old treasures. new joy.

i can't begin to convey the thrill i felt as i dug through a pile of bagged, old bedspreads and sheet sets at one of my favorite thrift haunts today. i spied a flash of hand stitched silk. a goodly sized vinyl bag of it. a price tag declaring an unbelievable asking price of only $3.99. without hesitation, i snagged the promising treasure. ignoring the the "do not open" tape across the zipper (normally, i would tug and push and attempt to get a better look at the contents before even thinking about purchasing something that i can't look more closely at) and dashed for the clerk and her waiting cash register.  moments later, package safely tucked beneath my arm, i jumped behind the wheel of my truck and headed home before someone changed their mind about how much they wanted for the hidden treasures...

once home, i tossed the saint outside (so as to avoid unsuspecting drool and stray hairs) and carefully unwrapped my prize.... inside, i found two small, hand stitched quilts (silk baby quilts??), one twin sized stitched silk quilt top, one full sized basted silk quilt top, and one queen sized hand stitched cotton quilt top! a few pictures follow to tease you into wanting to see more...

and a bit of the foundation cloth peeking out from behind...

and a closer look...

which only tantalized. so i had to tear mesmerized eyes from the delicious vintage silks and look more closely at the foundation fabrics...

i simply love, love, love the ingenuity and wide range of resources from which these fabrics have been culled! now, i have quite a large collection of vintage quilts and quilt tops, ranging from the 20's through the 70's and 80's, but these silk ones have really arrested my attention at the moment.  with so much talk in jude hill's advanced boro workshop about recycling and resourcing fabrics at hand, this top really hit home.  gave much food for thought. my mind is still reeling from the find. chaotic. speculative. wondering. wonder filled.

first thought when i found this treasure filled pouch, was to add the vintage silk to my piles for the advanced boro workshop. to cannibalize the find and give the treasures a chance to be reborn. transformed. repurposed. re sourced. but now i find that i simply cannot do it. not at this moment in any case. so they will live as they are for a space in my studio. i sense that they will be revisited time and time again. studied. appreciated. marveled at. for some time to come. even in these few moments, i find something new to ponder...like the snippet of silk caught (presumably by accident) in the hand stitches that was trimmed and left behind. silent testimony to careless stitching. or perhaps as a reminder to be more present. more mindful while stitching...

and then...just as i was preparing to put it all away (the cotton top still unexamined in any detail), i found a treasure clinging to the backing of the basted top. a wonderful 4" square of time softened brown silk. not stitched. just hanging out. hiding. waiting to be revealed....

this rescued treasure will indeed be added to my workshop pile and will find its quiet way to a place of prominence in one of my workshop manifestations!

but for now, it is much too late. i should have been sleeping long ago. have to be up in four hours and head to work for a double shift. tomorrow will be the longest day! no computer. no workshop. no fondling of the silk and other fabrics and fragments...

the cotton treasure will have to wait until tomorrow night...

namaste'



p.s. as you may have noticed, i finally found my digital camera! happy days! now i'll be able to shoot that tutorial and you will no longer have to clean your glasses, wondering what on earth was on your fingers to have caused such hideous smudges and blurs!  :)