52 Ancestors - HOMEMADE: Carrying on the Tradition

I have been the lucky recipient of many family heirlooms passed down to me. Quilts, crocheted doilies, and tables have been featured in several of my blogs already.

Q is for Quilt

D is for Doily

T is for Table

I have also written about what an amazing seamstress my mother was. From doll clothes for Shirley Temple, Barbie, and American Girl to slipcovers, draperies, and bridal gowns, she did it all.

I is for Ideal

Got You Covered

Before Bridezilla Roamed 

The creative gene must be strong in my family. Since retiring, my husband Barry has become interested in woodworking. His father was a finish carpenter by trade, but in his spare time he made little shelves for Barry’s mother’s salt and pepper shaker collection. He also made this coffee table.

Table made by Ervin Mathias

The wood came from trees growing on the family farm in Timberville, Virginia. An ice storm in the late 1970s or early 80s broke branches and damaged trees. Barry’s father cut down poplars, oaks, cedars, walnut trees, and maples. He took them to a sawmill to have the sawyers do whatever it is they do. Then he let the wood dry in an old chicken house. From the various woods, he made Barry and his brothers and sisters each a coffee table with a checkerboard center. No two tables are the same.

The construction of the table is much like a BIG project that Barry and I took on this past spring. Our daughter was drawn to some geometric wood art that kept showing up on Pinterest. Several shops on Etsy sell wood wall art ranging in price from $80 - $500 depending on size, materials, and complexity.

I’m here to say they earn every bit of that price.

This was the inspiration piece.

Our first plan was to use 1x2 wood from Lowes or Home Depot and then stain it in various colors. However, after I figured out how much wood we would need for a 24”x48” board, I realized this thing was going to be too darn heavy.

In a serendipitous moment, a neighbor walked by and saw us in the driveway one day working on some other project. Our neighbor has quite a collection of tools like you see in Ben Napier’s shop on “Home Town.” He gave us LOTS of helpful advice, including where to find ¼” craft wood in a variety of species. We didn’t even know such things exist.

We purchased a nice grade of plywood for the base and then drew the design, numbering each strip to correspond to the wood strips purchased from Ocooch Hardwoods in Wisconsin – maple, walnut, and mahogany. We were able to select the width and thickness saving us from having to rip the wood.

Design drawn on plywood 
and first pieces of wood glued in place

Following our neighbor’s good advice, we started in the middle and glued only a few pieces at a time, allowing an hour or so before adding more. We also left the outer strips long extending beyond the edge of the plywood.

All the strips glued in place.
We stained the center "medallion"
with red mahogany.

The neighbor trimmed the edges with his fancy shmancy table saw.

Trimmed and ready
for finishing touches

I applied 2 coats of sealer.

I rubbed on Danish oil 

Barry made the frame from just plain 1x2 poplar which we stained dark walnut.

 

With completed frame

Complete - 
propped up on our porch just to get 
a picture

We are pretty proud with how it turned out. Oh, there are some places where we had to cheat. Our neighbor warned us that no matter how careful we were, it would not be perfect. And it isn’t.

Finished and hanging
(Grandbaboo loves a ladder!)

I’m not sure it will achieve “family heirloom” status, but it had better not show up at Goodwill. I will come back and haunt somebody! 

Amy Johnson Crow continues to challenge genealogy bloggers and non-bloggers alike to think about our ancestors and share a story or photo about them. The challenge is “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.”

Wendy

© 2021, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.

Sepia Saturday: Group Activities

 Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to share family history through old photographs.

This week’s Sepia Saturday photo focusing on GROUPS prompted me to think about the various groups that I have been a part of – Girl Scouts, clubs in high school, service organizations as an adult. In looking for photos of my relatives and ancestors who enjoyed similar memberships, I remembered a picture of my father-in-law Ervin with his high school graduation class.

Senior Class Mathias High School, Mathias West Virginia
Ervin Mathias is 3rd from left 

Having graduated in a class of about 250, I have to wonder what it was like to attend such a small school. Was there any glory in being valedictorian when there wasn’t much competition? Was there any shame in being last? Did they have a football team? A band? Cheerleaders? 

Ervin’s yearbook informed me that indeed Mathias High School in Mathias, West Virginia offered several extra-curricular activities. He was on the basketball team. Likely the team was much like the one in the movie “Hoosiers” in which the school was so small that all the boys were on the team.

10 names but 11 students 
I wonder which boy was not on the staff.

Ervin was also on the yearbook staff. As typist, he had a very important job. I might be wrong, but it appears each book was created per person. While duplicating machines were available in 1937, were they available to students in Hardy County, West Virginia? I do not know. The yearbook is clearly not professionally produced. In fact, the senior photos look like they were cut out and glued in place.

A page from the yearbook

The yearbook is a crude little production, but its very existence is a testimony to those qualities that cannot be measured with test scores.

Please join the group over at Sepia Saturday for more old photos, stories, and group fun.

Wendy

© 2020, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.

A to Z April Challenge: T is for Table

This is a continuation of LAST APRIL’s challenge about HEIRLOOMS. When my sister and I cleaned out our parents’ home, we had to make many decisions about what to do with all the stuff. Which things are truly “valuable” and which have only sentiment in their favor? Should we sell it, keep it, or throw it away? To help ensure a future for our family’s heirlooms, I plan to leave a booklet for my daughters telling the stories of what they will inherit one day. (Not TOO soon, I hope!)

is for Table, but not just any table. This one was built by my father-in-law, Ervin Mathias. The wood came from trees growing on the mountain on the family farm in Timberville, Virginia. An ice storm in the late 1970s or early 80s broke branches and damaged trees. Ervin cut down poplars, oaks, cedars, walnut trees, and maples. He took them to a sawmill to have the sawyers do whatever it is they do. Then he let the wood dry in an old chicken house.

From the various woods he made Barry and his brothers and sisters each a coffee table with a checkerboard center. No two tables are the same.

I love the story of this table, but from the moment we received it, I have feared that a child would fall into it. Those corners are sharp. Heck, all the edges are sharp. It’s the table of death. But it will always have a proud spot in our family room.

Wendy

© 2019, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.