Surprised by needlework on a family reunion tour

This weekend I was in High Point, North Carolina for a reunion of the Mendenhall Family Association. When I was actively doing family research, I followed the line of my great-grandmother, Sarah Ann Mendenhall Mount, and found other Mendenhall researchers. I was a charter member of the Association when it formed and have attended all seven reunions held.

The Mendenhall's were among the first to buy property from William Penn in his new American land grant named Pennsylvania. Four siblings, John, Benjamin, Margary (Martin) and Mary (Newlin) moved there in 1684. I'm descended from John and his grandson James, who in 1862 moved to Guilford County, North Carolina, where many Pennsylvania Quakers migrated and settled. They were millers, farmers and very active in education. The little town of Jamestown near High Point was named for James. His grandson Richard built a plantation house there which is on the register of historic places and was on our reunion tour, along with three local Quaker meeting houses and Guilford College.

Okay, I'm getting to the needlework. There is a tiny little museum at the plantation containing some artifacts of the time period (late 1700s-early 1800s). First thing that caught my eye was this stunning dress.

 

I don't know if this was worn by Quakers; they did sometimes dress less plainly than commonly thought, but this is very "not plain." Here are some close ups of the lace and embroidery trim.

 

 

 

 

The pretty coverlet is in a case.

 

In another building on the site, there was a poster display about Quaker dress, which had these two interesting photos.

 

 

We then moved on to the Springfield Meeting House which maintains a larger museum of period artifacts. Here is a Quaker wedding dress.

 

 

Plain, but lovely. And there are these two other examples of nice needlework in the museum.

 

 

 







What fun to find such unexpected and lovely needlework on a family history tour. 







One Sock Finished on Way to Carolina Beach

It's nice to crochet while riding Amtrak, so I finished one of my socks on the way to visit my son and his wife. They live in Apex, North Carolina, near Raleigh, but we went directly from the station to their beach house in Carolina Beach, near Wilmington. It's about a two and a half hour drive. They have had the house about a year and have been doing a major remodeling job, now done. They have also been redoing the landscaping, still ongoing. It's all very attractive and comfortable. In addition to shopping at nurseries and working in the yard, the visit included making and eating a delicious pot of shrimp boil and grilling cheeseburgers on the beach in Freeman Park. It was rainy off and on, but the sun was out nicely for the beach. There is a big colony of feral cats in Carolina Beach. Joe and Danielle have a favorite that they are feeding and trying to befriend. She's a small female they named Silver, who has already had kittens. It's too bad she isn't spayed along with all the others.

Other needlework underway, besides crocheting the second sock, includes finishing embroidery on the border of the scrap block piece, making a holiday ornament for an exchange with a friend, and working further on my beaded sewing kit. For the latter, crazy quilt friend Maureeen gave me a cigar box from her vast stockpile. (She has a cigar connoiseur husband.) It's a perfect size to hold the covered needlebook, the pin keep and the other things I've collected for it and still fit in my project bag. For the scrap block piece, I plan to use the French facing technique Allison Aller described on her blog, referring to her article in CQMagOnline. I'm excited, hoping this will be a technique to rescue me from my poor binding corner skills.