A Gold Medal and Gifts

Several members of our Scandinavian Weavers group entered pieces in the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum exhibit this summer – and won ribbons! Congratulations to Patty Kuebker-Johnson, Keith Pierce, Jane Connett, Sharon Marquardt, and Veronna Capone.  Veronna also received enough ribbon points to qualify for Vesterheim’s gold medal recognition.  Congratulations, Veronna!

A local reporter caught wind of Veronna’s award, which resulted in a feature article in the Brookings Register about Veronna and her weaving. The author, Charis Prunty, granted permission to reproduce the article.  (The article was sent as two jpg image files; click them for a readable enlargement.)

Veronna decided to send a copy of the article to her first weaving instructor, Mieke Kerkstra, from a class she took in Whittier, California many years ago.  In response, Veronna received two meaningful gifts.  The first was a beautiful shuttle.  Her teacher is now 86 years old and wants to give away her stuff as she pleases, noting that her daughter wouldn’t even know what the object is.  She also send a linen dish towel, woven as part of her first commission after graduating from Sätergläntan Skola in Sweden. The towel was woven of hand-spun linen singles and never used, and perhaps never washed or mangled.  It had been folded, but not ironed into creases, for 50 years.  She apologized that it might be a bit yellowed.  Veronna now stores it rolled on a tube atop acid-free tissue – and shows it off at every opportunity.

The  linen dishtowel will likely never dry her silverware, but I’m sure that Veronna will put the shuttle to good use!