Updates… LOTS of Them!!!

Forewarned: Long Post Ahead...

 

In continuing with updating my blog theme, I spent some time today looking at other improvements.  I’ve changed all of my labels to cluster them together into categories by hyphenating them.  I wish there was a way that Blogger would create a hierarchy for them.  Then a reader could go to Surnames and then see all of the names under that.  Instead, I changed them, one-at-a-time no less, to Surname – Name.  I also thought this would help designate these names as such.  For example, my Royal surname could be mistaken for Royal as in imperial or sovereign.  I also did that for Places and eliminated counties and towns, keeping just the state.

Also, because the new theme is wider in the posts section, I went back and enlarged many of the pictures and fonts.  That way, viewers may not have to click on them to see them large enough.

Then I started to go through old posts and see if there were any “dangling” items I said I would bring up in a later post and never addressed.  Or updates to posts.  Here goes…

1. In 2010 Has Arrived! I mention that I’d like to start a hand-written diary.  Didn’t happen.  Other priorities.  My around-the-house improvements are in full swing!  I am pulling things out of storage, clearing out, cleaning up and de-cluttering continuously and with fervor!  {It helps that hubby and I became empty-nester’s in July… and no one has moved back home yet:-)  I’m plugging away at that cross-stitch and, after attending a Sampler’s Guild meeting by happenstance (you know I believe there are no accidents) I picked up some tips, a better frame, and magnification clip-on glasses, which all help immensely.  I go on to say that writing down my goals for that post helped to put it all in perspective.  My latest ProGen assignment was to write an education plan, in which I included some other goals and unfinished items “to-do list” style.  Once again, I emphasize how that helped me keep my goals on the forefront of my mind and keep them there until they’re addressed.  MAKE A LIST OF YOUR GOALS!!!  In: life in general, related to your research, or anything else!  It really does help.
2. In My Genealogical Superpower I talked about how I like to help others and teach.  Since then, I have signed up to be a contributor at Find-A-Grave, done look-ups for two people at the GA Archives for friends across the country on GenealogyWise and agreed to repeat my “Internet Tools for Genealogy” at my county society’s upcoming Beginner’s Course 2011 in addition to another one about logging your research and citing sources (details have not been discussed further).
3. In the Land Records for Female Ancestor? post I talked about how I’m cleaning up records in my Ancestry.com family tree to show actual records instead of text.  I am STILL doing this as I work on any family line.  What a pain!  Can’t we get the Software people to work with Ancestry so that GedCom files can be synchronized instead of merely uploaded or downloaded?  (I think Family Tree Maker does this, but I don’t use that one). Also, I’ve learned a whole lot more about researching land records since then and it makes me smile at my naiveté’ back then! ;-) 
4. I have not worked on my pockets mentioned in Threads of Time.  I put that away to focus on my unfinished cross-stitch project mentioned above.  However, I did make a unembroidered pair of pockets for their practical use out of plain linen and an 18th century women’s wool cloak with the hood lined in silk.  I finished a new polonaise style dress and coordinating petticoat.
5. More of Tee's Crewel: I have continued to work on cleaning out my storage room and found yet another of Tee’s pieces of crewel work!  But you’ll have to wait to see that in another post!  I still need to hang it and take a photo.
6. Keeping up with my goals, see Progress for Goals in 2010, I am still archiving photos and VHS tapes at home – a long-term project.  I’ve pulled another of my grandfather’s trophy’s from a yacht race and polished it (silver), I’ve printed a couple of retouched photos to frame, and decided I don’t like all the clocks together on one wall and plan to move them around the house into places where I’d like them better and separate from each other.
7. Organizing Photos: Manage Folders on Your Computer: I finished making a new folder structure.  However, I have many subfolders in my Dump_From_Camera folder that need to be named, tagged, edited and moved.  Will it ever end?
8. From FGS Conference 2010: Recovering Back Home: I still have not gone through my FGS materials.  They are on my desk in one of  my To-Do project pockets.  Oh, and those same friends that “hate me for winning all the time” were at our genealogy meeting the other night when our speaker announced that she had 2 door prizes.  Her lecture was on the Georgia Land Lotteries.  She asked us to identify the date of a particular year’s land lottery when they started issuing grants (referring to her handout). I was the first to see the dates from July 22 to August something. Then the speaker clarified asking “what was the starting date?”  “July 22nd”, someone else answered.  We all thought the person with the answer would be the winner when she said,  “Who has a birthday around July 22nd”?  My hand went up… “July 28th”.  Followed by someone else.  Speaker asks “is is less than 6 days from the date”?  “Nope”.  I felt daggers in my back from my friends eyes and glanced over my shoulder to see them looking at me with “that look” and big smirks on their faces!  They told me later that they “were going to make me buy the chicken wings at dinner because of this”!  Geez, I can’t help when I was born!!!… and, oh, by the way, we all thought it was the first to answer who got the prize, not a birthday thing!  Maybe I just should keep my mouth shut!  HAHA!  But I won a CD entitled “Georgia Colonial and Headright Plat Index, 1735-1866” by Mary H. Abbe published by the R.J. Taylor, Jr. Foundation and Georgia Archives in 2005.  I can use this for my McVicker/Royal/Brown ancestors of Henry and Dooly Counties, Georgia!  How exciting!!! 

