Stitchery in my absence...ancestry

VERY hard to believe that it has been almost two months since I posted last.

No reason for it except busy, busy hands and mind!  I will attempt to show and briefly explain my doings...

Michele and her family went to Europe for several weeks this summer.







We had been talking about quilts and I decided to surprise myself and see if I could prepare a top piece before her return.  Here is the result, made from Civil War repro fabrics.  I've been collecting CW fabrics for 20+ years.  This will make a good coverlet for my bed.

I love the "double pinks" (which I believe during the era meant dyed twice)

 

Well this really got my creative juices flowing.  I have always been enamored with the 1850-1870 period, and wondered what I could do to make my bedroom look more like that time period.  Mind you, I have had no theme in my bedroom for over ten years....since we moved here.  So "designing" my room, on an exceptionally tight budget, became my summer/autumn goal.

 

First, I found about 18 frames at a local thrift store.  I then designed the stitcheries to fit the frames.  That saved a ton of money.  Ten years ago someone gave me a sweater box of DMC floss; again, a huge savings there.







Several years ago I designed a cross-stitch sampler with my father's gr grandmother's name on it.  I decided to go through the genealogy papers my mom had given me (go Mom!!) and came up with many  names and dates.  So far I can only go back with certainty to 1833.  It is my desire to get back to the 1700s if at all possible.
Here is the first sampler I designed...



Unfortunately, Eliza (which is probably short for Elizabeth)

wasn't listed in a census with her maiden name----this is her married name.

 

Time takes it's toll on everyone----I find I need reading glasses to do 28 ct. evenweave work.  I stitch over two threads; so the end result is about the same as 14 ct.  I don't need the OTT light if I am working in the daylight.

 

Here is the second stitchery.  What makes this one especially nice is that I have a newspaper clipping with her picture from 1917.....in her 80s.

Coffee-dyed

 

 

First, I did the stitchery on ivory evenweave (HobbyLobby).  Next, I placed it on parchment paper and spritzed it with coffee----weak at first but then I continued to add coffee to the spray bottle.  In all honesty I think it is too dark, but it does give an interesting look. 

Coffee dyeing drying 

Caroline died in the influenza circa 1918; my grandmother (Emma) was only12 at the time and had a 2 year old sister, Louise.  I don't know how old Emma was when her father (Mr. Bingham?) died.

 

Emma and Louise went with Mr.Zane (Louise's father) to Morris St. in Philly to live with Caroline's family. When Emma married my grandfather, Louise went to live with them until her marriage. Emma named her firstborn Louise, after her sister.  Louise is my mother. (Go Mom!!)

Stina Jonson Karnell is oddly enough buried 15 miles from me along with her husband (Albert) and children.  Albert was a pastor in a local church.  I've been able to locate the family plot as well as the church.  The church is an abandoned building in a scary part of that town.  I am fortunate to have Stina's maiden name.

  

Their son Almer was a pastor in Philadelphia (and also New Jersey--possibly Conneticut?).  He was married to Minnie Mathisen,who I'm stitching now.  She was an amazing woman. More about her when her stitchery is done.... 

 

Emma Nissen is Caroline's mother.  We believe her married name is Schmid, though census' list her as Schmidt and Schmid.  My mother remembers the family and the house on Morris St.

 

Mary Burns Cotney is my mother's grandmother on her father's side

 

I think it goes like this:

Mary Hiller Smith

had Anna(Annie)

who had Mary

who had John (and Anna, and Francis)

who had Louise

who had me, Mary Ann

I was named after Mary Burns Cotney and her daughter Anna

So it was

Mary

Annie

Mary

Anna

(skip a generation)

Mary Ann

Doesn't mean much to anyone else but me. :) 

Ellen Flanagan Cotney shares the same birthday as one of my brothers...her mother was Ellen Flanagan married to Joseph Flanagan. 

Still on the lookout for era-specific items, I found this at a local yard sale.

It is crystal and weighs about 7 lbs....and cost $5.

Yowza.





I try to stay ahead of designing patterns so that I always have another one ready to start...I am continuing on in my research so I can continue designing.  Once the quilting is done, then I will show my "WORK IN PROGRESS" finished bedroom.



This is what I often do when designing a pattern---I split my screen so I can watch a YouTube or a DVD, cuz I work better with sound in the background...now I'm on a Sherlock Holmes audio book kick------about 40 hours of listening!  I did these 6 stitcheries in four weeks-----about 6-8 hours a day.