Retro Post... Homesteaders

This is day 3 of my retro posting. In case you missed my explanation, I am going through posts from my first year of blogging. This is another from February 2011.

Homesteaders

This is a picture of my great grandma, probably taken in the 70's.  This is pretty much how I remember her.  I was a teen-ager when she died.  I remember being sad but as I think back, I don't really remember having a lot of interaction with her.  I saw her only as she was then, an old lady.  I don't remember her being terribly cuddly or warm but she was always nice to us.  I do remember her Southern accent with a voice that stood out in a crowd.  We didn't have any cute name we called her.  In fact, I remember that we called her, "great-grandma".   It seems strange now that we didn't call her anything warmer or shorter.  I wish we'd called her Grandma Rhoda.  Too late now.  I'm sure at the time she was wearing this dress,  I probably just thought of it as an old lady's dress.  Today, as I look at this picture, I'm thinking, "Is that Orange Paisley?!"  

This is her in her younger years.  She and my great-grandpa were Wyoming Homesteaders.  They left North Carolina and arrived in Wyoming on an emigrant train.  My Grandma Rose was just a baby at that time and the homestead was so far out in the boonies that Grandma Rose was an adolescent before she ever got to come into town! 

Now, I am awed by what they did and how their life was.  I wish I'd had sense enough as a child to ask her questions about her life.  I really know nothing of her life before Wyoming.  I've heard stories of their homestead years but not from her point of view.  What was it like to live in a drafty log cabin on the Wyoming prairie?  How in the world did they provide food for all their children during the long winters?  Was she ever scared?  Did she ever have a moment to herself?  Did she have a chance to have fun or was her life always a struggle to keep up?  What about her faith?  How much contact did she have with her family in North Carolina?  Who helped her when she gave birth?  What was her grocery list like when my great-grandpa went to town maybe once or twice a year?  How did they make money?

So many questions.  Too late.

Grandmother's Flower Garden

I have something to show you...

It is a quilt top made by my great grandma. That's what we called her, too, was just Great Grandma. 

My Grandma Rose (whom we called Big Grandma when we were little kids) gave this to me to finish.  She'd heard I was enjoying making quilts and she thought I'd enjoy finishing this one.

I was so excited when I received this gift! I'd never done real quilting, mostly just patchwork quilts. My experience did not extend to hand stitched quilts such as this one. This was going to be a big project for me but I really wanted to do it!

Well, my life got busy and years passed by. Every time I looked at that quilt top I'd think that soon I'd have the time to learn how to do it right. I kept putting it off, though. Then one day this summer I went to Facebook and I saw this posted by my cousin, Diahann.  

(Yes, I totally stole this photo from Facebook without permission.)

She'd just completed this quilt. Is it not beautiful?!  It must have taken a lot of talent and a lot of time and patience. I instantly knew who needed to have Great Grandma's quilt top! I wasn't as instant about actually sending it to her (it has taken 2 months for me to get around to it) but this week I finally shipped it off . Mike asked if I felt sad about it. I told him it was kind of like when you find a dog that you really liked and had for a bit but then its real owner was found.  Yes, I know I no longer have this precious piece of history at my house, but I am most certain that quilt top has found its way to the correct great-granddaughter. 

And, as long as I am stealing photos, this one came off my Aunt Michelle's blog, A Wyoming 

Woman's Thoughts.  It is my great grandma (the one who made the quilt top) in the teal dress, surrounded by her daughters. Grandma Rose is the one in red.

What kind of family treasures do you have tucked away in your homes?