Monday, May 4, 2009

Lovely Gifts from a Lovely Stranger

These things just don't happen to me. I'm still pinching myself on this one.

Sunday was DH's (Bruce) birthday (he's celebrating his "dyslexic 26th birthday", which is an improvement over last year's "dyslexic 16th birthday, LOL!). Bruce's brother (Doug) called on Sunday morning to say he was coming over with a gift for me. We thought he'd maybe started, ...uh, "celebrating" a bit early, LOL, and figured he really meant a gift for Bruce. But no, he'd forgotten Bruce's birthday, and the gift was indeed for me.


Doug walked in with a large carton of Stuff. It seems he's met a friend on Facebook, a dear whose name is also Catherine, who is moving to Utah in the near future and is downsizing. She had gone through the things that her grandmother, a quilter and sewist, had passed on to her, and now she wanted to pass them on to me (Doug had mentioned his crazy sister-in-law - that would be MOI - to her). When I took a peek at what was in the box, I nearly fainted!

The first thing that caught my eye was a pile of vintage hankies. You know me and vintage hankies - never met one I didn't love. And the laces. Vintage laces make me weak in the knees anyway, and there were so many..... I won't even begin to
describe them here - you'll see the pictures. But I do want to mention the salesman samples of lace, complete with tags giving their product number and price. These are old!!! And there were books, a 1930 Herrschner's magazine (mint condition) with accompanying thimbles, trims, ribbons, braids, sequins, bias tapes & rayon bindings, and assorted "bits and bobs".

All of this was a gift from a woman I don't know. YET. I sent my card off with DBIL, he gave the info to Catherine, and we've been able to correspond a bit. I'm really looking forward to meeting her and getting to personally thank her. And I feel a big need to Pay it Forward, so I'll be doing some thinking on this............

But in the meantime, would you like some vicarious thrills, my friends???

These, obviously, are the hankies. Aren't they gorgeous?? And they are in lovely condition, definitely not cutters.

And here are the books. Every one of these books is a treasure, and I've only scanned them. I'll be digging deeper during the week.

This the Spring 1930 issue of the Herrschner's catalog, along with a Herrschner's thimble that came with it, and Catherine's note about the other accompanying thimble. It gives them a bit of provenance, don't you think?


I'm only going to show you this one page for now, because I don't want to handle the magazine too much. However, I'm going to do what Pam Kellogg did several weeks ago, which is to scan the magazine then show a few pages each post. I'll get that started next month probably (too many deadlines for me in May).

And now, here are some of the laces. I'll show more in the next post, but there's plenty here to feast the eyes on. These are all of nearly uniform length. Each has a paper tag attached at the left of the strip which gives a product number and (usually) the price. Oh, if these were only the prices we had to pay today, LOL!!


The patterns are so beautiful - and different from today's patterns.

Is there anyone out there who is knowledgeable enough about laces to hazard a guess as to what the possible dates of these might be (given the prices)???

These are just some examples of the laces in various widths. There are far too many to show them all.

But I will have more samples to show you next time in still different widths. And then there are all the crocheted laces (removed from garments and linens), and other laces, and, and....

To wind this up, however, I must tell you that dear Bruce had a wonderful birthday Sunday, even if his brother forgot him, LOL! He got lots of Barnes & Noble gift cards from the kids, and an IPOD from me. We had our coffee date at the bookstore, dinner out, and even spent some time out in the yard between the rainshowers. Life is good.

Cathy

16 comments:

  1. WoW! you are truly blessed. What a fabulous gift from a total stranger.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Happy Birthday, Bruce. "If I had only known, I would have baked a cake!"

    What a wonderful gift (and surprise). The love of strangers reaching across the miles.

    Love ya,

    Bev

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hello Cathy, I can hardly believe how lucky you are. What a super wonderful gift. The laces are to die for and the magazines and books are truly a treasure. Thanks for sharing it all with us. Big Hugs Judy

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wow Cathy, I can imagine you almost fainted, I would! The laces are very!!! beautiful. I have enlarged all the photos and imho are those laces all machine made (woven) in the beginning of 1900 or in the end of 18th century.
    Not made with bobbins by hand.
    This is a big treasure with all the original labels on it.Is there not a museum in your neighbourhood which can take care of it? This is definitely not something to cut in pieces for CQ!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I couldn't think of a nicer person to receive such a gift...You have fun and wow, what a haul...,hugs, Skye

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wow, Cathy, those truly are a treasure as is the person who gave them!
    Susan

    ReplyDelete
  7. Incredible!! How cool was this?! Enjoy!!
    Hugs,
    Kerry

    ReplyDelete
  8. What a fantastic package and what a lucky girl you are! Those laces are gorgeous!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Oh my goodness.... you must be an angel, because obviously you have "died and gone to heaven".... VBG! Lucky you, but well deserved.... lovely, lovely, lovely.... Hugs

    ReplyDelete
  10. Cathy how wonderfully beautiful these ''gifts'' all are.
    I would have loved to have seen your face when opening the package!
    As Skye say's couldnt think of a nicer person to recieve these treasures.
    They are certainly keepers to treasure and drool.
    Hugs Pam UK

    ReplyDelete
  11. Enjoyed every morsel...thanks for sharing. I found some vintage laces yesterday and am still fondling them.
    Smiles,
    Pat

    ReplyDelete
  12. Very cool. Enjoy your treasures. It must be karma.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Wow Cathy! How lucky can a gal get??? Awesome!

    ReplyDelete
  14. I know nothing about laces, but i do know those are absolutely beautiful.
    blessings
    and have a great weekend,
    barbara jean

    ReplyDelete
  15. What a wonderful present for such a nice person. I am celebrating your gift with you. Thanks so much for sharing the pictures with everyone. Hugs, Diane

    ReplyDelete
  16. Oh, my! How beautiful, and what a lovely lady to pass them along to you! A fantastic gift!

    ReplyDelete

I appreciate your visit to my blog and love your comments!