A Cozy Little Village

I made a weekend trip to Hopewell Furnace because they were having a quilting bee and I had never really explored the outbuildings in the park. There is a group of ladies who meet regularly and work on quilts. The park incorporates them into the "living village" concept and allows them to work inside one of the buildings that had previously been a boarding house. There is a large room for them to work together on their quilts.

I was starting this visit on the right page of my album because of ending the prior event on the left in the chronological album. I decided that the best use of space was to add an 8 1/2 x 11 pocket page to hold the brochure and a few photos. I worked on the layout below first and then wanted this to coordinate. I had an extra laser-cut border and some wood grain paper to put across the bottom to be similar to the borders I made for the next page.

I visited several of the buildings and found lots of vignettes of life when the furnace was a booming business. Since the focus at the furnace was on the work the men did, this side focused on the women and children. How they cooked, learned, and did their own work during the day.

I chose this pin of borders made with the Burlap and Lace papers from one of the 2023 secret boxes (one of my favorites). You'll notice that I switched the orientation to horizontal and put one at the top and one at the bottom to frame my photos. The background paper is wood grain though it may be hard for you to see as it blends into the wood floor where I take my photos! The left side is the back of the 8 1/2 x 11 seen above. I matted the photos with a bit of burlap paper and added a few more stickers to the page to make a cohesive layout.