The Ties That Bind…

Good afternoon, dear friends!

Well, it’s another beautiful, but beachily gloomy day here on the central coast of California…I miss the bright heat of Utah a little bit, but this cooler weather certainly feels like home…

I have a few things to share with you today…just finished a fun project with some of my new Crafty Secrets supplies…

All the images are from the new, double-sided “Sew Nice” Creative Scraps, and the background papers are from Crafty Secrets’ “Pastel” and “Classic” paper collections...

…lace, ribbon, old crystal studs, vintage mother-of-pearl buttons, a Prima flower, Stickles, a crystal pendant…

I decided to stitch it all together, crazy quilt style…

…and as I stitched, my thoughts turned to one of my great-great-grandmothers, as my thoughts often do…

Augusta Maria was born in Denmark in 1854.  She was the daughter of a fairly well-to-do cabinetmaker.  Not wealthy, but they lived very comfortably for the times.  She was sent to a private school for young ladies, and learned the art of making fine ladies’ gloves, and became a good seamstress, which were skills she used throughout her life.

When she was just 16 years old, she married my great-great-grandfather, an American who was in Denmark for a time teaching.

                 {Augusta’s chest, crocheted shawl and shoes}

When she arrived with him to his home in the “Wild West”, and saw the impoverished way many of the women were living, she sat her chest down on the ground, opened it up, and gave away most of her fine dresses and things away to the women who were there to welcome her to her new home…

In a small town in northern Arizona, where Augusta lived most of her adult life and is buried, there’s a small family museum.  In it are a few of her personal possessions…physical reminders of a lovely, gracious and quiet woman…

A small, beautiful chest made for Augusta when she was young by her grandfather, a noted Copenhagen cabinetmaker in the mid-1800’s…

…beautiful purple velvet lining the inside of the lovely box…

Another “treasure chest” made by the same grandfather, who was also a violinist in the King’s Orchestra in Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen…filled with her simple woman’s treasures…

Her scrapbook from late Victorian through Edwardian times…I could only take this one picture, as we weren’t to turn the pages…how hard it was to obey that rule!

And best of all, her crazy quilt…

I found out that it had been passed on to my grandfather, and was in their family for quite a while…oh, how I’d love to have it gracing my sitting room at home!  But, it’s in a place where many can love it where it is…

…delicate stitches…worn velvets and satins…beautifully embroidered monograms…flowers, animals, patterns…all stitched by the loving hands of a woman I never met…

…who has touched my life in more ways than I can imagine, through those invisible ties that bind us together…

I hope your day is filled with wonderful things….I’ll see you soon with something new…

 

Julie

LiveJournal Tags: Crafty Secrets,Augusta Maria Outzen Smith,crazy quilts