Trunk Show

My brother has been the one that is representing our family in the "picking" stage of dividing up my grandmother's things.  He and my uncle & aunt have been great about laying aside things that certain grandchildren in particular might hold a little dearer than others.  Last night James gave me a car-load of treasures that for the most part, someone might just haul to the junk pile.  But not me....I love all the little odds and ends.

Material:  My sister-in-law joked that Grannie didn't wear any undergarments because every dresser drawer was full of material!  "Where did she keep her clothes?"  They brought 3 barrels and 1 trunk of material.  I have washed and folded most of that.  I'm going to say that most of the fabric dates back to the 60s or 70s and is mostly cotton blends.  After reading some of Grannie's daily journals, it sounds like she went to shirt factories and got scraps from them.

UFOs:  I take after Grannie in that I like to try lots of ideas and then when I find one I like, I go to town on it.  Unfortunately that sometimes means that I have a lot of UnFinished Objects laying around.....so did Grannie.  Her's were more that she started lots of projects at one time.  She had planned to finish them, but 98 years just wasn't enough time.  I was in the stars yesterday.

 And then there was these:  The Improved Nine Patch.

The last time that I visited Grannie at her home (over a year ago at least), she was working on some of these stars and this Improved Nine Patch.  The stitches are pretty big and the spacing is not so great....but she continued with her work as long as she could.  But seeing these yesterday took me back to January, when I found my mother's last project.

I had to take a moment and have a good cry.

Treasures:  In the midst of scraps I found these butterflies.  My great-grandmother did these on flour sacks.  Just a few of the treasures I've come across in all the odds and ends that come my way.