Collections and Hugs

There’s good news at the end of the story….but my sewing machine stalled out a week ago! it’s a sad thing, because I felt helpless. Its a tiny baby or a baby kitten…I just wanted to cuddle it and make it feel better. I’m just learning how to read the quirks of my machine, how to do simple adjustments or a cleaning, how to intuit when thread is wrapped wrong before there’s a jam, when to gently guide it to make a curve, instead of flying around like Ricky Bobby……..(AND remember my machine only goes forwards and backwards!)

So i started looking at things around me, after all attempts failed to get the machine back on track. I’m just getting my sewing lab fixed up and everything doesn’t have a place yet, so stuff is out, about, stacked – hmmmm…… maybe its right where it’s supposed to be! Visual candy!

Collections sometimes just happen. You don’t realize you’ve got a collection of something until things come together for some reason – you’ve moved everything into one area, you’re cleaning, you’re purging, whatever. So in my lab – I assembled a collection of vintage handkerchiefs… Wow, I say…I’m not sure if there’s a current market, or who among you out there carries a sweet linen or lace or

blue square piece of cloth to…uh, hmmm… dab the corner of thy mouth when eating shortbread during afternoon tea (yes? wanna start a group??) I under-appreciate (or really, let’s be honest, in this day and age of tissues in an OVAL box – check this out!) handkerchiefs – the work, craftsmanship, style…uniqueness. I started comparing.

An Irish lassie gave these little hankies to me on my wedding day. She had them folded tiny in a little ziploc bag…my friend Helen. She said her Grannie made them.. and how wonderfully detailed in MINUTE – MI-NUTE! stitches… and sorry the picture is minute too!

In the Irish Grannie collection, there is a group of 5 hankies, the same design, but with color variation. What’s this? An Irish tree, wind swept on a isle?

or a deer with funny flowery antlers?

The linen is so fine…and those stitches – I’ve already said it….

My grandmother had a wooden cigar box (oh, I crave them – the boxes, not the cigars!!) in the top shelf of a closet when she passed. I’d never seen it before, so I suspect it wasn’t Pauline’s, but maybe her sister Florence, who lived quite close to New York City most of her adult life.

She – my grandmother must have inherited the box, and so did I. Inside the box (and for a picture of that, click “closed” and “open“) there were gobs of handkerchiefs with prissy floral patterns and colors

some with deco prints

and some delicate white hankies, not so plain.

I love the mixture. The bonus is when you lay them all out…

SPLASH, BLAST! COLOR! and the edges…. These fabrics are printed or woven fabrics…most of them not embroidered. Some of them have these wonderful scalloped edges.

I’m figuring store bought – can you imagine a boutique or a department store 1958…women with pillbox hats (opps, was that ‘68?) shopping for handkerchiefs?

(This vintage cloth napkin has a great linen texture and this flower detail. I’ve a few of these which adds to the collection.

And then… i looked for collections online.

Here

aqui (what a collection!)

and questa… this one even gives ideas on how to transform them! (i.e. crafties!)

So, I did say the story turned out with a happy ending. I came home the other night and on the dresser in the computer room, i saw a white piece of fabric and when I got closer and realized what it was, I howled… this is what I found!

Voila! Back in business! A hug for Andy and a hug for the machine!