Beanie and I hopped in the car this morning to see if we could find anything, but the pickins’ were thin, so we headed home. One last sign pointed towards an estate sale, and I cannot pass up an estate sale. Ever. This one wasn’t bad, in that the house had been greatly cleaned out already, and they just had boxes and boxes of stuff to rummage through. I knew my time was ticking, though, since Beanie doesn’t last long at sales…

At the door, a woman handed me a paper bag and said I could fill it up for $5.00. OK, sometimes that’s a good deal, sometimes not- but I thanked her and took the bag. That bag is now sitting on my desk next to me, and here is what is contains:

• 2 vintage linen table cloths, imprinted with embroidery but never embroidered. One is specifically a “Happy Birthday” cloth, the other is fall flowers.
• 2 vintage linen pillow cases, hemstiched.
• Four unopened transfer-packs of linen embroidery designs from the 1940’s.
• A book of linen embroidery ideas and patterns.
• Two boxes of vintage cotton stationary, cream and red with small blue flowers
• Hy-Tone linen correspondence calling cards, with tiny envelopes to match
• Two packages of vintage manilla metal clasp envelopes
• A ream of children’s writing paper from the 1950’s
• Unopened game of Rack-O
• Unopened vintage paint-by-number set of a Robin on a twig.
• Cartercraft mini Loomette in the box still.
• Vintage box of Travel Safety Bingo cards
• A folded-up envelope of seed pearls.
• A pack of Crane’s mini envelopes in rose pink.
• 24 zippers, new in packaging
• A whole bag of vintage sew-on rhinestones.
• A whole bag of buttons, fasteners, hooks and eyes.
• two sets of circular knitting needles and one set straight needles
• two boxes of school vintage school chalk, 1952
• 2 entire spools Lilly Mills cotton twine
• 4 spools cotton elastic
• 2 Iron-on transfer pencils, in package still
• A bag of assorted sequins and doo-dads.
• 1 Craftsman fly-tying magnifier.
• 1 finely crafted white cotton blouse, with pintucks and hemstitched collar.

Grand total: $5.00. I felt guilty. But I will also give it all a good home.

The woman who had died was obviously a seamstress, and I grabbed the beautiful blouse, which is much too small for me, because I wanted to remember the fineness of her stitches. If I am going to benefit from the things she left behind, the very least I can do is remember her. It also makes me think about the estate sale that my kids will have to hold if none of them likes to make stuff! I better get busy…

POST NOTE:

I found the Loomette on eBay- it’s from 1936!

And here’s the oil painting set!

And this is as close as I can find to my FOUR books of hot iron transfers…

Really wishing I had a camera about now! I want to share my super finds!