(They love to tease me, but they still love me too).

Copyright © 2010 Joanne Schleier
Photo credit: called REBOOT! by  http://www.flickr.com/photos/mark-magnusson/.

More of Tee's Crewel

I've found more pieces of my grandmother's crewel. I think you can click on the image to zoom and see the stitching if you like.

FYI - Her nickname was Tee. Being of Lithuanian descent, her given name was Thais (sounds like Thai-eece). My brother and I were her only grandchildren and as kids we called her TeeTee. An image of her is above on my blogs title bar (removed since changing my blog theme in Oct. 2010). She is the one in the First Communion dress with her bible and rosary - love those shoes!

I wrote about a piece she made in another post: Threads of Time. This piece she also finished in 1973. I love how the one coral colored flower stands out. Also, it was probably her second favorite color next to aqua.

This next one was made in 1973, 2 years before the ones above. I love the colors in it and came to have a thing for owls in my adult life.

I don't know the provenance of any of the pieces I am presenting in this post. Unlike the prior post, nothing is written on the back of these. Unanswered questions are: Which one was her first? Did she use a pattern or design them herself? Though, I do remember her working on them sitting on her day-bed in her room and me going in to snuggle beside her or get a hug and she would say "wait a minute dear, let me put down my stitching", always obliging my request and always calling me "dear".

This next one is unlike the prior four which are more of a Jacobean style. I know it was also for me; I am the Leo in the family. It seems to be a 1970's design. I suppose it's even possible that she found this somewhere, maybe even a garage sale, and purchased it. It is not signed by her as the others are and because it is a different style than she did, it's highly probable.

I'm pretty sure that is all the crewel she kept. I have no way of knowing if she made some to give as gifts. My storage clean-up is a work in progress, so I'll soon find out if I've missed any.

I plan to address the fact that, to my knowledge, none are framed with archival quality materials. That will have to wait. I have too many other goals prioritized.

Threads of Time

You're not going to believe this.

First a little back-story...

One of my husbands passions is woodworking - making colonial Windsor chairs, to be specific, with hand tools the way they did back in colonial times. This lead us to setting up a booth, on occasion, at different venues which would attract buyers or people interested in taking a class on learning the craft. He displays his chairs and demonstrates the process of making them.

This, combined with his interest in American History, the Revolutionary War, the founding of our country and our interest in genealogy, led us to dressing in period appropriate clothing for these events. No small task, as everything must be authentically created. For me, that means hand sewing a lot of period clothing because the sewing machine was not invented until 1846.

Part of my ensemble for my 18th century wardrobe includes pockets. The pockets of the day were not sewn into the inside of clothes, but instead attached to a ribbon which ties around the waist underneath your skirt. These were oftentimes embroidered with wool thread which is called crewel.

