Sometimes a Great "Notion"

During the recent 2012 Lincoln Quilters Guild Quilt Show, there was a LONG hallway full of Silent Auction items.  Like sirens luring Odysseus, those goodies drew me down that hallway and a few said, "Bid on me! Bid on me!"

And, as luck would have it, I did have the winning $15 bid on one bag that included 44 nine-patch blocks, mostly made of vintage feed sack fabrics from the 1930s and 1940s.  You can tell by the texture.  Reproduction fabrics are thinner and smoother than real feed sacks. Some of the blue fabrics are not feed sacks, but I believe them to be fabrics of the 1940s.  

But when I opened the bag of vintage 9-patch blocks, what to my wondering eyes did appear but a veritable treasure trove of nifty old sewing notions -- way more than I'd bargained for!

So I'll let you have a peek.  (And if you know any vintage lovers, I'd be willing to share some of this stuff.  Truly it is MORE than I bargained for!)

One of the most intriguing pieces was this pattern showing women how to turn a 36" square Babe' scarf into a blouse -- actually 3 versions of a blouse -- in 20 to 30 minutes (yeah right!).  And you'd have to have a figure like a Size 2 Barbie doll to wear it.  Judging by the hairstyles, and the fact that the pattern calls for adding shoulder pads to each blouse, I'm guessing this was late 1930s or early 1940s.  Scarves probably weren't selling like hotcakes during the Depression or early War years---so it appears the scarf company tried to sell its scarves as blouse kits as a marketing gimmick.  Only a hunch.

Another great find was this two-inch by one inch Butternut Coffee "hosiery repair kit."  Moisten the little matchstick-like thingies hiding behind the thread, and stop a run in your hose.  A precursor to Fray Check? Nowadays I throw out pantihose with runs.

Another great find was this packet of beading needles by Walco - a company based in Bronx, NY.  For 19 cents you got several long beading needles in pretty red foil and instructions on how to apply pearls, sequins and rhinestones ---glitter and glam!  I wonder if the magician on the cover was drawn by the same artist who did the original Monopoly characters?  Where are those PBS Antiques Roadshow guys when you need 'em?

And there were over a dozen vintage metal zippers (not pictured) and quite an array of great sewing notions.  I have enough crewel embroidery and sewing needles to last for my lifetime (although I'll still probably keep buying some John James Big Eye Gold N' Glide Size 9 betweens because I love them so much).

There was a box of vintage metal bobbins which I hope will fit my vintage Featherweight sewing machine, a needle threader, a 141 cm Lutterloh folding ruler made in Germany (before the War?), 4 tape measures, a vintage metal oval embroidery hoop in rough condition -- but it could be a frame maybe, a hem gauge in cm and inches, silk covered snaps (maybe 1960s based on hairstyle), corset stays, a pattern tracing wheel, and a wonderful wooden-handled Joan Moshimer Hook made in Kennebunkport, Maine, that may be very handy when I start making crocheted or toothbrush rugs to use up some of my scraps.  I'm sure I'll need to poke in loose ends.  Several of the needles are from England or France and beautifully packaged, originally priced at 10 cents or 15 cents.

Any ideas for those vintage 9-patches?  The blocks will finish to six inches square, and I have 44 of them-- 30 red, white and blue, that might make a little patriotic quilt or table topper?  The other 14 are a mixed bag -- browns, yellows, purples and maroons.

TTFN
LeAnn aka pasqueflower
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