Last Wednesday evening, Grace and I had a wonderful time visiting with a dear 99 year old Grandma of some homeschooling friends of ours. We were suppose to be "Granny-sitting" but it really just turned out to be a lovely time of talking and listening and learning from this dear old lady. A few months back when I was trying to learn how to Tat, she was the only person I could find that knew how, and helped me learn how to drop the left hand so the knot would flip, the one step that I just couldn't figure out. Here is a cross bookmark that I made so you can see what tatting looks like . . . . . . . .
Grandma Perry was born in 1906, and grew up on a large farm. Her family worked 300 acres of land, and raised their own chickens for meat and eggs, and made their own butter from the milk cows that they owned. She recalls that when they had hired hands come to work, her mother would bake 9 loaves of bread, every other day. Her very favorite thing was the heel from a just- baked loaf of bread, slathered with freshly churned butter! She went to school in a one room school house, and there she learned how to Tat. During the noon hour, her teacher would be tatting up at her desk, and Grandma would hurry through her lunch, so that she could watch. Soon she was learning how to make the pretty rings and picots, and has been tatting gorgeous edgings, doilies, necklaces, and other decorative things ever since. She also taught herself to Crochet, and has innumerable doilies scattered around her room, as well as many afghans draping her chairs. But her prize possession is a full sized Quilt that she pieced and quilted by hand. She told us that in the 30's, when her children were small, she would put them to bed and then work for hours on this quilt, carefully stitching together hundreds of tiny pieces. She also made a quilt for each of her grandchildren when they got married. She said that her hands were never idle, and her collection of beautiful handiwork is evidence of that for sure.
We ended the night with a few rousing games of Dominoes, then headed home, thankful for this dear old lady and others like her, who do so much to inspire this younger generation to better, and more useful things. God bless you Grandma Perry!
Love,
Faith <><
