Mysteries in Thread

Went to an estate sale this morning a few blocks from home. Actually, went twice. The first time I arrived, about 40 minutes after they started, there were still 30 or more people standing in line waiting to enter. So I checked out a couple of church rummage sales and went back when things were a bit saner. I may have missed some good items, but given the way things were priced I doubt I missed anything I would actually have bought. For example, you know my weakness for vintage linens and needlework, and I loved this

but not five bucks worth. Not when I’ve purchased most of my collection at closer to the twenty-five cent price point.  I chatted with another lady who also confessed to having something of a collection, and she was just as skeptical of the prices as I was. But it’s always interesting to look through a houseful of stuff, and I meandered happily through the various rooms. When I ventured down the basement stairs I met the same lady heading up. “There’s an old embroidered pillow around the corner in that other room,” she said, “with a better price, but it needs some fixing.” I promised to take a look, and did, but saying it needed work was an understatement. And delicate old pillows are doomed in a household with a young rambunctious dog.

Back upstairs I looked through the kitchen, then headed toward the dining room. There was a breakfast nook by the kitchen with pots and plates and mugs on the table…and laying on the corner of the table was one bundle of cloth taped up and marked $2. It was completely out of place; someone must have been carrying it around and changed her mind and abandoned the bundle on that table. I picked it up and saw embroidery, and that there were several pieces. Without taking the bundle apart (which is frowned on at these sales) I couldn’t tell for sure what there was, but the grab-bag aspect appealed to me and I could live with the two buck price. And even more important, there was no longer a line to pay up.

  

Back home I ripped the tape off my bundle to see what I had. I was expecting tea towels, probably from the Fifties. But that’s not what was in my grab bag. Grab bundle. Whatever. Luckily I was in no hurry, since my bundle contained several needles and pins as well as cloth!

The first piece I opened had embroidered strawberries. Turned out to be a table runner with most of the embroidery completed.

 

There are some leaves only partly embroidered that are tinted,

which from what I’ve been reading was a popular technique used from the early 1900s to the 1950s. I love the shading on these leaves, and wonder if the others that have been completely embroidered had the same tinting. Mystery number one! This is a piece I can definitely finish, but I’ll have to decide whether to complete the tinted leaves like the others or leave them outlined.

Next up in my bundle was…some white cotton and flannel scraps. What? Just some scrappy remnants.

 

I’m wondering if the estate-sale people put them in the middle of the bundle to make it plumper and more enticing. Another mystery. I would guess that perhaps it was a guy who bundled these up, or at least someone who didn’t know that showing the embroidery would be what’s enticing! And I think I can use these scraps to try out that rug making needle thingie I got at the last estate sale.

Waste not, want not…

Another table runner followed the scraps. The embroidery is complete – and nicely done – but the hems have not been stitched.

  

I love the alternating colors of French knots.

No long runs of threads on the back for this stitcher!

Then I found a matching “3 piece buffet set” that’s been partly stitched. I have to admit I have no idea exactly what a buffet set was intended to do. If anyone knows, please tell me!

 

Should be pretty easy to finish these pieces, since the next thing I found was the thread!

All wrapped up in a white paper napkin, complete with needles stuck in there and there. Just think, years ago there was a woman (probably a woman!) who was working on her embroidery. She needed to keep her supplies together so she grabbed a paper napkin (maybe she was sitting at her kitchen table to stitch) and folded it around her threads. Then something happened to keep her from finishing her project, and ages pass, and another woman buys a bundle at a sale and finds her stash of threads still wrapped in their paper home.

At least I know I can boil them if I need to.

I reached the last piece, which I could see has violets stitched on it. I unfolded it and beheld…

  

I think this one is fairly old, perhaps from the Twenties. Again we have the combination of tinting and stitching. The thing that interests me with this piece is that the stitching on the text that’s been completed isn’t nearly as adept as the flowers and leaves.

 

Leading me to believe that two different people worked on it. Perhaps grandma was teaching a youngster to stitch and let her work on this piece? Or maybe she picked up this piece after years of ignoring it (I’m betting those UFOs – unfinished objects! – didn’t originate with my generation), and her eyesight had dimmed or her hands were not as steady as they had been earlier.

