Score! My Sunday Project~~

Oh, sure--I've got a stitching project: I always have one of those.

[Although, I admit, I kind of scared myself once this week when I finished a piece one night and didn't start anything else and so had only the Taking-Forever-Never-Ending-Omigod beading project to go with coffee the next morning. I start a new yoolie straightaway, though, and all has been well since.]

No, today's project is something else. Here's the story: someone local emailed me this week and said they were going through a friend's estate and sorting what she'd left behind, and if I wanted to go through the fabric, I could come over Saturday. We made arrangements, and The EGE and I did just that. Now, if you've ever gotten fabric this way, you know just how difficult it is. Most people bundle their fabric in idiosyncratic ways, folding or rolling or tying it up so that it's hard to see what you've got. My mother had the most amazing method for bundling up her remnants. She'd finish sewing something and take all the scraps--everything that was larger than tiny--and fold them into the center. She'd fold in the ends so that there were no raw edges showing and then roll the whole thing up in a roll about 4" wide and wind one of the longer, thinner strips around it, tucking in the end. It made a nice, neat bundle, but there was no way you could see what you had if you were someone else--she knew what she had, because she measured and bought just what she needed and hardly ever had much left over. Of course I now bundle my own remnants this way. Alas.

Other people have other methods, but it's always hard to see what you've got. Plus, unless it's something fabulous and you're willing to take the time to do a burn test, you really don't know the content. Sometimes you can tell, but more and more, it's hard to detect polyester, that evil mimic, without burning a bit. And you don't want to go to someone's house and start setting their stuff on fire, you know?

Anyway, there was a ton of fabric, and I was going to go through it, but then I got sidetracked when they told me I could go look at some old clothes, and when I came back, I stumbled on a box of *vintage* (aieeeeeee! But, seriously, there's no other word to use here) linen and napkins (some linen, some cotton) and tiny, fragile little handkerchiefs. Many of these were still in the plastic bags that led me to believe the deceased shopped the same estate sales I often do.

OK. Cut to the chase: I had $20 cash. I hate to bargain, and I don't like playing games. So I told them I had $20 cash and asked what I could get for that. They said for $20, I could take whatever I wanted. I asked if they were sure, and they were--they were kind of overwhelmed with the sheer amount of stuff their friend had accumulated.

I may go back when they finish--I'm sure there's a bunch more fabulous stuff that I didn't get to look through, but I, too, got overwhelmed. You know how when there's so much to look at, and you start thinking about what you might be able to do with it and whether or not you want to bring it home and whether or not it would work with this, or maybe this, and before you know it, your brain has started that overheated sizzling thing? You can kind of smell the burning smell, and it's not from testing fabric--it's from your brain on overload? It was like that. My brain had already jumped ahead to what I might do with this bounty and left me back in the living room, trying to make decisions all by myself. Brainless, that's hard to do. So there was a ton I didn't look at.

We gathered up a box and two huge baskets--asking one last time if they were sure this was OK--and loaded them in The Boat and brought  them home. Now, these had been stored for a long time, and there are lots of Mouse Signs in them, so to sort them this morning, out on the freezing cold porch (you knew I didn't bring anything in the house), I had on my pj's (because they'd go in the laundry as soon as I took them off) and a dust mask and a pair of disposable latex gloves.

Because, y'all, I am my mother's child, alas, and although I don't worry nearly as much as she did (she was a mom; I am not), I have internalized some of her more fervid fears, such as her belief that because I poke around in other people's old stuff, I'm going to contract Hanta virus. I can hear her warning me. Sigh. I'd like to be someone who didn't think about these things, but there you go.

[Oh, and on a related note, bird mites. Every time I pick up a feather to bring home to Clarice, I hear my mother's voice, "Bird mites."]

Anyway. So here's what I got. These big baskets alone were worth $20, although I'll have to find another home for them:

 To help with seeing what size these are, that's Humphrey, the big black porch cat, in the lower right-hand corner. He is not a small guy.

Finely-stitched stuff like this, above.
This is one of the coolest (at least that I've found so far) pieces, priced at one time at $25:

I haven't opened it--or any of the other bags--because it's just too cold out there. And I don't bring them in the house until they're either laundered (if they weren't bagged) or removed from the bags. How cold is it? It snowed a week ago, and there are still big chunks of ice in the backyard from where they slid off the roof and haven't yet melted.

And then, after we left their house, we stopped by BJ's, where Trish had these wicker torsos for me:

I don't know what I'll do with them because I have absolutely. no. room. anywhere. But they were too cool to pass up--she was going to toss them if I didn't take them. So if you live nearby and need these for display and will come pick them up, let me know.

Also, if you live nearby and would like an old metal suitcase of *vintage* postcards, let me know that, too. Or a fabulous desktop--the kind where the lid lifts up. I don't have these things, but I know who does and wants to find a new home for them. Also a wedding dress. A lot of old collectible copper stuff. A bunch of studs for decorating clothing--the kind with prongs on the back. Sheesh--if y'all lived here, I would be your Tour Guide to Some Wonderful Stuff.

Wish you were here~~