Trash Picking

I come from a long line of  trash pickers. We see potential usefulness in stuff others toss out.

When I was a little girl walking to Philip Sheridan Elementary School I remember seeing the trash out along Rosemont Avenue and every now and I saw something in the trash that did not belong there. I would fret and worry and wish I could save it.

My brother even decorates with trash. Like stuff he finds in the canal in back of his house. He pulls up some pretty good stuff!

My Grandmother Gohenour worked in the Goodwill store in Tonawanda, NY which gave her first pick. I wore old flannel nightgowns from the Goodwill when I was a girl because there was no heat in the upstairs bedrooms of the 1830s farm house.

A family friend worked for the school system and before he hauled the trash to the dump he'd stop by the house. I remember rummaging through the books and claiming what I wanted. One book I found was a 1929 edition of "The Cradle of the Deep" by Joan Lowell, the story of a girl growing up on her dad's "four-masted, windjammer rigged schooner engaged in the copra and sandalwood trade between the islands of the South Seas and  Australia." Oh the adventures she had! I also found "The Adventures of Benjamin Pink" illustrated by Garth Williams. I read that to my brother many times. It was about a rabbit lost at sea who becomes king of a monkey island.

Here is my greatest trash picking story.

Back in the 1970s a family friend found a picture in the Tonawanda, NY dump and gave it to my brother who was living with our folks in Clawson, MI. Dad put it in his basement Man's Cave, which had dark wood paneling, a bar, a pool table, and a dart board. The picture was still hanging there in a dark corner when Dad passed and I inherited the house. I brought it upstairs into the light and realized it was really cool! It was real ART and not a print. The matting was yellowed and stained. I asked my brother if he wanted it, and when he said no I took it to a frame shop.

The framer removed the back paper and removed the art from the frame. It was a pastel. Underneath the mat was handwriting. The artist's name was Alfred W. Holdstock and the painting was titled Lake des Allumettes. The detail is amazing.

When I got home I went online to research Holdstock.  Between 1850 and 1870 he painted First People around Montreal, the Ottawa River, and the Thousand Islands.

Holdstock was born in Bath, England in 1820 and educated at Oxford University.  Around 1850 he emigrate to Montreal and taught drawing at the Government National School. He died in 1901 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

The Isle Aux Allumettes in the Ottawa River was inhabited in ancient times. The Iroquois Indians exterminated the Algonquin tribe around 1650. The Algonquin chief Tessout was ambushed by the Iroquois near the Allumette Rapids. The island was uninhabited for 170 years. On 1836 there were still only a few families on the island. Holdstock wanted to capture a dying way of life.

The origin of the name Allumettes, meaning matches, is explained here:
http://www.isle-aux-allumettes.com/municipality/history.php?PHPSESSID=1f5055065e40f97ed57c4f6de148fe88

We had the pastel framed. And its now our favorite piece of  'trash'!

Love Songs

I found this book at the Royal Oak, MI flea market several years ago. There is a book vendor there who has some great stuff. Last month I found some first edition signed quilt books! And the Peggy Cloth book I wrote about last week.

This book has great color illustrations between the poetry and song snippets presented. The line art inside was also remarkable.

"No there's nothing half so sweet in life
As love's young dream."

"No, the heart that has truly loved, never forgets

But as truly loves on to the close,

As the sunflower turns on her god, when he sets,

The same look which she turn'd when he rose"

from Believe me, if All Those Endearing Young Charms

"Just a song at twilight when the lights are low,

and the flickering shadows softly come and go"

I am certain this painting was also used on an Etude Magazine cover, but I can't locate it right now.

"I'll not leave thee, thou lone one,

To pine on the stem;

Since the lovely are sleeping,

Go sleep with them:

Thus kindly I scatter,

Thy leaves o'er the bed,

Where they mates of the garden

Lie scentless and dead."

from "'Tis the Last Rose of Summer"

"Fare thee well, thou first and fairest! 

Fare thee well, thou best and dearest!

Thine be ilka joy and treasure,

Peace, Enjoyment, Love and Pleasure!

Ae fond kiss and then we sever!

Ae farwell, alas for ever!

Deep in heart-wrung tears i'll pledge thee,

Warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee.""

from Ae Fond Kiss

"Could ye come back to me, Douglas, Douglas

In the old likeness that I knew,

I would be so faithful, so loving, Douglas,

Douglas, Douglas, tender and true."

"Where are you going, my pretty maid?"

"I'm gong a milking, sir," she said."

