edna. Hoosier Quilters. Family. Friends” quilt shows in Rising Sun and Madison, Indiana are completed. The stacks of quilts, sewing notions, vintage sewing machine, graduation dress, books, and handmade doll clothes are making their way back home. Love is the thread that binds us.
Names have really changed over the last century and a half! Flo and Edna. Bertha and Eulalie. They all sound like characters from a book, and they are part of a story for me. The story of the Sunbonnet Sue quilts in my family’s cupboards.
