Over the last week I’ve been going through a few dozen boxes of family possessions from my mom’s old house, and my grandparents house. As Mom has aged and declined, she has moved to smaller spaces with simpler possessions. I’ve taken on the artwork, the photos, the collected treasures of their lifetimes. This week I finally had to go through everything and make some hard decisions.
This collage above is about the story of my grandma Merle Swanson who was born in Thurston Nebraska. In the family photo, she is the serious kid on the bottom right, with the big bow in her hair. Her mom emigrated from Sweden to Ellis Island in 1880, and died when Merle was one. Her dad married her mom’s sister, they had a couple more babies, then her aunt/step-mom died also. The dad collapsed in grief and the kids were scattered to various relatives.
Merle had a dreamy romance with my grandpa John in Southern California. They would park to watch the sun set over the ocean, and sing duets. They had 2 kids (my mom & uncle) and then moved to Oregon during WWII. There were family holidays at the Oregon Coast and Mount Hood, and later John got a Silver Airstream trailer and they drove all over the West. He was the owner of a fleet of school busses but his hobby was photography.
Merle’s hobbies were ceramic painting, crewel embroidery, and garment sewing. She also had fruit trees and an organic garden and they were vegetarians – ahead of their time in the 50s! I’ve been unpacking and admiring her ceramic paintings this week. My grandpa’s mom was a California impressionist painter in the early 20th century, so I know Grandpa encouraged and supported Grandma’s artistic talents, just as Paul has supported mine. (Paul’s mom was an expressionist painter.)
Everybody in the family was a musician. Grandpa played saxophone, Grandma played piano, my mom played piano, her brother played violin, and everybody sang. Is it any surprise that everyone in our family is also a musician?
So as I dig through files, photos, trinkets and letters…I struggle between not wanting to miss a treasure…and needing to get the job done. I just share this because I know many of you can relate, and those family memories are so precious. Tonight I am going back to the tree I am building on Ancestry, to check dates and think about how these gifts are passed down to us, often from so many generations back that we can’t know where the original seed of creativity was planted. But I can imagine…making a dreary utilitarian item and wanting to make it special and beautiful. How far we’ve come, and yet how things have not changed….
sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana and Paul
****************
Luana’s Travel Calendar:
July 18-22 – Sacred Threads & Not Fade Away (VA & DC)
July 30 – Aug 6 – Birmingham UK – Festival of Quilts
eQuilter Classroom:
July 11-14, 2019 – Cindy Lohbeck – Shibori, Ice-Dyeing and Ombre Dyeing – Almost FULL
Sept 13-15 – Cas Holmes – FRCQ Workshop
Oct 8-10 – Jacqueline de Jonge – Enchanting Stars & Dream Flight
April 13-15 2020 – Susan Carlson
June 1-5 2020 – Paula Nadelstern