"What is your fortune, my pretty maid?"

"My face is my fortune, sire, she said."

"I dreamt that suitors sought my hand,

That knights upon bended knee;

And with vows no maiden's heart could withstand

They pledged their faith to me."

from I Dreamt That I Dwelt in Marble Halls

"No--that hallowed form is ne'er forgot which first love traced"

from Love's Young Dream

 "Oh, ne'er shall I forget the night,

the stars were bright above me,

And gently lent their silv'ry light,

When first she vowed she loved me."

from The Girl I Left Behind Me

Wizard of Oz Embroidery

My original embroidered blocks for The Wizard of Oz are done. I am considering how to set them together.

I love the Scarecrow. Next to him is Dorothy and Toto.

I have a happy Lion. The Tin Man is a bit scary looking I think.

My Glenda is an 'Earth Mother' figure, nurturing and life giving so the Wicked Witch had to be thin and unfeminine. Sorry, fans of "Wicked!"

'Modish' Fifth Avenue Styles for Spring and Summer 1927

This magazine by Hamilton Garment Co. of Fifth Avenue in New York City was another inexpensive find at a flea market many years ago. The  original mailing envelope for placing an order is still inside.

The inside front cover proclaims they were "on FIFTH AVENUE and style specialists for over ten years!" They guaranteed the lowest prices in America with 24 hour service. "The Hamilton Fashion Magazines Bring to Your Door--No Matter Where You Live--The Very Newest and Smartest Creations from New York and Paris!" A later page claims they offered "copies of the most expensive imported models."

I loved seeing "for the Modish miss and Matron" page, saying that the fashions were perfect for the well developed figure, concealing well developed hips with a slim silhouette. To my mind, the dropped waist and lack of bust dart were definitely not well tuned to a full figured woman! The models below are not stout, but they look as wide as all Kansas.

The corsets were covered with rubber and had double boned diaphragm fronts. "Surgical" elastic "holds the flesh firm and massages it away."

I adore the 'Baby Betty" play clothes and dress frocks. The sweet short dresses with little pantaloons underneath, the round high collars, and bobbed hair of the models are adorable. And of course those white socks and Mary Jane patent shoes!

Little boys could wear a nine piece Cowboy outfit, a four piece flannel baseball suit, khaki jean Oliver Twist suit with knee length pants and "college sport" belt.  Also available was a cut sailor suits of several styles.

I noted the "Peggy Cloth" plaid wash suit on the left fashion above. I just shared a Peggy Cloth book from 1947.  Peggy Cloth was not a designer or manufacturer of the Peggy Cloth books, it was a fabric type. A Goggle search showed up several ad from the 1920s for Peggy Cloth, sold for sturdy children's rompers and clothes, at 17 cents to a dollar a yard.

"Innovative" spring coats sported ombre plaids, gauntlet cuffs, and wide labels with fur lining. Colors included Mother Goose tan, Queen Blue, Palmetto Green, and other 'spring' hues. I love the idea of an ombre plaid.

There is wonderful embroidery and pleating details in the gowns, slips, and bloomers.

All that cropped hair made hats important accessories.

Heels were very practical. In size and height the heels looked like what I wore to school in the late 1960s.

They had special shoes for the 'stout ankled' women!

I love the Bonnie Girl outfit on the left in the above page. 

My grandmother Emma Becker Gochenour sported these slim hipped fashions in old photographs. She had wild red hair, like all her siblings, which was bobbed short.

Emma Becker and Al Gochenour married in 1926, a year before this catalog was published. Emma was a factory worker and Al a salesman.

Sci-Fi and Fantasy Media and Literature Pattern Source

I stumbled across a great blog called "Fandom in Stitches." They offer paper pieced patterns, for free, by fans of various literary and media Sci-Fi and fantasy cult classics.

I downloaded the Dr Who embroidery patterns. My husband was a big fan way back, and we'd watch the Doctor together. Here is the page on their Dr. Who 50th Anniversary Stitch Along:  http://www.fandominstitches.com/2011/05/doctor-who.html

I can't wrap my head around the technical thought behind paper piecing, but I may need to figure it out because there are some wonderful patterns here. Star Trek, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Sherlock Holmes, The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, Vampires, TV children's cartoons, Comics, Games & Tech, Disney and more can be found here. They also are looking for contributing designers and have a wish list from fans.

