Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Appalchian Culture

This is a really cool site for anyone who is at all interested in the culture of the Appalachian Mountains. http://www.aca-dla.org/ There is a huge section of downloadable music with recordings as early as the 1920's and 30's up until now. I am always thrilled when I find some song that I've heard in Newfoundland that is the same as one from the mountain culture. The two places share the same basic genetic make up; both areas were setteled largely by people from the British Isles; and then both areas were so isolated for most of their history that a lot of the folk ways have a similarity that you don't see in other areas. One of the people who recognized that was Professor MacEdward Leach; he collected folk songs from both areas in the 50's. There is a site put up by the Memorial University of Newfoundland with excerpts from those songs.http://www.mun.ca/folklore/leach/ The differences and the sameness of both cultures is very fascinating to me. I have been back to Newfoundland as an adult a few times, but I haven't been back to the South since I was about 14 or so. Chris wants to go; he loves the South; and he suggested we could go on a fishing trip through all the states the Haydens settles in. We'd start in Virginia, go to North Carolina, then Tennesee, Mississippi, and end in Arkansas. It would be really cool, that's for sure.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Pictures



Ok, here are pictures of the skirt I just listed, and Ms. Josette with the stash swap goodies. I think the flowered fabric will be her easter dress, and the cute little Scottie dog print is going to be a beach romper.

Today I am working on turning a t-shirt into a sleeveless wrap top and making a skirt to match it out of a black and white cotton print.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Geneaology

I have been doing some research on my dad's family, and am just having a great time with it. I didn't know much about it, and while the line of dad's grandmother on the Hayden side was pretty easy to trace, the actual Haydens are giving me a bit more trouble. I'm still not totally sure about the research on that side; the only clues I had to go on was that dad's grandfather stated in the US census of 1880 that he was born in Mississippi, and that his dad was born in Alabama and his mom in Tennessee. As it turns out, I think the info was the other way around, or else the censor taker entered it wrong. It took me a long time to actually figure it out; I have been working on this off and on for the last 3 or 4 years. It would have been easy to mix up because one of the counties mentioned is in Alabama and is very near the border of the two states.Anyway, I only had some rough dates, the places mentioned and an alternate spelling of the last name. When the census was taken Jesse Mack, (that was my dads grandpa's name) spelled his last name Haden. There was no Y in the name.I took that info over to the LDS genealogy site (the Mormons may be crazy, but when it comes to ancestors you gotta love 'em) and spent hours pouring through Hayden, Haden, Haddon, even Heiden and it finally paid off. I could only find one Haden in Tennessee with the right dates. Luckily it was another census record, and he gave his parents as being born in North Carolina. I had to do another search, although this was a shorter one because someone else had already done some of the work for me. It became apparent pretty quickly that there had been at least 2 Hayden/Haden families that settled America really early; one came through Massachusetts, and one through Virginia. I suspected we were through Virginia, and I was right. I'm stuck now though; I'm back to Norfolk, England in 1645 and someone else is saying that one of the Massachusetts Haydens is the father of my Haden; and while that would fit the info I have already as far as the dates go, the next generation does not fit at all; there's no mention that my many times great-grandfather was a son of that Hayden. My research makes me think we are descendants of the Norfolk England Haydens and we didn't come to America til the late 1600's or early 1700's. The Mass. Haydens were here in the early 1600's, at least the earliest date I've seen for them is 1630. I have to mention how much easier all this is to keep track of now that I have a family tree program. I'm making a hard copy too, though, because if something ever happens and I loose all my info I would be really upset.
I also got my stash package from the stash swap. I haven't taken any pics because my camera was dead again. I'm going to do that later today and post the pics to my group. One of the fat 1/4's is vintage and will make a perfect Easter dress for Josette; the other has little Scottie dogs and is soooo cute. I'm going to make her a little summer outfit out of that; maybe a beach romper. There's some really pretty eyelet that I am going to use on the Easter dress, and some tiny white buttons.
Chris auditioned for a band that he really wanted to be in, and they called him to be in it! He's pretty excited because they play Allmann Bros like music, and that's what he loves.

Friday, February 06, 2009

Thrift Store Trip






Sio and I went to the thrift store today. I haven't been for awhile, and it was a nice profitable trip. I got some fabric and the most I ended up paying was $1.50 for almost 4 yds of a yellow floral print. I got about 2 1/2 yds of a white on white print for $1.50, and almost 2 yds of a heavy cotton I'm going to use for placemats. I also got a yard of a red/cream cotton quilt print to add to my quilting stash. I might not have bought the yellow but Sio liked it. I also got a pretty green and peach 30's looking print that I might use for Josette.

I picked up 2 shirts that I am going to combine to try and make a dress. The body of the dress will be the grey shirt and I'm going to add length with the navy with grey paisleys. I'm going to cut the sleeves short and scoop the neck, and trim both in the paisley print. I'll add elastic at the waist to bring it in a bit. If it turns out the way I see it, it will be really cute.

Sio and I picked up 5 funny and/or cool t-shirts that will be turned into something else except for the one she is holding, that one she's going to keep and wear. I will probably make at least one bag, and then I don't know what else.

I also got another shirt with a sun and moon, a pair of jeans which are going to be turned into a ruffled tiered patchwork skirt, and a fake suede embroidered belt which I'm going to turn into at least one headband.

And lastly, I got a bunch of thread on wooden spools, and a book published in 1971 called The Gentle Needlearts.