Category: needles

A Few Gifts

My mother has been going through her stuff, trying to thin them out. When she finds items she thinks I might like, she gifts them to me. I can’t keep everything she gives me, but I love that she thinks of me and gives me these little things. Recently she gave me a bag with sewing notions.

Sewing notions on wandasknottythoughts
Sewing notions

I’m not sure how old any of these are, but it is obvious they are not new.

Old wooden spools of thread on wandasknottythoughts
Old wooden spools of thread

Check out the cost of two of these spools of thread! The thread is old enough that I expect it would break when sewing with them. I wouldn’t try to use it unless I had to. All of the spools are wooden, which for some reason I just love.

Wooden needle cases on wandasknottythoughts
Wooden needle cases

All three of the wooden needle cases have needles in them. Each is labeled to have three needles inside, which they do, but two cases have five needles. And not all the same size. I do not know if these needles will work in my sewing machine, but I plan to check.

Mom doesn’t know where the needlebook came from, and there is no information on it except what you see. The back of the book looks just like the front.

Inside the needlebook on wandasknottythoughts
Inside the needlebook

Some of the needles have been used and a few are missing. I’m not seeing any needles here that will work for the thread I use in tatting, but I do sew buttons on once in a while, LOL!

My brother-in-law gave me a pretty cool gift recently. He knew it was something I wouldn’t use, but he thought it was funny.

Weaving shuttle on wandasknottythoughts
Weaving shuttle

According to Google, this is a wooden weaving shuttle. Check out how big it is! I have included the ruler and two tatting shuttles to show just how large it is. It does look like there is something broken on it. But it’s a cool gift. I think it will be a great decoration in my craft room.

I haven’t gotten much tatting done lately. Or much done on my patterns, either. I’m hoping to get back into both soon. I have gotten a bit of motivation from a couple of emails about preparation for Tatting Corning’s Tat Days in July. This is happening in three weeks! I need to start getting my tatting organized for the classes I’m taking.

“There is only one real deprivation… and that is not to be able to give one’s gifts to those one loves most.” May Sarton

Found

While cleaning out my aunt’s apartment, my sister and I found some pretty neat things. It’s not like she had lots and lots of stuff because she didn’t. In fact, when she moved into the apartment she pared her things down a lot. So what we found must have been important to her.

These old needle books were found in her sewing box. I believe two of them were give-aways. The other one was 25 cents! Both the blue sewing kit and the Farmer Needlebook say they were made in Germany. I wonder how old they are?

Needle books on wandasknottythoughts
Needle books found in her sewing box

You can see these needles were used. Check out the huge needle on the right! My aunt was ready for any sewing problems that came up.

Needle book needles on wandasknottythoughts
Needle books

We also found these cute little change purses! What a fun idea! My aunt was in the Red Hat Society for many years, so I’m sure that’s where she got the one and maybe the other. Have you ever seen this idea before? (The shuttle is there as a size reference only)

Little sock change purses on wandasknottythoughts
Little sock change purses

This bookmark that I gave my aunt in 2017 for Easter we found in her desk. I know it was from 2017 because she wrote the date on the back and then laminated it. The lamination flattened the tatting but it is very sweet that she wanted to keep it nice.

Easter bunny bookmark on wandasknottythoughts
Easter bunny bookmark

I’m very glad we finally finished cleaning out the apartment. There are so many things we put on hold when this came up so we could take care of it, but family does what is needed.

I had started doing some cleaning at my house before I was needed elsewhere and I’ve been finding a lot of things I didn’t expect. It’s funny sometimes what you find that you have forgotten about. Check out this picture of me from Christmas 1994.

Tatted tie from Christmas 1990s on wandasknottythoughts
Tatted tie from Christmas 1994

The tie I’m wearing is something I made for one of my daughters several years previous to this. I dreamed it up when she had a special dress-up day at school and needed a tie. This makes me want to look for the picture of her wearing the tie! The teddy bear is wearing a collar I had made for my mother-in-law that really wasn’t big enough for her. But it fit the bear very nicely!

I still have a lot of cleaning that needs to be done at my house. It will be interesting to see what else I find.

“When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on.” Franklin D. Roosevelt