Biedler Spinning Wheel - Shenandoah Valley

Biedler Covered Bridge Farm of New Market Virginia

I have no experience spinning or weaving but I couldn't resist this quilt (67x98 from SE Ohio).

Anyone know if there was a published pattern at one time? Or do you think someone just created their own from a silhouette image?

(above) This is the only other spinning-wheel-focused quilt I have seen an image of seen.

The photo above is just one block from a quilt in my collection 

by African American quilt artist Marie Wilson.

This is another Marie Wilson quilt I jut discovered in the April 1987 back issue of Quilters Newsletter magazine. Does anyone know where this quilt resides now?

Why did I buy the spinning wheel quilt (other than the fact that I loved old quilts, period!) Because I inherited a family spinning wheel from 

the Shenandoah Valley before I left Virginia in 2004!

Below is my youngest grandson exploring the old family spinning wheel.

 I am so grateful life took us to Virginia for 15 years, thus enabling me to do primary family research.  I inherited this beautiful object from 101 year Mary Lucille Biedler Piner, a distant cousin.  I discovered her brother Claude Daniel Biedler in Vienna, VA about 1991, which eventually led me to Lucille who lived in Shelby, NC at the time.

 Just above is a photo of Luciile's grandparents, her grandfather being my Grandfather's uncle and her grandmother being the one who originally owned the spinning wheel and from whom Lucille inherited it. This branch of the Biedler family lived near New Market, VA and built the Biedler Covered Bridge in 1895, the last covered bridge in Virginia on private land (not owned by the state) that is still in daily use.  Some of my research on this family was referenced in the book "The Covered Bridges of Virginia" by Leola B. Pierce.

Besides the spinning wheel, I also inherited 15 Farm Ledgers from Lucille about the building and working of the Biedler Covered Bridge Farm from the 1870-1960. The ledgers even list all the men hired to make the bricks right there on the farm and lists all the construction supplies Daniel ordered
from Baltimore.

One or two of the ledgers I have were kept by the women of the family. In those ledgers they recorded the money they made from the selling of their turkeys / chickens / and eggs. I was told that money was theirs to spend as they chose for they hard earned it. It is all great reading if you love studying cultural history!

BELOW: A spinning wheel I found on line that looks very similar to mine.

Here is another photo I found with the parts of the spinning wheel identified and labeled.

You can read more about this family farm here.

So many more things to write about, but it is time to get back to a quilting deadline I have.   I actually don't quilt very often. As much as I love it, I love research and writing even more so that is where I spend most of my time.

Hope you keep files of your own family history for future generations!

Happy Holidays!

Karen

Remembering The Philippines & the Gonzaga Family

Spent all day yesterday scanning a photo album I created so many years ago I can't even count any more. And yet as I look at the photos, the memories come flooding back. Click on the photo to enlarge the view.

Dr. Eduardo Gonzaga and his wife Anita were both graduates of American universities.  Dr. Ed was an an eye surgeon and the President of the Board of Central Philippine University at the time. Auntie, as we called her, was a musician and soloist as well as mother of six.  They were a wonderful couple and made sure we Biedlers had many wonderful and unique (for us) experiences in our 18 months on Panay. Their oldest son Otoniel was born in 1942 so he was just two years older than I.  He was singing even then, just like his mother did. It was wonderful to sing around the piano with those two at the Gonzaga home for I, too, loved to sing and did some solo work at age 15 at special vents while in the Philippines. But I had no idea at that time that Otoniel would go on to become an opera star!  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otoniel_Gonzaga_(tenor_singer)   and http://otonielgonzaga.com/recording.html

One of the most memorable was spending a week on a fish farm on the island of Negros, sleeping in nipa huts, riding carabao and getting up in the middle of the night to help net fish in the fish ponds!  We also hiked back into the mountains to where their extended family had hidden during the Japanese occupation during WWII.

I had always had an affinity for history and geography from about age 10 on. Now as our family traveled the world to and from The Philippines, history came alive before my eyes. WWII came to life as I heard stories from those who had personally lived thru the Japanese occupation of The Philippines. As we family camped across Europe on our way home the summer of 1960, we even saw remnants of some of the devastating bombing that the Allies had imposed upon Germany.

We also saw wonderful museums, ruins of ancient historic cities, and visited people in their homes.

You can read more my clicking thru to my other blog here.

In the 3rd photo of this first scanned page from my album, I am at the far right. On my right stands Otoniel Gonzaga, the oldest son of Uncle Ed and Auntie, who went on to become an opera star.

Otoniel Gonzaga, the eldest son, stands next to me in the photo above.  Otoniel went on to become an opera singer in Europe. Music ran in the family for both his mother as well as his older sister had beautiful voices. Here are a few links if you would like to hear him sing. 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apspYKejHGQ  (1986)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-g4lHqgjdH8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yG51-XIbRPE

Here are recordings with no videos: http://www.otonielgonzaga.com/recording.html

Being exposed to so many different cultures during my teens also introduced me to a great diversity of design and crafts, especially in The Philippines. I still have several yards of handwoven jusi from the Island of Panay as well as the barong that my youngest brother wore. Below Daday, the daughter in the family my age, is dressed in the lovely silk-looking fabric that I remember so well and still have several yards of.

New Deck