Karen Gummo
Calgary, AB
Calgary, AB
I call this square "Love in the Turnip Patch"
Nels Mogensen and Dagny Margrethe Munk met in a turnip field in Jutland, Denmark in about 1925. It was the first chance they had had to loose their tongues and have a conversation. It was love at first sight for Nels. In truth, he had noticed her before as she served sweet buns to him when he and the other young men of the district rode from farm to farm on horseback singing songs in exchange for homemade treats during the days of the Danish love festival called Fastelavn.
Dagny's interest in him peaked when he mentioned his dream of coming to Canada. She was a girl in search of adventure and he was ready to leave the old world and the old ways behind to seek out new opportunities across the Atlantic.Nels and Dagny Mogensen are my father's parents and my grandparents.
I made this square in tribute to them. The turnip is heart shaped to represent to love they found as Dagny hoed turnips in the neigbour's field to earn a little pocket money. The greens are reaching away to the west (if you hold up the quilt the right way) to represent the new life they would make for themselves and for their family in western Canada.Their parents were justified in being fearful to let them go. The depression hit not long after they arrived in 1927 and '29 and they would not have the means to go home to see their families until after their parents had passed away. Dagny and Nels Mogensen's children and grandchildren have made a good life here in Canada and they appreciate the ties that they still have to Denmark. Those ties are strengthened through story.