Thursday, October 02, 2008

other women's notions


Actually, my friend refers to our thrift shop finds of sewing supplies as "Dead Women's Notions", but the huge piles of bags and boxes dropped off by three friends this month were from their living relatives. My new mission has been to take in these piles, sort through them, throw away what is trash, pass on to charity groups what is useful but not quilt worthy, and save the small amount remaining to be divvied up amongst my quilting friends.
I smile as the bags are given--they act like they are doing me a favor. I know (and they probably do too) that I am doing the dirty work. They are spared the trauma of putting stuff in the garbage.
There were some treasures in the piles. The finest tatting I have ever seen on this handkerchief.

This turtle fabric and the ships and lighthouses.

More fun 1940s fabrics.

5 comments:

Ruth said...

I have found a few old hankies with tatting at garage sales. I am saving them for some project in the future - I'm not sure what. What are you going to do with your hankie ? I also recently bought a bag of "stuff" at a garage sale and it had 25 zippers in it, plus lots of other sewing items. I love bargains!

Elaine Adair said...

I sometimes find pillow cases, with lovely embroidery. I've discovered that a matched pair looks really good, as a valance, just 'hung' (kinda laid) over a rod - no sewing, just hanging there. When I'm tired of the look I change and can still use them as pillow cases.

Paula, the quilter said...

I use the older, softer pillowcases to put the quilts into. I don't have to make one that way. When I made a lot of blue jean quilts, I would come home from work and find a bag or two of jeans on my porch. I ended up with way too many and so I donated the better ones to charity because they were still wearable. I only needed to use the backs of the legs.

Nettie said...

I love that fabric in the top photo. So witty. Wonder what era it comes from.

sewprimitive karen said...

Oh I LOVE the bird fabric. What became of that one?