So that’s my bundle of thread mysteries. But perhaps the biggest mystery I encountered during the morning was at one of the church rummage sales…a poor, benighted bar of soap that had been ‘decorated’ with a frill of nylon net, glued on sequins, and a halo of beads on long pins.

Why would anyone do this to a perfectly innocent bar of soap? I leave that mystery in your hands!

 

Zigzagging

A guy was leaving the estate sale as I trudged up the hill toward the house. Muscled, mid-thirties, shaved head. Carrying a canvas bag with three or four ax handles sticking out. I thought about making a jovial comment about whether he was an ax murderer or not but thought better of it. It’s odd, but the phrase “ax murderer” does not lend itself to instant humor…especially when there are actually axes present.

After I got inside the house I could see why he had so many axes. This was a family into multiples of stuff. Of course we all have a bunch of some things. Placemats, napkins, flatwear, shoes, books – for some things you need more than one or two. But hole punches? There were about fifteen. Old scissors, maybe ten. Buttonholer attachments for vintage Singers, at least five. You get the picture.

It was the vintage Singer stuff that made me go back on Sunday. The lady who lived in this old house must have loved to make things. The basement was filled with canning jars. Upstairs, dozens of bundles of fabric, bags and bags of thread, not one but three big quilting hoops. I succumbed to the lure of a boxful of old stamped linens for embroidery, mainly because this piece was on top.

I haven’t embroidered for donkey’s years, but last week I took up the needle again. You see, all the pieces had fallen into place. Last summer I brought home the old pillowcase from a free box that was crying out for someone to love it enough to complete it. Only to discover I’d purged all my long-unused embroidery threads and hoops. Then at the dog park the other morning my friend Judy said she had something for me, and pulled a big bag out of her car. It held a bunch of embroidery supplies that had been her mother’s, who died over 20 years ago. Judy’s sister kept this bag all that time but finally decided she’d never use any of it, but just couldn’t bring herself to donate it to a thrift store. So she gave it to Judy and told her she could get rid of it if she wanted, so it came to me. I knew if I was patient I’d score the embroidery hoop I needed, but never thought it would arrive at the dog park!

The pillowcase is nearly finished, and when I saw this box of linens I realized I wouldn’t mind doing more. And there’s plenty more here to work on as the whim strikes!

In another upstairs room was an old Singer 201-2, the same model as my machine. (Though not as good a price as mine!) It was surrounded by attachments and gadgets, like those buttonholers. There were at least three different models of buttonholers and if the prices had been lower I might have been tempted. (Hmmm…maybe I should check some local thrift stores in a few days to see if they were donated, and the price is better.) But there was an attachment I only recently learned existed – a zigzagger.. And this one I really wanted.

But…I wanted it at a better price. So I took a chance on it still being there the next day, when most things would be half off. And it was! Guess there aren’t that many vintage Singer aficionados around. I haven’t tried it out yet; I think it must work something like the buttonholer, which moves the fabric from side to side. Looks like it will be fun to play with. It makes four styles of stitching!

Of course, the detail that made me really happy was the handwritten notes penciled inside the lid.

I took another look around when I went back on Sunday, and picked up this interesting tool for making rugs.

Of course my fantasy is that it will create rugs like the one we have in the kitchen, made of pleated strips of wool. (A wonderful piece, like standing on a really expensive gel mat. Of course I usually have to move Zoe out of the way so that I can stand on it.) After all, it’s so easy a child can do it!

Come In and Sit a Spell

We’ve been known to tell visitors that it’s easier to point out the few store-bought items in our home than all the thrifted ones. I looked around the other day and realized this is certainly true when it comes to our chairs, and that the thrifting goes w-w-a-a-a-a-y-y-y back. Like over 40 years. How can that be when we ourselves are still so young, so dewy fresh? Dang, I couldn’t even write that with a straight face. But no matter. I’m still young enough to give you a tour of our chairs!

Let’s get the retail-price ones out of the way. All three of them. Yup, three places in our house to sit that we bought in stores. Actually two, because this one came from a craft market.

Must have been about 25 years ago, in High Point, NC. We went to a big Christmas craft fair and wandered around until we saw this puppy. Tried it out. Bought it. No matter who sits in it, the curves fit perfectly. Can’t remember what it cost, something like $100, but we’ve amortized it down to about four bucks a year so far. I can live with that.

