Mom’s Handicrafts

I am posting this article on the 100th anniversary of my mom’s birth, February 28, 1923. She entered the heavenly gates shortly after her 90th birthday.

Throughout my childhood my mother sewed. Mostly it was clothes for my sisters and me, sometimes matching, especially for Christmas or Easter. Her sewing machine was a White (although the color was actually black) which had no “bells and whistles,” it just sewed forward and back. There may have been an attachment for making buttonholes but I’m not sure about that. She taught me to sew on that machine and I am forever grateful that, of all the skills she possessed, that is the one she passed on to me. At one time she was employed by a Singer Sewing Center in Waukegan, IL as a sewing instructor and held classes for teenage girls.

 As an adult she still sewed for me on occasion. We had been going square dancing early in our marriage, before starting a family, and so she made me a square dance dress. Then, since my husband Ang had a hard time finding clothes for tall men that were reasonably priced, she made him a suit! Also, besides clothing, she made a card table house for my older daughter Laura as shown.

 While at St. Paul, Round Lake, Mom was the pioneer in establishing the Dorcas Society. A Dorcas society is a local group of people, usually based in a church, with a mission of providing clothing to the poor. Dorcas societies are named after Dorcas (also called Tabitha), a person described in the Acts of the Apostles. This group was founded by missionaries in the early 1800’s in America. The ladies at St. Paul met weekly, enjoying a Bible study with my dad, and then putting together quilts of all sizes and patterns. Sometimes they would get an order for a quilt but most of the time they made them and donated them to the needy. Mom also made several baby quilts when my children were born.

She could also do other needle-crafts such as knitting and crocheting, and I remember at one time she taught herself to do hairpin lace using a special loom. She enjoyed cross-stitch and later did counted cross-stitch projects. Here are some of the items I still have today.

It wasn’t until the 1970’s that she took an interest in the fine arts. I remember her going to a drawing class at the College of Lake County and later became interested in working with watercolors. But I didn’t know she had these items tucked away until I cleaned out her apartment when she entered the nursing home after her stroke.

Sometime in the early ‘80s she discovered the art of china painting and fell in love with it. At first she learned from a teacher but did a lot of experimenting on her own, purchased a small kiln and later another larger one, and eventually taught a class of her own.

After Dad retired from St. Paul in Round Lake, he became the visitation pastor of St. Paul in Muskego, where there was talk of someday a senior condo being built close to the church. My parents, along with other members of the congregation, were very interested in getting in on the ground floor.  So when the building process actually began at Stoney Creek, my mom requested to be able to provide hand-painted tiles for the kitchen and bathroom in their unit. Permission was granted and I’m happy to be able to provide photos of the results. It was lovely!

Mom completed numerous china painted items from plates to trivets, ornaments, vases, and piggy banks. But her biggest endeavor which, thankfully was completed not too long before she suffered her stroke, was painting a tea set for each of her four children and fifteen grandchildren! We are all blessed to have these remembrances from Mom. She easily could have painted and sold items to the public for they were of a professional quality. But she chose not to do that as she wanted to only paint for family and friends. Here are just a few of the tea sets but I will post photos of more of her china painting and other art items on the Gallery page. Please go there and enjoy!

As mentioned above, at one time Mom worked at a Singer Sewing Center and she had a boss there who had a difficult time remembering Mom’s name was Verona. She called her many other names that began with a “V” until Mom said she could just call her Vera. So that is how she got her nickname at 40+ years old and so used that name professionally thereafter.

Hope you enjoyed this post! Thanks for reading it!