Historic Family Stitcheries: Part 2

Many Canadians can trace their heritage to family that travelled from the UK to settle here and make a new life for themselves.  I am one of these Canadians.  My ancestors came to Canada from Scotland with the proper name of Armstrong, however, there are other Scottish and English surnames in my history that are well known today such as McKay and Hoyle.

You may remember some surprises I received in the mail earlier in February from my Mom...  Well, the second of the two stitcheries arrived this week.  It is older than the first, and is quite a bit more worse for wear.  There was obviously a time in its life when it was not taken care of as well as it could have been.  So far it's a mystery as to why or how the damages occurred, likely just plain old age is a big part of it!

This piece will be 200 years old in just two years.  That blows me away!  I love the details the stitcher added to the outside edges as borders.  And at age nine!  No one I know at age nine could stitch like this!

After the first heirloom arrived, I had to dig out the family tree information I was willed from my Great Aunt to try and discover who these young ladies were.  The older piece, at 198 years, that arrived secondly was stitched by my Great Aunt Helen Todd six generations back (my 5x Great Aunt).  The younger of the stitcheries, at 160 years old, was made by my 3x Great Grandma, Ellen Hayhurst 5 generations back).  Both of these are through my Mother's family line, through her Mother (my Grandma).

Heather

Berna Zaharia (my Mom) + Ryan van Vliet (my Dad)

John Zaharia (my Grandpa) + Mildred Armstrong (my Grandma)

Ellen Hoyle (Mildred's Mom) + William Armstrong

Alice Holding (Ellen's Mom) + Robert Hoyle

Ellen Hayhurst (Alice's Mom) + Peter Holding

Mary Ann Todd (Ellen's Mom) + Stephen Hayhurst

Helen Todd is Mary Ann Todd's sister

After figuring all of this out, I decided I would like to make a pattern for the Ellen's creation.  I wasn't sure what to do about re-creating the fabric and finding the correct colours of embroidery floss, so I took it to my favourite stitching store, The Stitching Corner, in Cochrane (Alberta of course).

We quickly figured out that DMC brand was not going to work at all.  This makes sense since the piece is from the UK and the brand used there is Anchor - even all those years ago.  Once we pulled out the Anchor palette of threads, the choosing became much easier.

With the help of Betty (one of the shop owners), we decided that there were eight colours used, with the most prominent being the red.  Once the red was chosen it was easier to match the other shades of green, blue, and neutral.  Now to the task of getting out the graph paper and colouring in the squares where stitches have been made to come up with some sort of pattern to replicate.

In other fun news, the two geese that make the pond across from our house their home each year returned today!  They are early this year though, it's usually April before they appear.

Heather