Thrifted Treasures

For several years I've been trying out new quilting designs on a large piece of layered white fabrics destined to become a mattress cover.
The matress pad/cover I had quilted 21 years ago is reaching the end of its life.  So now I've realized the cover I've been making will only fit a twin sized bed.  I have absolutely no idea why I made it so small.  That left me with the opportunity/challenge of finding vintage 100% cotton sheets to make one that is actually big enough for my bed.

I did find one sheet from the 1950s in the past several weeks, but thought I'd have to settle with lining it with a pale beige sheet.  The one from 21 years ago had white cotton on one side and unbleached muslin on the other.

Yesterday I decided to make a stop at a nearby Salvation Army resale shop.  I frequently visit that shop but seldom buy things because the manager insists on pricing things rather high, as if she'd purchased items wholesale instead of receiving them for free.  This week I got lucky.

 Two new, never opened twin flat sheets.

 100% cotton percale, so the thread count is higher than muslin.  My mom always preferred percale to muslin, and, I admit, I prefer that texture too.

Given the postal zone on the wrapper, these were manufactured before 1963.  I'm also familiar with the labels from the 1950s, and they were not this orange color.

I have a couple of quilts to finish first, so it will be a while.

I also found [an also over-priced] tatted doily; I'll take a photo of that too later.

Happy quiltmaking and knitting,.....

Doilies & Hankies....

 Of course I love textiles...of almost any kind....but especially pretty ones. This crocheted doily was probably made sometime between 1930 and the mid 1950's.  It was stuffed into a bag with a few other lacy things at a thrift store several years ago.  I have no idea if it was made for Kate R. or for a family named Kater.  If any of my readers know a crafty, textile-loving lady named Kate R or a family named Kater, I'd love to pass it on.  My mother never liked to do fillet crochet, but for years she made doilies and beautiful lace edgings.  I made a few but changed to tatting because every time our family got together one little kid or another would rip out my knitting or crocheting.  Tatting doesn't rip out without a lot of intentional untying of knots.

Besides, I was inspired by this.....

...That's a lovely linen handkerchief with an edging that must have been tatted in size 100 or 150 thread.  It's so delicate, I'm not sure you can even see much of it if you right click and open the picture in a new window or tab.  It's wrinkly; it's been in a drawer that had some other stuff tossed in too--including a picture of the Central Illinois farm where I grew up.  I've never known who made that lace-edged doily.  It arrived inside a congratulatory card mailed to me, addressed in beautiful handwriting but unsigned and with no return address way back when I graduated from eighth grade.  I've always treasured it.

Are you old enough to remember your mama tying a quarter or a nickle in the corner of a pretty hankie so you could place the money in the offering plate at church--or maybe tying money in a hankie so you could buy an ice cream cone when you went to town with your daddy or grandpa?

I've lost so many of those hankies over the last several decades--mostly because they've been stored in boxes and I've moved too many times and had too many distractions in my life to care for them properly.  I'd love ideas of things to do with them that would protect their fragile beauty.  I've seen them made into quilts and even a window valence, but I don't want them to wear out so I need a much more gentle use that would let them be displayed with minimal damage.  My dear friend Harriet made some into a bouquet in a lovely vase, but it's much too dusty in my part of the country for me to do that. I could just fold them up and stack them and take them out and look at them once or twice a year, but they are so beautiful, so delicate, and bring so much pleasure that I'd really like to find a workable way to display them.

If you love hankies and you're a quiltmaker, you might want to check out Denise Russart's "Granny's Hankie" BOM over at her blog: http://justquiltin.wordpress.com/ 
You'll find it over in the right hand column of her blog in the Block of the Month Projects.

Let me know if you have display idea...or if you know Kate R. or the Kater family....

Damask & Hardware

Blue damask tablecloth and matching napkins.  They'll go into separate projects.  Tablecloth has a hole patched with blue silk ribbon--not very well done, so it may receive an applique with nearly matching hand dyed fabric.

Other stuff is from Harbor Freight.
I have loved hardware stores and lumber yards since I was three years old.
The background story:
I was three, standing at my mom's side in our farm kitchen when my dad came in and asked me if I wanted to go to Gridley with him to get Bob Whar.  As usually happened when he went anywhere, he got involved in some long winded conversations, and I wandered around the hardware part of the store looking at bolts, nails, screws, and finding myself being tutored by a couple of their salesmen, learning such things as the differences between two-penny and five-penny nails.  I had a great time, and forgot all about our purpose there.
On the way home I realized we were missing someone and asked, "Where's Bob Whar?"
Dad replied, "In the back of the truck."
I peered out the back window of our 1948 green Studebaker pickup truck, but all I saw back there were some boxes.  Although I don't remember our exact conversation, it took a minute or so before I understood our errand had been to purchase some barbed wire!