Copper Pictures

This week, I get a two-fer. My favorite thing happens to also be vintage. How cool is that? So I'll be linking this blog to both Favorite Things Friday (or Favourite in Down Under-ese) and Vintage Thingie Thursday.

My great grandmother (the one whose quilts inspired me to take up quilting) made these two copper pictures.  She was one talented lady!  I love everything about these pictures--the way they look, the subject matter, and of course the fact that my great grandmother made them.  I'll admit that the picture of the oxen pulling the covered wagon is my very most of favorite of the two, because that one in particular reminds me of her.  She was born in 1900 and never left the county of her birth until after she was married.  She and my great grandfather were wheat farmers.  In addition to growing wheat, they lived off the land raising all their own food, and supplementing it with fishing and hunting.  While their life situation was a bit more secure than those who set out across the prairie only a few generations before, my great grandparents were not all that far removed from that type of life.

The picture of the oxen pulling the covered wagon was passed on to us after her death in 1982.  The flowers and butterfly came to me only two to three years ago.

These pictures were made sometime in the 1950's.  My grandfather, her son, said that she and several of her friends learned to do this together.  I don't know how they learned or who taught them.  I have no idea how they are made.  I did a search on Google, but as it turned out copper is used in a lot of art forms and since I don't know the name of the technique, I found all sorts of different types of artwork but none that looked precisely like this.  If anyone knows anything about it, I'd love to hear from you.

Embroidered Summer Bed Spread

I was rummaging through the linen closet this past week and came across this summer bed spread made by great grandmother. I'm not sure of its age, but I remember seeing it on her bed when we visited her in 1978. I was fourteen years old. 

It appears to be made from a high thread count sheet, that she divided into on-point squares using a fancy stitch on her sewing machine. Then she embroidered the names of the states with the state flower that she had visited. The "states" include "Old Mexico", "Canada", and "Santa Catalina".

It is a perfect weight for a humid, summer Kansas night.  She slept with her windows open.  

Here are close-ups of some of the blocks:

My great grandmother was an incredibly talented woman. She quilted, knitted, crocheted, and embroidered. It is she who inspired me to quilt. I've shown her work on Vintage Thingy Thursday before~a Dresden Plate quilt.

I'm linking up at Suzanne's site, The Colorado Lady, for Vintage Thingy Thursday. Go check out the other cool vintage items people are sharing this week.