[Magdalen] A kitchen drawer discovery.

[James Oppenheimer-Crawford]

My MIL would be in the running for that. We practically had to build an
addition on the house when Helen's fabrics came to live with us. Helen's
family was very poor when she was young, and she learned to make her own
clothes, and she never looked back. Vince, her husband, was a little
concerned with some of her fabric purchases, but when he discovered how
much dresses were actually going for, he told Helen she could buy all the
fabric she wanted. Now Christine has all of her mother's fabrics and a few
unfinished projects. She says that with all of her projects in needlework
of various kinds, she will never die.

We had a nondescript paper bag from my great aunt's house that had
something in it, but we didn't think it would be much, maybe some fabrics.
It sat among various bags and boxes, waiting. Just a couple years ago,
Christine opened the bag. Inside she found a series of patches for a crazy
quilt. Many patches were half done.  On closer examination, we found that
while some stitches were very precise, others were large and less
controlled.  Christine concluded that my great-great grandmother was
working on the quilt and allowed the tiny girls, Maude and Kate (my
grandmother and great aunt) to try some stitches. Perhaps it was put away
when the lady died, and nobody ever took it out again. Christine is
thinking of ways to use it, and is thinking of mounting each patch on a
background to stabilize them, and then distributing them to various family
members. The patches are at least 130 years old.
What a shame we did not find them when we were clearing out the house. We
could have asked both of them if they had any recollections of it.

We are hoarders, I fear. I'm trying to get rid of stuff I don't need any
longer, such as my theology books. Doubt that anyone will want those things
now...

James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
*“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved,
except in memory. LLAP**”  -- *Leonard Nimoy

On Sat, Nov 26, 2016 at 9:24 PM, ME Michaud <michaudme at gmail.com> wrote:

> Saw a bumper sticker once:
> The one who dies with the most fabric WINS.
> -M
>
>
> On Saturday, November 26, 2016, Lynn Ronkainen <houstonklr at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > Cleaning out/up after mom  over a 2 year period did leave me with the
> same
> > feeling but it didn't deter me *enough* not to bring stuff home.  Right
> now
> > I look like a hoarder of fabric, books, old photos and (empty) frames.
> >
> >
>