Ceder Creek Reenactment

Hey everyone!

I know I have not been posting pictures and posts consistantly for the past few weeks. I got a call last Sunday night from a dear family friend and ended up being able to help them take care of their 13 year old daughter and meet their new adopted 2 week old son. We went to the hospital last monday to pick up their son and it was really a miracle that he has gotten into their arms. You can be praying for them, the birth father could show up at anytime. But for now he is theres.

Before all of that happened and I was with them till wednesday helping we went to a reenactment. My sister and I and our friends all went dressed up but we did not camp. Usually our family does camp at events, but my parents could not go, so all of girls went for the day.

 So we were able to watch battle on Saturday for the first time in 3 years for my sister and I! We usually are encamped and have plenty of cooking, teaching, and sewing to do, but we had no encampment to go to so we did all the things spectators usually get to do. It was a wonderful relaxed day.

 The whole group is us watching as the battle got going. It really was a sight, considering it was on the original battlefield! That makes it even more amazing!

 With all the smoke from all the weapons we had to cover our faces in order for our eyes not to hurt. :)

 The one picture I have with me in it. :) I was taking so many photos I was not thinking of getting myself in them. :) Thanks to Hannah I think for the photo. I have a new shawl that is my mothers I wore this event that I quite like with my silk gown. :)

 Taking off their hats in respect for the dead. :) Now of course no one was actually hurt in the depiction of the battle. :)

All of us barely fit in our SUV! All 7 of us were very squished. :) But that is ok because we love each other. All those petticoats barely fit. :)

Then Sunday we got a better earlier start than saturday and went down to a lovely creek and had a picnic together under the old trees.

 It was beautiful and very picturesque! I bet that the trees have been here since the civil war or before that. They were so old!

I have pictures from recipes I have made and pictures of another reenactment we did encamp at 2 weeks ago. Coming soon!

In Christ,
Rebecca

What has been under my fingers?

 The start of a penny rug has been under my fingers these past 2 days. A friend of mine told me about this frugal and useful thing that you can do with old wool scraps and peices of old wool coats and pants and dresses. During the Civil War and even before the civil war women made these penny rugs out of scraps as useful items for their families. They recieved their name Penny rug because they would use pennies as templates to cut out the wool circles. They also were penny penching projects that took little money and were useful.

 They used these rugs as decorative table runners and cloths as well as cushions for chairs and also as floor rugs. I read one account online of a women making a new rug usually once a year to go in front of the front door in their home. This way they could wipe their feet before entering the home. They were also used as mats to put on the table underneath your candle stick holder or lantern so that wax would drip onto the penny rug instead of your lovely table. Mine will be decorative as well as useful at civil war events and at home to put hot dishes on top of, or a lantern, or just look pretty.

 My penny rug is made out of circles of old wool from many garments we have made over the 3 years we have done reenacting and also from modern wool projects. I barely even dented the wool scrap bag and I have a wool penny table runner. :)

 I am currently doing a blanket stitch around each circle on each penny. This will take a few more evenings and then I will attach them to an old peice of canvas for the backing. Its been documented they used old feed sacks or canvas or any other old peice of material for the back. They did not waste precious wool for the backing because it was precious and would only be used for things to be seen on the penny rugs.

I got all my documentation and information from the following sources.Early Style Penny Rugs and   Penny Rug crafts history of the penny rug and A Story book life blog and  few other places I could not remember. There were no actual pictures of antique penny rugs, just pictures of reproductions that I could find. But I am sure that many ladies would have done any design they had enough wool for or fit there fancy. So I cannot say my design is 100% accurate for the 1860s time period.

Well I am off to do more blanket stitching on my penny rug to finish it in time for saturdays reenactment as a sample of what these would look like while I demonstrate how to make one. Thanks to Mrs. Wilcox for sharing with me this wonderful craft!

In Christ,
rebecca

Battle of Vienna 150th anniversary

Hi everyone! I have been very very busy as of late enjoying these summer days that seem to be going by so so quickly! We did the reenactment that was really close by our home right before we left to see my family right now in Alaska. So here are some photos from the event of me and my family. It was just my family and I for the weekend event because the rest of our living history group had other commitments such as family passing away and adoption. So it was different just our family setting up both of our flys and tents. But it was a great experience and a blessing!

My sister Bethany above quilting with one of our friends. This is the quilt I made with her this past year and now we are quilting at each reenactment we go to little by little.

Me again in front of our encampment cooking some apple fritters. They are sort of similar to pancakes, except much thicker. They stand alone and taste great for a great snack or lunch or breakfast. We were able to try out our flat cast iron skillets for the first time over the open fire. We use them all the time at home over our modern gas stove, but this was the first time over the open fire out of doors. I love doing cooking demonstrations and many people did not even know much about using cast iron and the curing process or that you need to grease them with butter or coconut oil or lard in order to cook with them. I love teaching about how they lived in the 1860s!

Some little boys that came to the event with their parents and grandparents bought some of our signal flag sets at the event. They seemed to enjoy getting their photo done by yours truly. :) It was fun seeing them learn to signal with my dad!

