Summer Days

I ordered a kit the other day. I had ran across this wonderful blog. It is called The Diary of a Rugmaker. Cee was making these lovely penny rug kits and she has videos to go along with them. I was so enthralled. I spent the day watching her videos. I ordered one of her kits so I can watch her video and learn how to make penny rugs too.

Here is what comes in the kit
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It comes with this luscious wool. Pennies and the hand dyed thread. I wish I had had this when I was sitting in doctor offices early this year. I can't wait to start it. 

While I was fooling around so I could take a picture I thought I had never blogged about my treadle sewing machine.

 

Isn't lovely? I am the fifth generation of women to have this sewing machine. As I thought about it I was overcome with the women in my family who sewed on it. I remember my Mom telling me how she preferred sewing on this treadle. My mom was an incredible seamstress. I have a box of her old clothes that she made someday I will do a blog about that. (She watched Jackie Kennedy like a hawk and would make look alike clothes.)  So I was looking at this and thought I would take a few pictures.

 I love all of the workman ship that has gone into this. When I brought it home years ago from my grandmothers house, it was like a time machine. In it were World War ll medals, old bullets from
guns, ( That scared me to death.) Ration Stamps. It still has the attachments. The box lining is old velvet.

Then that metal container was a cold cream can from Max Factor. It was my grandmother's button can. In it are old buttons and my mom's buttons from her vest when she was in Camp Fire Girls.

I realized that I have a thing for old sewing machines. I have two Singer Feather Weight machines.
I have a old machine that was also my grandmothers I need to get out and look at. She made one of my Christmas formals on it one year. I always thought it was funny, that my Mom loved the treadle and my grandmother always wanted new. I wish I knew how to use the treadle. My Mom said it always gave a truer stitch.

The above photos are from the women on my Mom's side of the family. My Mom's family were very, very different from my Dad's family and my grandmother on that side.
 My Dad met my Mom in a dance hall that my grandfather had dances in on Saturday night. My Mom was the hat-check girl.

 My Dad's family were extremely religious. Hyper religious. My dad was of course the black sheep and you know what happens when worlds collide.  I was though, surrounded by very strong women. I think I have befitted from both worlds.
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 Since I have been meaning to show you this Grandmother's Flower Garden. I was using it as a back drop.
 My Dad's mother, my  Granny was left a orphan in the flu epidemic.
She was 12 years old. A man came upon her house and she was sick, but her family had passed away. Silas had lost his wife and children as well. He buried her family and then nursed her back to health. Then he married her.
She always spoke of him with kindness and such love and gratitude. It was always hard to get my mind around. Then he died when she was sixteen and she was on her own again. After WWI was over she married my grandpa and had my Dad and his family. Her quilting frame was an old one that let down from the ceiling. How I wish I had not been so busy then, and I had learned from her as well. This quilt isn't made from a rotary cutter, but cut with scissors. It is all hand quilted. They used their own templates they made from boxes. I was out of high school before my grandmother made quilts from fabric she bought. Most of the quilts she made were made from clothing people gave her.

As I was looking at that sewing machine today. It dawned on me.

Sewing, doing needlework, knitting and the things I love so much are because of the generations of women who did the sewing as a way to bring beauty and comfort to their family and their homes. I never feel as content as when I have fabric or wool or a needle and thread in my hand. I think it comes from the generations of women who have left me a bit of themselves in the legacies they passed down, of a love of a needle and thread.

Thank you for reading. I hope you have a lovely day.

~Kim~

" What makes the desert beautiful," said the little prince, " is that somewhere it hides a well."
---The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, 1943