Sweet Little Lessons

Little girls…standing alongside mothers and grandmothers as they learn the skills every girl should know…

…in the kitchen…learning measurements, scraping, pouring…flour on little cheeks and noses…baking secrets passed down through generations of mothers in the family…

…young hands beside more experienced hands…learning the things they need to know…

{beautiful hands…two of my daughters learning how to make my mother’s cinnamon rolls right along side her…}

In the garden…learning what herbs are helpful, which plants help each other in the kitchen garden…watering, weeding…growing…

…learning to have faith that a tiny seed will turn into something beautiful…

Cleaning and caring for the home…

…grandmother teaches the young ones how to fold the table linens “just so”…how to wash the china and crystal till they sparkle and shine…

…helping mother with daily chores…

…sweeping…

…vacuuming (making pretty patterns in the carpet)…

…dusting, mopping…

…laundry…so many things to learn from those more experienced while we are young…

Learning to make the home a lovelier place…

Learning the age-old crafts from skillful hands…

…mothers and grandmothers patiently sitting while chubby little hands fumble with their first knitting needles…

…crochet hooks, needle and thread…

{my mother with my daughter Sarah}

…learning to make clothes all on their own…self-sufficiency being taught with love…

{Mom with daughter Annie}

…embroidery, needlework…

…hand-stitching…beautiful, useful things to be made to add beauty to the home and knowledge to the maker…

 

In 1912, a wonderful woman by the name of Jane Eayre Fryer, published the first in a series of juvenile books designed to teach young girls fundamental domestic skills…

…the result was a delightful series of books—magically illustrated and beautifully written--that are still collected and cherished today…

…and that were given to me, as a young mother, by my own wonderfully creative mother, for my daughters—and for me—to learn from…

In homage to this sweet little series…and to the mother and grandmothers that taught me…a little piece I made this weekend…

The beautiful blue background paper was printed from Crafty Secrets’ wonderful new “Creating with Vintage Patterns” CD…

The “stitching” around the paper is actually stamped—using a running stitch border stamp found in Crafty Secrets’ “Sew Special” stamp set…easy peasy!

 

I enjoyed selecting vintage elements to add to this from old, worn sewing kits—some handed down to me, some found at yard sales…

…beautiful pearl-topped pins from my grandmother’s sewing box…lovely golden-eyed needles from a  VERY old English set of sharps…

…vintage sheets of needles…pretty, old needle-threader…embroidery floss…and my favorite mother-of-pearl buttons…

…a stamped pair of vintage scissors, carefully cut out & topped with glassy glaze for a more metallic look…from Crafty Secrets’ “Sew Special” stamp set…

…and the sweetest of images, from Crafty Secrets’ “Sew Nice” Creative Scraps…the image is from the Mary Frances books, of course…don’t you wish we all had a fairy helper?

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Generations of little girls…standing beside loving mothers and grandmothers…learning to become young ladies…

{My 4th great-grandmother, Louisa, with my 2nd great-grandmother, Ida…}

…that’s the way it’s always been…that’s the way it always will be…

I guess we all have fairy helpers, after all…

See you soon with something new…

Julie

LiveJournal Tags: Crafty Secrets,Mary Frances books,homemaking,mothers,grandmothers,sewing