You can see in the front of our encampment our table where we sold many homemade goods we made from scratch. Such as soaps, linens, aprons, and bonnets, and the signal flag sets. You can buy all of these items off of our website called Vienna Woods Historical Reproductions. Its in my favorite websites list here on my blog.

You can see my dad in action above teaching some children and their mom about the telegraph and how it was the main way of communication between the lines of battle during the civil war. Besides letters it was the main way to get messages between the different troops. You can go to our website called The Magnetic Telegraph Co. to see more photos, its also in my favorite websites list on the side bar. I will be posting photos of our alaska adventures as soon as I can! The internet is pretty slow here so its slow going getting them all uploaded to blogger. Soon, I will get them up!

Hope you all are being encouraged and the Lord is giving you many times of seeing His promises kept.

In Christ,
Rebecca

May Secession Vote Reenactment

 Hello everyone! I have been so so busy, life is so full, but I wanted to share with you all a reenactment my family did in May in our hometown. It was a secession vote reenactment of when the confederate states seceded from the Union. My family went and set of camp and participated as civilians as usual, except this time we actually acted as citizens of the town. We were not allowed to have a camp fire, so we brought sandwhiches and other period food that did not need to be cooked. My sister and I above are quilting the quilt I posted about earlier this year. We are finally getting it finished. :)
My sister and I have also put pictures on our website here of things we are selling-www.viennawoodsrepros.com
So please do go and see what we are up to! There are aprons, bonnets, soap, and many more items we have made with care on there! They are all based off of what you would have used in the civil war period. So what fun to have something that was similar to what would have been used in time for the 150th anniversary of the war! :)

My dad telling about the telegraph and how it was used instead of cell phones or computers to communicate intelligence information to the different armies. It was also used to send the results of the secession votes to Richmond, which was the capital then.

We also had a lot of children and teens to tell about quilting. Here is one photo we got me showing a gal how to thread a needle and quilt the quilt. We try to be very hands on with our demonstrations of period life. So why not have the spectators in on sewing the quilt?!

My mother above manning our table where we were selling period items we made such as slat bonnets, aprons, signal flags, and soap.

Overall it was a lovely day! Wonderful weather and lots of people that were very interested in the history of the american civil war. I just came home sunday with my family from the HEAV homeschool convention of VA. It was wonderful! We are gearing up for another reenactment friday and saturday and then we leave to go and see my grandparents. Hence the reason for sparatic blog posts. I am so glad to be able to finally share with you all the Secession vote pictures. All of these were not done by me, a nice gentleman also did some of these and I don't have his name to give him credit, but they are amazing aren't they! For once I was in the photos, since I usually do pictures when there are no other people to do it.

Yes Civil war photos of my family again!

Hello everyone!

At an event in gettysburg, PA in november a good friend of ours was willing to do some professional photos of my family in period clothing. She did a great job don't you think?!

 You can see the braiding I did on my paletote recently as well. I had made the paletote last year but never got around to the braiding until this year. :) Its cotten braiding from abrahams lady.

Sisters, sisters!

You can also see my wool/silk blend dress in the above photo, especially the sleeves Beth and I drafted in August and I finished the dress in october. Go figure! It sat for months untouched, because the pleating of the waist was so frustrating to me. But I got it done in time for our first event of the season in october. Now its been worn 4 times! I love this dress! my favorite one out of the 4 I own from the period. I am also wearing my first knitting project I ever did back in september wool cuffs. they are purple!

This photo was done this weekend at a friends house that was a hospital during the civil war and we were able to stay and they had a christmas civil war social as well as attended with dancing and all. But I don't have photos because I forgot my camera at their house! So this photo will have to suffice from our friend who is a professional photographer. I believe I look shocked or scared or something in this photo. But oh well!

Modern photos of my family sometime in the future Lord willing!

In Christ,
Rebecca

Harpers Ferry, VA Christmas 1861

Hey everyone! I have not posted very regularly I am aware! So I thought I would let you all in on some of what I have been up to when I am not studying, sewing, singing, or playing christmas music. We went to harpers ferry for a christmas civil war event last saturday. It was great fun and we had lots of new friends come along with us as well! Here are some of the photos all them done by myself and friends with our new camera. Woohoo! We did pictures with our own camera at an event. a first in a long while!

 we found this old abandoned house and it was perfect for photos of all the gals!

 getting to the house was a feat! over all these walls and rails!

 We played red rover and were quite silly! It was great as we were little women as we had big women and little women. It was fun playing in our big hoops and all the petticoats.

 Our friend even ripped her dress playing the game! It was great for memories but not so much for her as she had to pin herself the rest of the day so her dress did not fall apart!

 The fire place above in the little abandoned house.

 All the older gals and myself, you can sort of see the new trim I put on my coat recently. It was fun doing all the braiding!

 The bridge we had to cross to get to the old house and we did not get photos of the historical town we were staying in unfornately! I forgot! So we only have pictures of us in modern places. but that is alright right?!

 All going along singing christmas carols and skipping as we went!

 Here is the whole crew!

and yes I look quite funny skipping in my cage! lol

have a wonderful rest of your tuesday evening and I am back to sewing christmas gifts and then off to bed!

In Christ,
Rebecca