You can find them on Facebook. The Fan Followers photo are shared on Flickr at:
 http://www.flickr.com/groups/fandominstitches

Here is Fandom in Stitches website: http://www.fandominstitches.com/

Here are Harry Potter blocks from Jennifer's blog: http://sewhooked.com/harry-potter/

Here is the Sewhooked shop: http://sewhooked.com/shop/

Here is Jennifer's Crafty shop: http://www.craftsy.com/user/470750/pattern-store

From their blog:

• Fandom In Stitches is owned and edited by Jennifer Ofenstein of Sewhooked http://sewhooked.com/. Other authors are designers Michelle Thompson and Lilja Björk Sigurdórsdóttir.
• While we are fully aware that we can't stop you from selling items made from Fandom In Stitches' patterns, we ask most emphatically that you do not, unless it is for a fundraiser or non-profit (please see next question). As long as no one is profiting from our patterns, our use of fandom images, all of which are copyright or trademarked by the originators/authors/etc., we are relatively safe under the broad allowance made under U.S. trademark laws (we have this from a bona fide trademark lawyer!). By not selling items made from FiS patterns, we are in no way competing with or profiting from the fandoms we love. We would absolutely hate to lose our ability to share these patterns with you because someone decided to profit from them. One cease and desist letter would likely be enough to shut us down.

A Gift of Handkerchiefs

Last Sunday a friend gave me her mother's handkerchiefs. She had seen my handkerchief quilts on my blog. She kept the ones she remembers her mother using, mostly white linen with tatting. These are a nice selection of typical mid-century handkerchiefs.

You can't see it well in the photo, but the background on the red roses has white on white scenes of Paris!

God, Faith, and Onions

I finished reading The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky, considered one of the best novels of all time. Several months ago I finished an equally thick book, American Gods, by Neil Gaiman. It has won the Hugo and Nebula awards.

Dostoevsky is a favorite writer of Pope Francis. The Brothers Karamazov was cited in a recent New York Times article as an example of literature that teaches readers to better understand human nature. Gaiman is a contemporary fantasy writer, and American Gods is considered his masterpiece so far. People either love it, or they hate it.

Dostoevsky

The Brothers Karamazov is a family drama about a man and his three sons. The father is murdered, and the eldest son is accused of the murder.

Father Karamazov is a reprehensible drunk and womanizer who married two woman and raped another, fathering four sons. The women died of neglect, and his children only survived because maternal relatives rescued them. He does have a way with money, but has no intention of sharing it with his sons.

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As a girl I loved the character of Alyosha, the youngest brother who leaves the monastery to serve the needs of his troubled family. He knows he shares his family's tumultuous character and does not hold himself above them.

Some of the most beautiful language in the book surrounds Alyosha's mystic transformation when he grapples with his faith. His spiritual father, Father Zossima, has died but his sainthood is questioned when the corpse begins to smell.

Alyosha's faith crisis leads him to Grushenka, who had been seduced as a girl, abandoned by her family, and taken as a mistress of an older rich man who teaches her the money lending business. She had planned to corrupt the high minded young monk. Alyosha calls her sister, an act that begins her redemption. She tells him an old Russian folk tale about sufferers in Hell crying for release. They are asked what one good deed they had ever done. A woman says she once gave an onion to a starving person. The angel holds the onion to the woman, who grasps it and is raised from her torment. Grushenka tells Alyosha he has held to her an onion and has saved her.

From this they both experience a new found self-identity and faith. Alyosha returns to the monastery and in prayer vigil over Father Zossima has a dream. He wakes and runs outdoors:

 "...his soul, overflowing with rapture, yearned for freedom, space, openness. The vault of heaven, full of soft shining stars, stretched vast and fathomless above him. The Milky Way ran in two pale streams from the zenith to the horizon. The fresh, motionless, still night enfolded the earth. The white towers and golden domes of the cathedral gleamed out against the sapphire sky. The gorgeous autumn flowers, in the beds round the house, were slumbering till morning. The silence of the earth seemed to melt into the silence of the heavens. The mystery of earth was one with the mystery of the stars..."

Alyosha throws himself to the earth in sobbing and rapture, an ecstasy from experiencing "threads from all those innumerable worlds of God, linking his soul to them, and it was trembling all over "in contact with other worlds." He longed to forgive every one and for everything and to beg forgiveness. Oh, not for himself, but for all men, for all and everything." 

