Advent and ….Quilts?

Good "Weaver Wednesday" to all of you who have come back for more of our Family Trails. Thanksgiving was a blessing and a very special time with family. There was time to reflect on past Thanksgivings…and a wonderful opportunity to enjoy new Thanksgivings. 

And now we begin our "Waiting Time" of Advent, preparing our hearts for the coming of the Christ Child. 

Are you thinking by now…. Mariellan, why then have you posted pictures of horses and quilts? 

Okay, I agree with you. This is not exactly what one would expect the next subject to be in the first week of December. 

 But I really want to share with you a project that has been 200 years in the making! Literally!
200 hundred years! A dream of mine has been to photograph all of the quilts and counterpanes that I have that were lovingly made by Weaver women during the past 200 years. So when the leaves turned their beautiful Fall colors, daughter, Rebecca, and I packed up quilts and cameras and headed to a local farm near town that is in my daughter-in-law's family.

 I mentioned once that daughter, Rebecca, has started a photography business. She looks for any opportunity to "stretch her creative eye" and agreed to shoot for me. I hope you will enjoy her pictures of this afternoon.  Please visit her website to she her amazing photography, RebeccaWisePhotography.com They are beautiful and capture the atmosphere of Fall leaves, clear blue skies,  and freshly cut meadows.

 As we expected, the precious little Icelandic ponies became very interested in our mission. But I must say, the ponies were very respectful of these heirloom textiles. They come from a great heritage also, so I am sure they were raised to respect the heritage of others.

 Just enjoy the next few shots….

 Now here is where the project goes a step further. My mother, Nancy Harper DeWine, and I planned to one day embroider "labels" for each textile to document the pattern, the creator, and the time it was stitched. It is with great regret that I tell you that she and I never did accomplish this goal.
But as The Reverend Mother tells Maria in The Sound of Music, "When God closes a door, He opens a window." And the window that opened for me was to my cousin on my husband's side of the family, Patricia. Pip's Craft Room,(Facebook.com) as she calls her budding embroidery business, welcomed my vision of creating labels for these many textiles. It will be quite a task , but Patricia has already finished 4 labels for me. I would love to show you one of them in progress…

 I will hand-stitch this label onto the green and white patchwork quilt you can see in the above picture. I think I will dig through my vintage ribbons and trim and then frame the hemmed label once I have hand-stitched it to the back of the quilt.

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 I am so very excited to start this project. But what a busy time of year to be inspired to do this! I feel sure that I must put it away until the cold, short days of Winter. As I finish them, I will share with you the finished pieces.

By the way, a few years ago. I wrote the editors of Alabama Heritage proposing what I thought would be a very interesting article about the 5 generations of an Alabama family's hand-made textiles. (One is hand-spun and woven!) I did not even get a nibble of interest! That could be my next goal-to write it myself!

Do you have a family textile that you would like to see featured here at Family Trails? I will soon write about the individual pieces that I have because they each tell a great story. I would love to include yours also.

I hope all of you have a nice week. What great weather we are experiencing here is the South. And thank you once again for checking in with our Family Trails. 

Come, let us sing to the Lord; let us shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving and raise a loud shout to Him with psalms. 
                                                                                                 Psalm 95:1-2

Thanksgiving Treasures

 Good afternoon, Family Trails! This week's Weaver Wednesday edition is a little late today! 

I hope you have all had a great week and that you have stayed warm during this Arctic blast. Those of us here in the sunny South have been taken by surprise… now where did I pack up those hats and gloves? I still have not found them! 

Oh, well, let's "talk turkey"! Or rather,  let's"talk Thanksgiving!" I cannot think about the turkey yet!

Let's get back to the scrapbooks of Grandfather Weaver. Tucked away among many articles that Grandfather Weaver saved are several publications about the pilgrims. This picture above is the front and back cover of a little booklet, "The Story of the Pilgrims." On the back cover can be seen the John Hancock Life Insurance Company logo.  Maybe one of our knowledgable kinfolk can tell us if he had a policy from this company. Anyway, the booklet is very informative about the Pilgrims and their hardships settling in The New World. 

On this page are listed the passengers who lived aboard The Mayflower. So interesting! Wow! Talk about Women's Rights! Check out how the wives were listed. 

There is more in this little booklet than most of us learned in school pertaining to the Pilgrims. After sailing from Southhampton, England on August 15, 1620, the Mayflower sailed for 99 days. After landing in Plymouth Harbor, most of the passengers did not even leave the little ship until 

January 2, 1621. 

As I mentioned above…. this is more news than I ever remember studying. Pilgrims have become charicatured so much over the past almost 400 years, that the true meaning of why they endured these hardships has all but gotten lost in the textbooks.  

This pamphlet, below, was also among the papers that C.S. Weaver saved. I have folded it out to show both sides of the paper. 

 

And here is a card that he saved from Plymouth Co-Operative Federal Savings,

44 Main Street, Plymouth Massachusetts. I am so thankful that my Great-Grandfather saved these mail-outs that he received. I do not know why he was on these mailing lists, but I am enjoying the mystery.

 I hope all of you have a very blessed week as you prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving. 

There are so many delicious recipes in our family cookbook, Seasoned With Love. I would love to hear from you about what you are cooking for your Thanksgiving! 

****Special Correction****

In last week's post, I made a mistake about how to order more family cookbooks. I meant to  type 

Lulu.com

as the online source. Please note this correction.