This deteriorating tintype of one of my husband's second great-grandfathers was generously restored by ericdege of flickr.
We have to do further research to verify his identity, but I suspect, based on my current research, that he may be Simpson Frazier, born 1821, who served as a Union soldier during the American Civil War and survived the Battle of Shiloh.
This photo of my maternal grandmother, Rose Lena [Vogel] Galbraith, is a still taken from a movie made by her stepson, Robert G. Galbraith, around 1938.
I never knew my maternal grandmother except through my Mother's stories about her. The loyal dog at her elbow is the family pet, an Airedale named Jack; my Mom says he was the smartest dog she ever knew.
I have traced her family line back to the Rhineland-Palatinate town of Thaleischweiler, Germany. Rose's parents and older siblings were born there, but she was born in Pennsylvania in 1888.
Featured today is a very rough first draft, sketched and cut and pasted into a tile, for use in a fabric design to be printed at Spoonflower. Lots of tweaking and revising ahead.... The low-tech method I used to create the repeat is described at Design Sponge.
Just a quick post to showcase some of my recent handpainted fiber: here is a bit of silk tussah that I can't wait to spin up!
My youngest sister sent this photo to me yesterday. It is one that I had never seen, possibly from my uncle's estate originally, and dates to the mid- to late-1940's.
She included the following anonymous quotation along with the picture:
"My father's guiding hand on my shoulder will remain with me forever."
Missing you still, Daddy, and honoring your memory.
My sister and I took a class in needlepunch embroidery at one of our favorite quilt shops a while back. While searching for some missing notions yesterday, I found my nearly finished project in a basket. It's a yin/yang symbol made with variegated silk floss. I think I want to "square the circle" with a background color so it will be easier to frame and hang for inspiration.
I'm heading back into the dye studio this week. This skein is one that I handpainted last summer for a shawl project for my sister.
Here is my latest skein of Ragamuffin handspun yarn. I got lots of premium quilting fabric from vendors at the recent San Diego Quilt Show and I have been turning some of it into my signature Ragamuffin yarn. I've been making a few yo-yos, too.
Remembering my Dad this week.... I love this photo that my Mom took of my Dad and my sister sharing a joyful moment in the summer of 1957.
I lost my father to an accident seventeen years ago today. In the aftermath of his loss, an elderly friend of mine, a poet who had only known my Dad through my sister and me, wrote a moving tribute to him. I'm including it here; it was written by my late friend, Mary Ellen Gallagher (Drumdaughter), whom I sorely miss as well.
♥
On the last full day of his life
he climbed a tree.
What, you ask, was a seventy-four
year old man doing
climbing a tree?
Perhaps the bright autumn woods
made him feel a boy again
and he longed to be held in leafy arms,
gaze once more on his beloved fields,
and touch the wild September sky.
In numinous response to leaves
and sun and apple-scented air
he moved old aching bones up to the tree top
and started his journey away from
minds which look askance at old men in trees.
I could only wish to climb a tree
on the last full day of my life.
As summer in the northern hemisphere dwindles down, I begin savoring its last little bits nostalgically. The Harvest Moon in Pisces yesterday signaled autumn's imminent return.
I took this snapshot of my little brother (riding the pony) and two of my cousins when I was a teenager in the 1960's. We were visiting my aunt and cousins on their farm in Indiana.
The corn was high, the tomatoes ripe, and the aromatic farmhouse kitchen bustled with activity. This image evokes the playfulness of childhood and the languor of August for me.
I hope you have a good harvest this year.
I was inspired by the yo-yos in a vintage quilt at the recent San Diego Quilt Show, so I have been making a bunch of them lately with my Clover yo-yo making tools.
These jumbo-sized ones (3.5 inches in diameter) are made of scrumptious Belgian linen fabric hand-printed by Michelle Engel Bencsko of cicadastudio. She has a new line of lovely quilting fabrics that just came out, too. Lots to look forward to as fall heads our way.
Here is some of the harvest of my hackle-blending of wool fiber over the last week or so. I've only spun up a few sample skeins so far, but will post them as they materialize.
I had issues with my computer browser for several days this week; it's not completely fixed--I've switched from Firefox to Internet Explorer temporarily until it is all sorted out. I have concluded that I am addicted to my internet connection.... And that's a good thing, right?
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