Wee Jasper Journal Pages - ( pre Creative Awakening)

 collaged & stitched pages for the "wee jasper journal" showing photos of "Nell".

 two "cretonne" hand sewn pot holders made by my great grandmother, "Nell".(they still have the black soot marks on them from the black kettle that hung from a hook over the open fireplace).
"Nell" in her younger days.

 i have been stitching the paper pages onto fabric & making tabs which will be used to secure all the pages when they are completed.

an excerpt from the journal:
 "her name was Ellen Mary but she was known as "Nell".
to me she was nana grace, my great grandmother. she lived in a small house built by the men in her family, from timber cut from the bush. (this was also my first home).
the floors were dirt, the walls were papered with newspaper & magazine pages to keep the draughts out.
no running water, it was carried in kerosene tin buckets from the river.
no electricity. kerosene lamps & candles provided light, we went to bed early!
there was a fuel stove & an open fire in the kitchen, which was the dining, living area, no lounge room.
washing up was done in a dish with boiling water from the black kettle that was always on the fire, & sunlight soap.
her days were filled with work. washing was done in a copper tub with a fire underneath to boil the water. the clothes & linen were moved around with a long stick & when they were clean, lifted out steaming with the stick & had to cool before they could be wrung out by hand & hung on the line with the long prop in the middle to keep the line up.
a blue bag was added the water to make the whites whiter!
she had a vegetable garden, fruit trees, & a flower garden. chooks, turkeys, dogs & cats & cows for milk. she made her own jams, pickles & preserves & still found time to make clothes & furnishings  & she sewed her own aprons from calico with embroidered "crinoline ladies", also tablecloths, doilies & potholders etc.
next to the fireplace there was a small window & hanging at the window were curtains made from a pink floral that nana grace called "cretonne". i have two worn tattered potholders made from those curtains.
her "waste not, want not " ways have stayed with me.
(raylee).