Mannequin at the Dewitt-Wallace Museum in Colonial Williamsburg depicting 18th century undergarments.
Photo Copyright 2010 Joanne Schleier

Side view of the pocket.
Photo copyright 2010 Joanne Schleier

Close-up of hand-stitched surface embroidery on the pocket.
Photo Copyright 2010 Joanne Schleier

My maternal grandmother used to do crewel and I've had her work stored away since she passed away in 1994. I remember also storing her books about it and yarns for a time and then later purging a lot of my sewing related stored items in an attempt to rid myself of clutter (something that is a continuous process which gives me great pleasure). I try to stick to the rule that if I haven't used it for a year then I toss it. However, this was something I was emotionally attached to. I saved it all for many years before admitting to myself that I would probably never take up crewel work.

And the story goes on...

So, now I had a strong desire to learn crewel for my pockets. I thought of how enriching it would be to be able to use my grandmother's yarns, now belonging to someone else since I donated the whole lot to Goodwill. What a shame. I almost felt numb and found it difficult to begin the project. Every time I thought of starting, I would instead start a mental self-sabotage with remorse and regret. Strong thoughts of self ridicule. My grandmother would have been proud if she could have seen me pick up her hobby and use her supplies so carefully chosen by her.

I purchased the linen and decided to rebel divert from what was acceptable and use 21st century embroidery threads including ribbon and synthetic fibers for my pockets and make my own design. Who would see them anyway? I had an inspiration from a 21st c. book.

Today, I was in my sewing room in the basement and began to draft a pattern for the pockets overall shape and embroidery design. I was through with the shape when I stepped into the connecting storage room where the framed pieces my grandmother made are stored. I was looking for inspiration for my pattern...again.

I found a piece she made that I liked the most. It was professionally framed under glass.
Crewel piece done by my grandmother in 1971.
Photo Copyright 2010 Joanne Schleier

The stitching is 10¹/₂" by 14"; the frame is larger. (It would not fit completely on my scanner so I scanned two images from it and merged them back into one. I looked at the piece with different eyes. I had read several books about stitches, patterns, techniques, and tools. This is good work. I turned over the back of the frame and look what I saw...

Back of the crewel piece:
Tee Rambeau
1971 Nashua
New Hampshire
for Joanne Beylouny
from Grandma TeeTee
Photo Copyright 2010 Joanne Schleier

This was made for me! She finished it when I was 3 years old. I couldn't believe my eyes. I felt like she was right there beside me! I spoke out loud to her and said "thank you Tee, I am so remorseful that I gave your supplies away at a time when I've really come to appreciate what you did for me".

Something told me to walk toward the shelves where boxes of my mother's and grandmother's belongings are. I looked at all the boxes, numbered and marked with an "A" for "antiques" to tell me the contents were theirs. But then, I noticed a blue plastic trash can on the shelf. It had been there so long, I never "saw" it. It was of those plastic containers with a lid in the shape of an old round trash can. We used to store my daughters lego's in it in her room when she was a child. I knew the lego's were long since donated - my daughter is 24.

Oh heaven! Could it be? I think I remember putting her crewel yarns in there about eight years ago... but then I swear I donated them. I grabbed the can with the framed crewel work in the other hand and ran back to my sewing table to see what was inside. I opened it harriedly with my heart beat increasing in my chest.

Inside were the cards of colorful wool. I was real. I started tearing up and said "oh thank you!" many times as I dug deeper and pulled them out a handful at a time. She had tied similar colors together which had similar numbers. I laid them all out and was filled with so much joy and pride.

There are 82 cards in all. Crewel yarns sorted by color/number laid out on a five foot table.
Photo Copyright 2010 Joanne Schleier

Tee raised me and my brother with our mother (her daughter) and became a second parent. She was there for us in every way. What a beautiful lady and such a wonderful gift. I am so glad I was wrong about donating them. It will mean so much to me to use her threads.

And so, I will start again with a renewed sense of appreciation for the time and attention to detail our ancestors paid to the slightest thing. Even concealed pockets. Or perhaps a treasure for a granddaughter who will perhaps place it prominently on the wall to look at everyday and be reminded that she was loved. And so, it hangs now where I will see it everyday and think of her. Thank you, Tee.