wanted: thieves of a bronze age mini skirt

i've actually shared these shots with you previously. but i just learned that back in september, this replica of the egtved pige's (egtved girl) clothing was stolen from a display at her grave near egtved (a little town not too far from where we live). it's a copy of the clothing found on her that was painstakingly reconstructed in 1980-81 by susanne magelund, using the sort of materials and methods that the original garment had been made of.

the good news is that the weaving group at my favorite little museum in randbøldal is going to take on the project of constructing a new version of the clothing during 2013. if i get my act together and go there a bit more often, i may even get to be part of the process! (and i might try to convince them to make an extra skirt for me - i still think that's a pretty cool design and i do like me a short skirt.)

i think it's magical that there are groups of volunteers who have both the notion and the guts to take on such a project. the original dress, which is safe in the national museum in copenhagen is 3300 years old and one of the best-preserved textiles of its kind ever found. it's pretty awesome that a group of people with equal measures of passion and curiosity want to undertake duplicating such an amazing garment.

but boo to those jerks who stole it. i suppose they thought it was the original and would be worth a lot of money. i imagine when they found out it wasn't, that they callously threw it away somewhere. it's such a shame.

egtvedpigen: a bronze age babe

back in 1921, a farmer named Peter Platz was removing a burial mound (this one) on his property when he came across a very old oak casket. he had the sense to stop the removal and write a letter to the national museum in copenhagen. it was february and rather cold, so the museum had some trouble getting someone to go over and check it out. eventually, they did send someone and they discovered the body of a young girl within the casket. and peter realized it was so important that he put the mound back and even erected a memorial stone to her.

she had died at the age of about 18 in 1370 B.C. and is one of the best bronze age finds ever. tho' there wasn't much left of her actual body, her clothing was remarkably well-preserved. tho' this is a replica of her dress, not the real thing. there were some well-preserved birch bark items in the casket with her and disturbingly some burned bones from a 5-6 year old child as well.  there is a lot of speculation about what happened and whether it was some kind of ritual or cult sacrifice, but truth be told, we'll likely never know. i do like imagining her life, tho', especially since she was wearing such a cool outfit.

the real casket, what's left of the girl and the real clothing are in the national museum in copenhagen, but on the site where she was found near egtved (not far from where we live) is a little teeny tiny museum. it's surprisingly informative and features this wonderful replica of her clothing. a woven top in natural wool in brownish tones, belt with a large bronze decorative "shield" and quite a hot little mini skirt in a design i would seriously not mind wearing.

with the dress in a glass case and poor lighting in the building, my pictures aren't great, but i had to share, it's such a stylish and quite timeless design. if i could manage to knit or crochet or otherwise make things with yarn, i'd try to duplicate it. the top is woven, probably on a loom and is also so stylish. the skirt is one long piece that wraps around twice and has a woven waistband to which the "fringes" are attached - they're also bound together at the bottom. there was some evidence in the grave that she had had some kind of woven leggings on as well, but they are not preserved. but a 3300 year-old miniskirt. now that's what i call retro fashion.

family heirlooms

when i was home over the summer, i rummaged around in my parents' basement and found a treasure trove. a whole stack of finished quilts and half a dozen quilt tops which were sewn by hand by my great grandmother back in the 40s. mom says she remembers her grandma annie, who was ill and in bed at the time, sitting with stacks of squares, hexagons and also those beautiful yoyos (which i showed previously), just sewing away all day. now that's something i could get into - hanging out in bed (read: wearing pajamas)and sewing all day.

double wedding ring in purple - this one is my favorite (other than the yoyo)

i think what surprises me most is how vibrant, fresh and modern these are for being 70-80 years old. the fabrics my great grandmother chose would be something i would choose myself today. i believe it's a mix of flour sacks, old clothing and new fabrics (new in her time, of course). i think it proves that quilting is somehow timeless.

i remember using this one as a child and there are some frayed bits here and there that show its been loved.
it's also a bit more faded than the others.

i can see that there is a big difference between these, which are all hand-stitched and hand-quilted and the quilts i've made by machine today. i'm not sure that what i've done are heirlooms in the same sense as these are. i think my impatience enters into the picture and i want to quickly see a result. i need to learn from these to take my time. it certainly appears that it's worth it in the end.

hexagons - this one unfortunately has been up against a rusty grate and has some rust stains on it.
it's also been used and the edges are quite frayed. my grandmother must have used it.

i don't think i'll be going to quite the same level of detail on the bindings i tackle as the one on this hexagon quilt. and the binding is actually a bit frayed and needs replacing. but for me, binding is always the biggest challenge. i have a number of quilts which are "finished" except for the binding, which i guess means they're not finished at all.

what i'd love to know is whether my great grandmother did the quilting herself or if she had a group of ladies who got together and did the quilting. and how on earth, once she was bed-ridden, did she lay out these beautiful patterns? was it all just in her head and she pulled one square from one stack and one from another and sewed it as she went along - that's what my mother remembers. mom also remembers that her aunt had some of them quilted by a local quilting group, so it may be that my grandmother didn't do the finished quilting on all of these herself. they're large - at least queen-sized, all of them, so i think quilting would have been difficult without a frame of some sort.

in any case, i'm really happy to have them in my home and it makes me so happy to be using them. i'm pondering how to tackle the three finished tops i brought back as well - i simply must quilt them by hand to do honor to my great grandmother's work. but that seems a bit of a daunting job. maybe i can find a way to marry 20th and 21st centuries, but i'm still pondering that.

weaving the past or a treasure trove of historical threads

husband bought me a loom yesterday. i don't have it home yet and it was just a pile of what appeared to be sticks and other mysterious bits lying on the floor in a basement, so it wasn't really worth photographing yet anyway. it's a 130cm wide lervad loom, an old one, but it's been well-used and well-loved and many a beautiful thing has been created on it. we bought it from a lovely lady who is nearly 80 and who was a member of my weaving group for years. she said she's painting now and doesn't have time or inclination to weave anymore (isn't that a marvelous reason?), so that's why she was selling it. lucky me! along with it, she had a box of binders and a basket of weaving yarn. we had room for that box in the car, so we took that much with us. we'll go back with a trailer when the weather gets better and pick up the loom itself. at first, the binders looked a bit uninteresting, but then last evening, we took a closer look. and we discovered treasure beyond belief.

the binders contain countless weaving patterns and weaving exercises and samples of things she wove over the years. many of the pages are from courses where it was clear that patterns were distributed as hand-written mimeograph copies - so they have that characteristic purple ink and that old familiar smell that takes me back to the 3rd grade (in a good way), but they're in some sweet lady's handwriting. it is simply a priceless historical record of the countless things woven by the lovely lady who owned my loom. taking advantage of a bit of sunshine today, i photographed the contents of one of the binders:

she had carefully noted patterns and yarn samples and accompanying many of the pages are woven samples of the patterns in various different materials. sabin wanted to appropriate some as furnishings for her littlest pet shop, but we discussed how important these are as historical artifacts and now she knows her LPS are not going to have fine carpets anytime soon. there are about 10 binders in all, an absolute treasure trove of 30 years of weaving in denmark. i find it unbelievable that this treasure came with my loom. i'm going to see if i can have them bound into proper books by a bookbinder. and they will have a place of honor in the new blue room, wherever it may be. it just seems like such an invaluable resource.

here are some samples from just one of the notebooks...

i think this may be the very best combined anniversary-valentine's day-upcoming birthday present ever. thank you husband and thank you lovely lady who let me buy your loom.