Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Meinen Sampler for May



I finally have all the siblings names done and am starting the border across the bottom. I didn't work on the sampler as much as I usually would since I was also doing Matter's Choice for a local needlework shop, but I am looking forward to doing more work in Virginia while housesitting for my sister. You can click on the picture for a better view of how the names turned out.

The more I work on this, the more enthused I get. Along with stitching and finding out historical details, I find that I am searching my own mind for memories of Grandma Meinen. I was 9 when she died, but I do remember her. On one visit, we drove up a country road to the house and I remember that she was out in her garden weeding, pinching back plants and picking radishes. She grew the long white icicle radishes. What an odd thing to remember! Still, it tells me something about her. My sister was a baby, so she must have been in her late 70's. She was still hard at work even then. By that time, Uncle Gib was doing the farming, so she didn't have that responsibility, but I am sure there still was plenty to do.

I think this was the same visit when we kids had a wonderful time climbing to the top of a huge haystack and rolling and tumbling down it. It seemed to me to be far better than playground equipment! Life on a farm seemed like the most wonderful thing but, like so many other things, the reality was a lot less enchanting. I can only imagine how much work there was to do.

Celle 1826 stitch-a-long May



It's stitch-a-long time again and this is where I am starting for this month's stitching. Since I am leaving for Virginia on June 2, I'm not going to get a lot done before June 1, but I will have time in Virginia to stitch, so I'm not worried. Having my stitch-a-long group really helps though. I probably wouldn't make up for lost time this month without it. Hopefully I can get another motif done this month.

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

The latest on the Meinen Sampler



Well, I've done some more on my Meinen Sampler and have gotten the middle names of all of my grandmother's siblings. Two of them had names that were very short and just happened to be born in a very short month, May, so I wanted to even out the lines.

In the process I found out that my great-grandmother kept a diary and that my Great Aunt Henrietta, who is 93, has it. That was a big surprise. I'd planned on getting more information on her, but never dreamed there was a diary. I'm going up to Virginia next week and my mother and I will put our heads together and see if we can find out more information. I'm getting so excited about this project. I only started out with a sampler, but I am getting more and more interested in her life. I'm hoping that I can get my mom to go with me to visit an aunt who spent a lot of time with Grandma Meinen when she was a child. More on this later.

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Celle Blog Promises



(many thanks to fodey.com for this wonderful newspaper idea.)