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August 20, 2010

Old Sturbridge Village & Fiday Night Sew In

Summer is winding down for me, I'll go back to work on the 30th of this month poor, poor, me.  On Tuesday my girlfriend and I went to Old Sturbridge Village. It  museum that reflects life in New England during the !790's through the 1840's.  It's a living museum with many of the old crafts in full swing.  I took some pictures unfortunately, I failed to charge my camera before I left so the pictures are all from my blackberry, needless to say that the picture quality is not so good but interesting any way. We saw some very interesting thing including some you ladies dying wool using natural ingredients... didn't get a picture of that, but I did take some of...
This is the room they make and store cheese... rather stinky
Typical country meal of the late 1700's or early 1800's..
see the black dots? Can ya guess what they are?
Yup  you guessed it..
FLIES ! Yummy...
The food and the table was covered with the pesky little critters.
 Kind of a understand why there was so much illness back in the good ol' days.
My friend, Sue, checking out the inside of the huge kiln
They man who was making pots to go inside the kiln
pots before they are fired and glazed
Pots or brown ware after they were fired and glazed.
It sure was hot that day....
even for the poor piggies... it was so dry that there wasn't any mud  for them to wallow in.
Melinda, my friend, I was thinking about you...
We took a spin in this fancy smancy stage coach.. This coach ran from Worcester Massachusetts to Hartford Connecticut (approximately 70 to 80 miles)  in about twelve hours. Let me tell you that this was not a comfortable ride and we were just ambling it was stiff and you could feel every bump. They told us that normally it would travel twice as fast OUCH!
These young ladies were giving a demonstration about how two brothers discovered how to make a hot air balloon by using heat from a fire not the smoke. They used this little chimney and a tissue paper balloon, filled it up, let it go and it promptly flew into an very tall tree.
We only saw on quilt. Notice the ropes at the foot of the bed, these were used before spring, the mattress was filled with straw. I sat on one ... not very comfortable, but I guess better than a rough wool blanket thrown over a pallet of straw on the floor.
By the way my mother was born at home in a bed very similar to  it. She just gave it to my sister.
Notice the wall paper it is a replica of the way it was mass produced  Massachusetts, it is block stamped.
There is a fabric line I think  it's call the Sturbridge Village Collection, it is inspired from this village and the textile and wall paper from this time era.
 And speaking about quilts .. tonight is Friday Night Sew In  so I better get to it!!

6 comments:

Barb said...

Truly enjoyed this post....thanks!

Sandra Henderson said...

I LOVE living history museums! Thank you so much for sharing these photos. Judie Rothermel did that Sturbridge Village line, I'm pretty sure. She's a nice lady and is always with her husband at the show here in Sept. The fabrics are gorgeous! I think she went through their archives and reproduced them, so they are accurate. What a beautiful museum! I know you enjoyed your day. Love your photos!!!

Sinta Renee said...

Great post! My grandfather was a pot maker. I have great memories of being in a place that looked much like that!

Unknown said...

I love to visit places like this...I love history and finding out how people lived. So much work it took....amazing.

Shawkl said...

Loved this post! An interesting piece of info I learned at a history museum about rope beds. The ropes would frequently "give" and have to be tightened...and the mattresses were commonly filled with tree moss or corn husks...which drew bugs. Hence the beginning of the saying "Sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite!"

Kathy
www.shawkldesigns.com (website)
www.shawkl.com (blog)

Patty C. said...

This was an interesting post - The quilt is beautiful but I don't think I would like the straw bed