Spunky Spools

Spunky Spools
Originally uploaded by misseskwittys.

Ok---time for the truth to come out (I'm sure many of you have guessed this already, but I need to say it out loud). I am a fabric-o-holic. Yup *shakes head with shame*. There, it's out! lol I cannot drive past a fabric shop without stopping in. I try to limit myself to fat quarters unless I have a specific project that I am shopping for. I am the same way with buttons! I haunt thrift and antique shops for buttons and find it very hard to part with them once I have them. Oh, some of the newer buttons or ones that I find a whole package of, I can part with those. But not the beautiful old ones. When I find a really wonderful and obviously expensive old button, I often imagine where it came from--was it sewn onto a special outfit to be included in a bride's trousseau, or a special party dress, or something wonderful that was worn in some particular historical event. As if that is not bad enough--antique linens! I have an old suitcase (isn't that appropriate?) full of old tablecloths, pillowcases, dresser scarfs, and lovely old hankies. I can't bring myself to do anything with them because I love them too much to cut them up or ruin them in any way. I use a lot of them around my house, but you can only really put out so many without feeling like you are living in a textile museum or something! I rotate them in and out of the suitcase so they don't just sit in there unused and unforgotten. Some have stains or small tears or holes, but that doesn't make me love them any less. I get out my suitcase and go through them every now and then--I just am amazed with the fine stitching of those unseen women, many who are gone now --and how they would put so much time and effort into an everyday object, just to make it pretty. I guess that is what we do, even today, but it is so much easier for us. We have basically unlimited resources--so many fabrics to choose from, floss in every color imaginable right at our fingertips, patterns that we just have to iron-on, etc. OK, I guess that is enough for now--I don't want you all to know the FULL extent of my illness, LOL. I take some comfort in the fact that at least I use some of the items--and I try and make beautiful things to share with others. Who knows, maybe some day a woman will find one of my items and pick it up and wonder about me.