Thursday, January 20, 2011

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!  :)

23 comments:

  1. Fabulous finds! I love your description of how you felt as you were
    going through the store and got home with your new treasures.
    I recently found an enitre king size quilt for a mere 5.99.
    The fabrics were not what I would pick and were not as beautiful as yours
    but, I was thrilled to find it none the less. I try to imagine the hands that
    stitched the quilt and what the person was/is like.
    Can't wait to see what you create in Jude's class : )
    <3

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  2. Oh me, oh my, what a find.... and what perfect timing too. Surely you will want to add to it's story by the end of Jude's class.

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  3. ooohhhh ~ its these moments that feel so so
    full...enough for a lifetime.
    this is just so Beauty Full.

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  4. i find myself doing that, too, marie. wondering. feeling a tenuous, if imaginary connection to its original facilitator. sensing what the cloth's environment may have been like. what the intentions surrounding its unfoldment were. it brings a depth to the relationship, I think.

    namaste'

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  5. perhaps, penny, I might be able to bring myself to play with the one with the plain back. i don't think i can bring myself,to mess with the one with the wonderfully diversely re-sourced backing....

    namaste'

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  6. oh, grace...and its terrible to have to work a double shift today! it's like having to leave a new puppy at home right after adopting her!

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  7. I am so excited for you! The thrill of the hunt and the serendipity of being at the right place at the right time. Vintage fabric that has aged, has its own story, and now in a new home, still has to simmer. It has to tell you what it wants to become and relax its threads. What better reward for working a double shift, than thoughts of the possibilities waiting at home. Cheers.

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  8. great find. looks like a 'crazy quilt' was planned given the feather stitching on some of the pieces. are those 'feed sacks' that were used for the backing?

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  9. Congratulations!!! Wonderful finds.
    I believe that treasures like these wait for the right people to discover them. I have a friend that is always finding and being given something that she will treasure...some call it luck, but it seems to be more than that.

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  10. Oh! Lucky, Lucky Joe. Color me green my dear. Can't wait to see what you do with found treasures.

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  11. Joe, what wonderful colors, am going to start paying better attention to the bedding at goodwill! Is that North Dakota piece a feedsack or what? I grew up there, used to drive to Montana to go to bars cuz the drinking age was 18 there! And then drive back to ND. Crazy.

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  12. Beautiful find! and it seems in good shape.

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  13. they are flour sacks, along with embroidered napkins or table cloths, and the bird cloth, which i have no idea what it is... the flour sacks are from the russell & miller milling company. this is what i have been able to find out about the company:

    "In 1879, a milling pioneer named Hiram Walker built a small water-powered mill on the Sheyenne River at Valley City. In 1882, John Russell invited his son-in-law, Arthur Miller, to form a partnership in operating the mill acquired from Walker. In 1886 Russell and Miller took the first step in a series of expansions which would eventually make the company the fourth largest milling firm in the nation. This was the purchase of a second mill at Jamestown, North Dakota. Subsequently, the partnership was incorporated as the Russell & Miller Milling Company. The brand name "Occident" meaning "out of the West" was selected because milling operations were situated in what was then the extreme western area of wheat production. As the company's milling capacity grew, its allied interest progressed. Increased milling meant more need for grain and thus, proper storage facilities. The Russell & Miller Milling Company built its first grain elevators in the years between 1882 and 1892. By 1906 Russell-Miller's capacity was 8,000 hundred-weights (cwts). It had experienced fires both in Jamestown and Valley City, rebuilding those mills and constructing a new mill at Minot, North Dakota. In 1907 the company's headquarters were moved to Minneapolis where it built a major mill to take advantage of the tremendous stock of select wheat. This move further assured the high quality of "Occident" flour." -from digital horizons

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    1. Joe~ My GGG grandfather was John A. Russell co-founder of the company. If you have any other pics I would love to see them.

      Kerry

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    2. i'll pull the quilt back out and see what is there to photograph...

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  14. This is one of the nicest stories I have read all week on my favorite blogs! I'm so happy for you, and a bit envious, and I can't imagine how satisfied and happy you feel to hold these treasures in your hands. I don't think I could mess with the quilt with the wonderful foundation either. What a blessing!

    ;~) Debi

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  15. I've just found your wonderful blog through Jude's tonight, and I have to say that I really enjoy hearing a male voice in the world of slow cloth!! Thanks for sharing your marvelous find!

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  16. Joe-
    I was intrigued by the Russel & Miller bag, since I live in Fargo, ND. Thanks for the history lesson.
    Where did you find the quilt? That is, what part of the country? I don't need to know the exact shop!

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  17. i found the r&m bag here in billings, mt. there are a lot of transplants from north dakota around these parts! :)

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  18. How lucky are you! The U.S, seems to have a lot more old stuff in such shops than we get in Australia. I have found some lovely old embroideries but no silk of any kind in any form, I am so envious. I have so much on my Jude pile it is starting to reach to the ceiling, I guess things will calm down eventually.

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  19. I think you are right to live with these treasures for a while before perhaps working with them. I have done this with pieces of old Japanese cloth and allowed the communication to begin at its own pace. I think of this as collaborating with an unknown artist - and a rich and rewarding experience it is.

    Came to you via Jude (who else?) Wonderful work you do...

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  20. Oh My Gosh what a precious precious find .....yes i probably would not be able to unpick and reuse it seems to have a history and story of its own sewn into its seams .....lucky you ....although I suspect it was waiting for you to find it ....

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