Father Zossima had told Alyosha his place is in the world, helping his brothers. Alyosha leaves the sanctuary of the monastery and puts on European dress to find his true calling.
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Ivan is Alyosha's elder brother. Their mother turned to a fervent faith in her despair over her husband's treatment. Ivan is a nihilist, influenced by European thought of the time, and believes that 'everything is lawful'. Ivan and Katrina, Dimitri's fiance, fall in love. But she is too proud to admit it, and sticks to Dimitri even when he rejects her for Grushenka. Her 'love' for Dimitri is only pride, for when she had offered her body for his financial help to aid her father, he gave her the money without exacting the payment of her virginity.

Ivan's 'poem' The Grand Inquisitor, told to Alyosha, is the most famous scene in the book. Here is Sir John Gielgud as the Inquisitor  performing the scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om6HcUUa8DI. The message is that mankind does not want freedom or free will, but only to be fed, and so God/Jesus Christ chose a path to failure. Ivan grapples with his complicity in his father's murder, and lapses into brain fever, conversing with the Devil. 

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Dimitri is the oldest brother whose military career has been curtailed by his proliferate life and anger management problems. He shares his father's appetites, yet holds a high sense of honor. After his mother's death he is rescued by the family servant Grigory who takes care of him until his mother's cousin takes him in. Dimitri only meets his father again when he comes of age and returns to claim his mother's inheritance. He meets his father's business partner Gruskenka and falls in lust for her. But his father offers Dimitri's inheritance to Grushenka if she comes to his bed. Gruskenka toys with them both, holding on to a girl's fantasy of her seducer returning like a white knight to rescue her. An epic battle begins.

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The last brother, Smerdykov, is an illegitimate son fathered on the village idiot and brought into the household by the childless servant Grigory. He has epilepsy, as did Dostoevsky. He tries to gain Ivan's approval, and covertly suggests a plan to kill their father and steal the money set aside for Grushenka's favors. 

The father is murdered, and all evidence points to Dimitri who had publicly raged his hate against his father. His brothers and the two women who loved him waffle over their belief in his innocence...except Alyosha who totally believes Dimitri could not have murdered his own father.
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The book is about the trial and outcome. It is about the inner souls of these brothers. It is about women who prefer self-laceration to love. It is about faith and God and the church. It is about big ideas.

One of the street boys tells Alyosha, "God is only a hypothesis, but...I admit that He is needed...for the order of the universe and all that...and that if there were no God he would have to be invented." Alyosha chides that he has only repeating what he has heard. 

"Come, you want obedience and mysticism, " the boy answers, "You must admit that the Christian religion, for instance, had only been of use to the rich and powerful to keep the lower classes in slavery." 

"You know, Kolya, you will be very unhappy in your life," Alyosha warns.
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If the Grand Inquisitor believes humans create their own preferred gods, Neil Gaiman's book asks what happens to gods when people no longer believe in them.

The main character, Shadow, is an ex-con with nothing left to lose when he agrees to be chauffeur to the god Odin, who is trying to organize the Old Gods from Europe and Native America for an epic battle against Mr. Town and the New Age Gods.

"Religions are, by definition, metaphors after all: God is a dream, a hope, a woman, an ironist, a father, a city, a house of many rooms, a watchmaker who left his prize chronometer in the desert, someone who loves you--even, perhaps, against all evidence, a celestial being whose only interest is to make sure your football team, army, business, or marriage thrives, prospers and triumphs over all opposition. Religions are places to stand and look and act, vantage points from which to view the world...So, none of this is happening." So says the authorial voice before the battle.

But Shadow thinks, "People believe...It's what people do. They believe. And then they will not take responsibility for their beliefs; they conjure things, and do not trust the conjurations. People populate the darkness; with ghosts, with gods, with electrons, with tales. people imagine, and people believe: and it is that belief, that rock-solid belief, that makes things happen."

Odin asks Shadow to undergo a self sacrificial ritual after his death, where he is hung on the World Tree. Shadow learns that his whole life was orchestrated for this purpose. He was born and raised to be the sacrificial son for the father's resurrection.
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These books move us to consider what we believe individually and corporately as a country or a religious community. What gods do we worship, and keep alive by that worship? The new mythologies change--Nihilism and Science to Psychology to Consumerism. Have the old gods died? And what is faith, what people want, a temporary and changeable commodity? Is Free Will a stumbling block that eclipses God? Or do we yearn for certainties and blind faith as a retreat from the horrors of our choices?
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Father Zossima sends Alyosha down from the mountaintop communion with God into the world. The novel ends with a rallying cry that we may become the most degraded of people, but that one moment of true love for another can be our salvation.

All we need is to give one onion.