The other two retail pieces are my husband’s desk chair, and a bench that used to be at the foot of our bed.

When we moved to this house, we discovered the bench fit perfectly into a space in the master bathroom. It is the best place to tie your shoelaces.

Don’t worry that you won’t have plenty of choices when you want to sit down, however. Feeling particularly vintage? Settle in the corner of the living room in one of the Hans Olsen chairs, or the Danish rocker.

Just found a pair of Olsen chairs like these for sale in a showroom in Los Angeles. Theirs are refinished, mine are original (though we did replace the cushions). Theirs are priced at $2695 for the pair.

Mine weren’t!

If you’d like to bask by the fireplace, we have the Sixties sofa, currently covered with a linen throw.

At mealtime you can settle in at the table on one of the Hans Wegner CH-23 chairs. Steven was at a vintage store in Portland recently that had a set of these. Theirs were priced at $2450 for the set of four. Mine weren’t.

For many years our dining table was surrounded by a mix of chairs. Some have gone by the wayside (i.e. were resold to other thrifty people) but we still have our first – a pair of antique pressback chairs.

We bought these from a little old lady in Minneapolis back in the early 70’s. At the time they had that kind of gooey dark finish that old varnish gets after years of use. Steven refinished them and we were amazed at the design that emerged from the grime.

These chairs have an unusual detail for pressback chairs of the era, can you pick it out? Think about it, and we’ll check later to see how you do on your test!

Another chair dates from our time in Minneapolis, from a sale in a very posh house. I’ve never forgotten the design of the inlaid wood floor in the foyer.

Light weight but very sturdy, this chair has been on stage many times. Steven often takes it with him when he performs.

Sturdy but decidedly NOT light weight would be our old dentist’s chair. We found this in the catacomb-like basement of the first place we lived in Minneapolis, along with an old x-ray machine. Our landlord sold the pair of them to us for ten bucks.

 

We still have the control panel from the x-ray apparatus, and it’s scary enough.

You should have seen the rest of it – or maybe not. You’d never have dental work done again. We parted with it because of it’s huge size. Wish we could have kept the label with the patent-pending from 1916, and the warning not to use this machine for pyrotechnics. Ah, those were the days.

If you’d like to have a snack at the kitchen island counter, you’ll get to perch on these vintage babies. We have three in all.

My office chair is not fancy, but it works.

Sometimes I sit on this old lab stool instead.

The big wicker wingback and ottoman relax in a corner of the master bedroom.

This was our dog Lizzie’s favorite bed. Edward usually spends the night there now.

Zoe’s favorite chair is the ever-so-comfy Siesta Chair by Ingmar Relling. With or without Edward.

Noll Baxter often sleeps on this bench, guarded over by his friend Woody.

(Picture this cat on that cushion.)

We have two of these benches, which sometimes become tables. They weigh a ton. We think they must have started life in a mall or gym.

If you settle in to watch movies with us, you can sit on the Forties rattan sofa

or the surprisingly comfortable hair dryer chair.

Or you can move Zoe off the Heywood Wakefield armchair hiding under a throw until I get it reupholstered.

Back in the guest rooms, we have the old piano bench

and the vanity pouf that swivels.

And for a real trip back in time, here’s the piece we’ve had the longest. My mother in law bought this at Montgomery Wards when she was pregnant with my hubs.

Okay, test time! If you’ve been around very many pressback chairs, you might have picked out the detail that is different…it’s the slats in the backs. Almost always they are carved with knobby things that poke you as you try to relax. These have smooth slats that encourage you to sit around the kitchen table longer, sharing stories.

I’m sure it’s obvious that we have eclectic taste in furniture, which helps when you’re a thrifty soul. I’ve been very lucky with my finds, but I do believe that luck resides in showing up. (Which I will be happy to do as soon as the weather warms up a bit and folks start having sales again!) But here’s a little comparison to put retail vs. shopping on driveways in perspective.

For the same amount of cash that we spent on this modestly-priced chair in a store (dog not included with purchase)

I brought these home from driveways.

    

Patience and perseverance pay. You can take that to the bank!