I managed to squeeze in another day of solo antiquing last week at a local favorite spot. With just an hour and half to spend there I put on my scanning eyes and set to work. For some reason vintage linens have really been catching my eye lately. I have found some beautiful tablecloths and towels to use at vending locations and they are so fun! I really want a complete set of towels for each day- especially with some kitschy puppy or kitten on it!
At the end of my alloted time I saw it- a piece of fabric in a ziplock bag caught my eye. It was about an 18 in square piece of linen with signatures and embroidered in my favorite color of the world- dark red. It also had 1903 and a street name on it- everything went swirly in my world and I knew I had a treasure in my hands. Can you believe that it was $1- I knew I was there to rescue it! I am trying to transcribe some of the names and hope maybe this will get picked up in internet land and someone might know one of these people whose names were lovingly hand stitched on it. What was it to be used for and why was it never used- ahhh I adore this kind of stuff! Here are some of the names I have transcribed:
Fannie(?) Street 1903
Beatrice Toalson, Corinne Seymour, Hon. J. Fred Cross, Leslie B. Hawkins, Bertha ?, Lillie Orrivings, Emma Cleve Eubrauk, Amanda Angell, Virgil Toldsberry, Velps Woods, A.S. Green, Mary Gentry, J.L. Carr, C.B. Carr, Sam Spelman Esq., Lyda Spelman, Johnie White, Willie B. Graves, John Spelman, Edmonds Rice, E.A. Green, Lizzie A. Truesdell, A.L. Carr, Hubbard Protter, Stella Toalson, W.S. Dinwiddie, Nettie Lyon, Alta P. Ritchie, Nannie Summers, E.H. Carr
Aren't some of those names just great! I just fell in love with the history of this piece! In the midst of my excitement I momentarily lost my keys there and had a panic moment till I found where I set them- of all the places to set down keys, an antique mall! I also left with another piece of fabric, a hand stitched quilt square that never made it into a quilt and another china cup and saucer for my childrens mis-matched tea collection- it was a lovely treasure hunt!
I will keep you posted if I find out anything more about the piece of fabric. Today as I was going through book catalogs I came across this book- very timely indeed! It is called The Kitchen Linens Book by EllynAnne Geisel- love that cover! BTW when Jasper was born we started buying my hubby's mama those linen calendar towels. Apparently her mama had them and they were hand out to the grandkids when she passed so we started up the tradition for kitchen linens each Christmas with the boys grandma- I guess it just runs in the blood!
