November 21, 2016

Peeper's Patterns-Goodbye Lie Diaries


Fernandina on Amelia Island, Florida
Late 1800s

Grandmother Peeper writes:  From these here photographs Jane Marie helped put on this blog a hers, you can easy see what I dun. This is how it happened. I was asittin' on the front veranda at Dunnigan Manor.  That's where I live.  So, I saw some leaves blow across the drive and recalled a thing me and my ma dun when I was a wee child.  I dumped my knittin' from the pine needle basket I wove when Marie was a babe, got myself down them steps some how, what with my bad feet hurtin' somethin' fierce this day, gathered all kind a different leaves and began my project ta make a table scarf.
    I found a bit of muslin material I had left from cuttin' a test pattern fur Breelin's garden print dress last season.  I drawed me a rectangle ta fit the table, long-ways, cut it out, hemmed the edges and then headed out ta  Clover's workbench in the barn in the back.  I brushed away the sawdust ta make it nice and clean.  Then I laid out them leaves in  as pretty a pattern as you ever seen.  Very careful like, I laid the material over top, so as not to disturb the pattern with them leaves amovin'.  After that, I took a hammer and pounded the juice outa them leaves.  The leaf juice is what stains
Peeper
the muslin, like grass stains the children get on them sailor suits they wear.

   Go on now and make yourself a leaf pattern table cloth or use it fur a quilt backin'.   It's very great fun fur adults and little ones.  Just be atakin' care that nobody hits their finger with the hammer.

   P.S.  Even though this is a stained pattern,  it is best ta iron the leaf marks so they don't fade much when ya get ta laundering your beautiful creation.
     

For Info and Purchase of The Goodbye Lie historical series on Amelia Island, Florida, click this link!