Thursday Treasures 05-07-20

Another "treasure" I keep because I just can't part with it.  This was a gift from my great aunt Effie Brown when I was in Home Ec class in high school.  And all the spools are wooden spools from over the last almost 70 years.  I'm sure the thread is tired and brittle and I will never use it.  But this makes a nice sentimental decoration in my sewing room. 

Most of these are Star or Coats and Clark, which were the common brands back then.  Cheapest was 10 cents a spool. 

It stands up like an easel to make the selection oh-so-much easier!

This is the back.  Not really crooked, just the angle I took the picture. 

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All KoKo tonight 09-22-18

Here is the little guy all strung out in his chair with Froggie.  He has his left ear over his face and part of his topknot also.  So tired he didn't even mind my taking his picture.  

And here is the result of his hard labor.  He selected this spool of thread from the basket when I went off to the bathroom.  Later I found it in the living room in this condition.  Such a lovely shade of red, too.  

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Delivered a pile of items for sale.

I drove to San Diego today to deliver a car load of items for the Visions Veranda Sale which will take place on Saturday (only).  I stopped to drop KoKo off with Nancy Ota and to pick up fabrics she had gathered from an estate of someone she knows.  Good thing KoKo stayed there, because the car was packed to the gills!  I wish I had been able to get through all of Toni's things, but will continue to sort and donate to other fund raising events.  The traffic was bad, but not horrible, and the ocean was covered with fog most of the way.   And, of course, it was hot in San Diego, but not 99F as it was in Placentia.   I had sushi for lunch at Ikiru in Liberty Stations, shared with friend Beth Smith.  We had a nice visit, short but satisfying.  And then the trek home, stopping to pick up KoKo from Nancy and Bud, then off the I-5 to pick up a poke bowl from my favorite poke place, H2O on Jamboree, and finally to fill the gas tank.  Home again to feed KoKo his dinner at 5pm and then we both took a nap.  We were completely out, with both ceiling fan and A/C running.  What a long hard day.  Fortunately there was a nice guy with a dolly at the museum to haul the bags and boxes from the car.   Once home I pulled three more boxes into the house, but am too tired to work on them tonight.  Tomorrow.   I will need to find a larger basket for the thread raffle basket I am putting together for the Surfside QGuild November Fest.  This basket is almost full and I have a lot more boxes to sort through.   It is a pretty ratty basket, anyway! 

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Monday Browsing 08-03-15

The oldest park ranger – female!

http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2015/07/28/betty-reid-soskin-oldest-park-ranger/?SiteID=cbaolcompromotion_july_102&icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl7%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D299040507

Redwork:

http://thequiltshow.com/daily-blog/106-website-features/17960-the-redwork-of-rosie-deleon-mccrady?utm_source=Infusionsoft&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2015_07_29_Newsletter_8&inf_contact_key=88dfdd9e3bc8bcbaac76c9fb44dde76541019ac4cedacfde112fbd151722890e

Sewing machines of yesteryear:

http://thequiltshow.com/daily-blog/142-newsletter/23648-smithsonian-national-collection-machine-quilting?utm_source=Infusionsoft&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2015_07_29_Newsletter_9&inf_contact_key=faa7a3dfef2c52e2c661c5ad528246505809e847e0561aab5dc090b94c003f66

New online magazine:
http://www.throughourhands.co.uk/2015/05/26/through-our-hands-the-magazine-may-edition-out-now/

Cute little thread catcher – nice little gift: 

http://needlingthings.blogspot.com/2011/08/triangular-ort-thread-catcher.html
(Embroiderers call these “ort catchers” – an ort being a little thread end or tiny clip of fabric.  You can empty the catcher with your dust buster!)

Surfside Quilters Guild November Fest 11-11-14

Today was the big fund raiser for Surfside Quilters Guild in San Clemente, CA.  This event is held every other year, so we need to make enough to tide us over for two years.  Our event included a live auction for some very nice quilts, seventy-one raffle baskets (some of which required two ladies to even lift them) and a pleasant lunch of chicken salad, rolls, gingerbread.  We had 216 attendees. 

It was a fun day. 

The tables were groaning with 71 raffle baskets.

The seats were full of 116 members and guests. 

The auction quilts were hung around the room and then held up when the bidding started.  On the far left is a great 1900-1925 red cross quilt and second from right is a Nosegay quilt with blocks made in the 1930s and hand quilted by some excellent quilters this past year.  I point these out because they are the two for which I had the winning bids.  

My contribution to the event was a laundry basket full of threads collected from various friends and with donations by several thread companies.  The estimated value of $722 is probably a little high because some of the spools have been partially used.  But it is enough thread to last an active quilt maker at least two years! 

 Here is the basket, all be-ribboned and running over.  

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The Price of Thread 03-04-14



Folding thread holder from late 1940's.

 When I buy thread I'm always astounded at the high cost. There was a time that thread was about the cheapest thing about sewing. I think the thread now, besides coming in so many different colors, weights and variegated variables, is much better. But I've rarely ever had thread that was just "bad". Even when it was 10cents a spool. Here are some pictures from my thread drawers. The stand was given to me when I was thirteen or so and was sewing a lot of my own clothes - it is just a sentimental dust catcher now. The wooden spools are from various years. But look at the prices on the spools - 10cents, 15, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50. When polyester fabric came in, so did cotton wrapped poly thread, about the only thread available for a while. In the 60's and 70's 100% cotton fabric and thread was just not available. Everyone wanted drip-dry, no iron fabric for clothing. Not many quilters around. I remember having to zig-zag every seam allowance on a baby quilt to keep the fabric from shredding away. I wonder how long that one lasted. That was in the mid-70's and may have been the last quilt I cut out with cardboard templates and scissors. Soon the rotary cutter revitalized the lives of quiltmakers everywhere. Soooo much easier, quicker and not so hard on the hands. Sorry, I just had to take this walk down memory lane.

Thread 01-16-08

Presencia Cotton Sewing Thread 3-Ply, 50wt 500m spool

361 Dark Elephant Skin Gray, 363 Medium Gray 1, 365 Jet Gray

These spools of thread are so similar in color I think it is amazing how much difference there is when they are used in quilting. I am using 365 Jet Gray on "Woodland - Early Winter".

The spools are all the same size, the camera just distorted them.