Here are two of my favorite embroidery pieces that were probably done my great-great aunt Anna Marie Wedin who was a highly skilled needlewoman. These are exquisite pieces -- the colors as brilliant as when they were first created. The background is a plush crimson-maroon velvet and the threads are chenille -- which give a raised texture to the flowers. The golden rod is very feathery and almost looks as if it is about to send out its seeds. I am not certain what they were intended for -- perhaps panels for a quilt? a pair of flowers suitable for framing? Or maybe she was simply amusing herself -- creating the pieces like a sampler for something more ambitious that has long since disappeared.
Here are a couple more photos of Anna -- she was lovely, never married (her younger sister, my great-grandmother beat her to the punch which in those days spelled "spinsterhood" for the elder sister), taught all subjects including music at the Hobart School in Valley City, North Dakota, and probably taught the confirmation classes at the church. Below is a photograph of my great-great aunt and my great-great grandmother (probably the two figures in the middle, Anna on the right -- we aren't absolutely sure) along with two other cousins experiencing the debut of "ice cream cones" at the St. Louis Worlds Fair, 1904. And below that photo is one of Anna --either with her Hobart students or her confirmation class.
