This past week almost all the family gathered in my grandparents house for the last time before auction day. We sorted through everything in the house, divided things up, organized things for the sale, survived family tensions, ate the last of my grandmother’s perogies, and heard wonderful stories from both of my grandparents. As the only quilting descendant, my grandmother had set aside some sewing things for me that are incredibly special to me.
Spool holder made by my Great Uncle Bill Flamm for my grandmother.
Embroidery by Nellie Odella Long Carmany, my Great grandmother.
My great-great Aunt Hettie Grace Long Spangler (Nellie’s sister, lived 1874-1938) kept her sewing supplies in the wooden box as long as her daughters could remember. My grandmother remembers her Aunt Grace and her cousin Florence Spangler sewing clothing for her when she was growing up.
Florence was an extremely talented woman. She made this double wedding ring quilt sometime in the 1930s or 1940s. She lost her vision before she was able to quilt it. I am both thrilled and a bit terrified to quilt such an amazing antique quilt.
Dresden Plate by Florence Walker, my grandmother. I’m thinking about subbing it for one of the cousin’s wedding present quilts I have in progress, I think it would be more special to them to have a quilt she pieced.
Overall, I’m a very lucky granddaughter! Later this week I’m hoping to get photos of all the historic family quilts up. If you like 19th century quils, make sure to come back and see the full trunk show. And hopefully there will be some more of my own sewing at some point, if I can convince myself to get to work on that a little more!
Those are such treasures. Enjoy them. My grandmother just turned 99 last April. She is truly remarkable.
That’s fantastic, Marla! I really hope we have my grandparents around that long.