First Rug on the Last Page: Poppies and Larkspurs

For four generations, the women in my family have loved spending any free time they could find in their busy lives quilting, embroidering, hooking, and braiding.  My great-grandmother was an especially gifted quilter, leaving to her great-granddaughters many beautiful bedspreads—tiny squares stitched perfectly together

In her dining room hung a popular painting of poppies. It was given to her by her sister, my Aunt Elizabeth, a single woman who worked as a nurse at Bamberger’s department store in Newark, New Jersey. The painting is by Max Streckenbach, a German artist (born 1865, died 1936) who was well-known for his colorful paintings of still lifes, especially poppies. His paintings were sometimes featured on the cover of Better Homes and Gardens magazine. The painting later hung in my mom’s living room.