My Grandmam died 15 years ago and her sewing/craft items have been in the corner of her closet all that time. My aunt gathered up the boxes and bags and I brought them home this afternoon and what a treat it was to go through it all. I came across some treasures in amongst all that stuff and thought I'd share....
^There were lots of spools of thread, but I kept the colors that I thought were pretty together..... I'll put them on display in a little basket.
^My mom has one set of Mr. and Mrs. Claus and now I have another. I don't think anyone knew they were in there! Not only are the contents special, but so is the box - a hess's box.
^This project she started and I'm going to finish. It's a crewel needlework pillow of which my Grandmam has complete other than actually making the pillow. It's so neat to think that she made all these stitches.....
There were pieces of newspaper in her sewing box and I was trying to figure out why she was saving them and then, duh, I looked at the pieces and realized they were homemade pattern pieces. The date was cut off but I did a little detective work from an ad for a movie theater on one of the pieces. The movie was Chinatown starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway and it said now in it's second week, so that dates the paper from June 1974. Thank you, Google.
^I'm not sure what this is - it's long enough for a tablecloth but not wide enough. She was cross-stitching the pattern on it but it's not complete. It's still really pretty, though.
And finally, the boot. This brought tears to my eyes and I called my mom when I found it and she started crying, too. One year for Christmas (back in the 70's) my Grandmam made a 'foot' for each one of us. My dad got a work boot like this one, my brother Doug got a sneaker with an athletic sock, I got a Maryjane shoe with a pretty sock and my mom got and old-fashioned high heeled lady shoe with a stocking. We no longer have them because my mom cleaned out the attic years ago (when Grandmam was still alive) and threw them out. She said it's one of the most stupid things she ever did. She wishes she would have kept them. (See, my pack rat gene must not have come from her!) (I save everything! LOL) Anyway, finding this boot was such a good thing.
Special, sentimental treasures are a good thing. :-)