Beautiful May

The beginning of May always brings such lovely things to mind…the sweetness of flowers on May Day, Mother’s Day…and our wedding anniversary on Monday {our 24th this year}!  So many things to celebrate…

A few projects made this week {during the moments when my flu-y haze was at a low!}, inspired by the events of the month, using products from the wonderful Vintage Street Market…

First, a sweet little tussie mussie cone for a bouquet of flowers–a gift for a friend, perhaps…

A paper cone, wrapped with turquoise paper from the “Dimestore Vogue” Paper Sheets and Tags kit…encircled with a chocolaty brown crepe paper ruffle (from the same kit), dotted with Stickles for a bit of glitz.  Edging the crepe paper is a circling of pretty aqua tinsel…

{I couldn’t resist filling the flower cone with “Cecil Brunner” roses…my mother’s favorite.  The original “Sweetheart” rose}

…and a simple little tag, also from the “Dimestore Vogue” collection, complete with a bit of pink Twirly Twine & a single flocked, vintage posy…

Next, a pretty little powder puff…a vintage puff found in a lovely aqua powder box I bought at an antiques shop last year…altered just a little bit for a Mother’s Day gift…

I used the Mother tag from the “Family Fun” Paper Kit, a sewing tag from the “Dimestore Vogue” kit, edged with a bit of Stickles, a vintage mother-of-pearl button & more pretty vintage posies & tied it all together with a pink Twirly Twine bow…

And last, but certainly not least, a simple little tribute to my beautiful mother…

Her one and only “glamor shot” was the focal point for my little layout.  Paper from the “Family Fun” kit, a bit of the beautiful aqua foil sheet (one of my favorite things!), again from “Dimestore Vogue“, a border of vintage mother-of-pearl buttons…

…and a pretty little rosette made with the chocolate brown crepe paper from the “Dimestore Vogue” kit, topped with a “button” from the same…some seam binding & Twisty Twine finish it off, along with a little pink tag …and that’s about it!

Wishing you many beautiful & inspiring May days this month!

Julie

LiveJournal Tags: May,Vintage Street Market,Mother's Day,tussie mussie,roses,Karen Ostlund Smith,Dimestore Vogue,Family Fun

The Family Quilt

I didn’t even know it existed…

I’ve always heard people referring to their “family quilt”, one made by a great-grandmother, or great-great auntie…I didn’t think we had one in our family…

Well, we actually do.  My great-great grandmother Augusta made a beautiful crazy quilt around the turn of the century, but it’s in a small museum in northern Arizona…beautiful, but untouchable…

My mother proudly took me into her large closet this last week to show me some shelves that my father had built, and I saw it…

“What’s that?”, I asked…

“Sarah’s quilt”, she said, almost casually…..

“Sarah, as in great-great-grandma Sarah?!”

 

And so it was.  I never knew we had it…shows what happens when you never ask!

Imagine my joy when my mother gave it to me while I was there…what a wonderful gift!

It’s not fancy.  It’s not perfect…but it was made with her beautiful, aged hands…

The hands of a woman born on a Virginia plantation during the Civil War…hands that helped her husband carve out an existence in rough and tumble Arizona in the late 1800s…

…the hands of a skilled midwife who delivered 1,600 babies during her lifetime…and “never lost a mother or a baby”, as she herself recalled…

It’s a quilt made with those hands…and I love it.

My guess, due to the fabric patterns, is that it was made in the 193os.  Sarah passed away in 1940.

My plan was to have my husband make a beautiful rod to hang it on—a lovely place on a large, blank wall already chosen in my mind…

{I love the traditional, old “pinwheel” pattern that Sarah chose for her quilt so long ago…}

The morning before we left, I was organizing our things…getting ready to pack up the car.

The quilt, which had been in our room, carefully folded, was nowhere to be seen—I was in a bit of a panic!

I found it…not too much later.  My oldest daughter—the new college graduate for whom we had all gathered to celebrate—had sleepily looked for the comfort of a warm blanket late the night before, when the rest of the house was sound asleep…

…and she found one.

I found my great-great-grandmother’s quilt, still rumpled by the pillow where my daughter had slept--and I realized something…

That’s just precisely what Sarah would have wanted.

{a new page made this week for my family stories album}

She didn’t spend hours and months on her quilt for it to be hung on a wall…not to  be touched.  She meant for it to be wrapped around the ones she loved…to comfort and warm a sleeping child…

I think Sarah would be very pleased...

Julie

  {my youngest daughter, Annie, willingly snuggled with her great-great-great grandmother’s quilt for a photo}

{lovely vintage label & scalloped journaling paper from Crafty Secrets’ “Creating with Vintage Illustrations” CD, vintage thimble ad also from Crafty Secrets}

LiveJournal Tags: Sarah Indiaetta Young Vance,quilt,Chelsea Campbell,Anna Campbell,Crafty Secrets