Thursday, May 6, 2010

More of the Loot!

Getting up close and personal with some of the goodies from yesterday.



Don't ask me why, but I'm a sucker for old packaging.  I love this one-

These ones are huge!

And last but not least, some amazing green glass ones.

The ones where the paint have come off totally remind me of lettuce.

As if that wasn't enough for a picture overload, there's more!  You didn't forget about the linens did you?  Once you see some of them you'll understand why I was happy to give them a new home.  


Hand Tatting!

I'm saying these are bookmarks, Dillon is saying that they are ultra fancy, old-fashioned pantie liners.  Do boys ever grow up?  Eventually?

Ultra crazy sci-fi embroidery! 
I love this one so much.  I'm totally going to plot out the pattern of this and stitch one too.  I have no idea what it is or what it is for.  They are stitched onto small pieces of fabric, about the size of an average paperback book, and there is more than one.  There are also a bunch of other pieces of the fabric with just the bottom line and the red squares stitched onto them.  Like perhaps they were making a bunch more?  Strange, no?  I'm going to use this one as a patch.

It always saddens me to see these kinds of thing tossed aside after someone took the time and effort to make it.  I guess I can't complain too much because if people didn't get rid of it I wouldn't come up on it.  But when I'm looking at a thrift store and see what is obviously a lifetime's worth of work sitting there as if no one even bothered to look at it before they donated it, it tugs at my heartstrings a bit.  I guess what I'm saying is that I hope it doesn't happen to my stuff and if it does, someone awesome better buy it before it ends up in the trash.

This last one bothered me the most.

 

It's a rather large circular piece (it's folded in half here) with a flower border that wraps all the way around.  As I was throwing it in the washer I found a note attached to it that said, "This was the last hand embroidered piece that Nana made before she passed."  I kept the note but as the moment can't seem to find it.  How can someone throw something like that away??  Granted about a third of the stuff in the box had to be tossed, either mildewed or dry rotted from being improperly stored but the rest just had to be washed.  Oh well, their loss is my gain.  Some of them I'll leave as is, others I'm going to re-purpose or maybe even add to them.

Thanks for looking.  I hope that you have a creative day!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Such lovely treasures! I'm hoping to hit an antique mall this sunday to look for some goodies of my own :) thanks for sharing!

artymess said...

I so agree with you I am forever buying pieces of old linen and embroideries as i can appreciate the work that has gone into them touble is dont do anything with them except put them in my workroom ....there are artists who embroider on them but I can't bear to do that I feel it's disrespectful ...but I do need to do something with them ...help....but I loved reading this post and especially about the little note ...how touching ....

MafiosaGrrl said...

Laurie Anne- Good luck hunting for treasure! i hope you find something lovely.

Lorna- everytime we go thrifting i want to take all of them home with me. Maybe find some way to display them in your house or your classroom. like a mosaic type thing on the wall but with the different linens. some of mine have rough edges like they were obviously made to go onto something else or to made into a pillow or such. so a few I might "finish" up that way i don't know yet. i wouldn't want to alter it too much from it's original state.

Lisa said...

Wow, that's some pretty cool loot you got there!

That last one bothers me too. You and I both know that that delicate, obviously carefully stitched, silk stitch that goes all the way around that design takes forever and has a lot of care put into it. Why would anyone toss out something like that, espcially with a note like that attached? Makes me shake my head. I mean, even if the thing isn't your style, why wouldn't you just hang on to it? Maybe I'm too sentimental. I have only ONE thing from my grandmother, and it happens to be a little tablecloth that she embroidered back in the 50's. Pretty, but not exactly my cuppa, but it's a piece that my gram held in her lap for a long ass time, and it's not going in the trash or off into the donation bin. Ever. Sheesh... I kinda went off... But then again... I guess I should be grateful and see the positive aspect, if everyone held on to things the way I do, I'd never find any cool treasures in the thrift and antique stores :o)

Have a great weekend, good luck with The Dude.

MafiosaGrrl said...

Yeah, they're all really detailed but that last one especially. and the note, ugh I don't know what is wrong with people. I'm way to sentimental to have parted with it.
It's ok, I go off all the time, I joke that it's the NYer in me. I think Dillon mistakes these outbursts for some sort of inner rage, like how can someone get so worked up of some vintage hankies?! But it's good to know that you understand how I feel :)
I shot you over a preview of the piece on FB so no sneaking eyes get a chance to check it out, lol.