Nostalgia - and personal indulgence

I don't have anything quilty to report. I haven't had time to stitch since Sunday. When I finish this post I plan to go upstairs to pin another quilt on the machine - it will be so nice to touch fabric again! I'm in the middle of a marathon "listening" session while I quilt - I borrowed all the Harry Potter books on CD from my kids so I could "read" them all again before the next one comes out. Just a little over a month - I can hardly wait! Is Snape really a bad guy or a good guy? Will Harry survive? Those are the burning questions we all want answered!

In the meantime my "quilty" time has consisted of browsing the Internet at work during lunch. I've been intrigued by a new blogger I found who collects vintage embroidery transfers. I've not thought of Vogart transfers for years and years. Memories came flooding back as I read the posts and perused the pictures. Memories of spending my small allowance of 25 cents a week on embroidery floss and transfers. I think floss was two or three skeins for 5 cents, and transfers were either 10 cents or 15 cents. My mother bought flour sacks at J.J. Newberry, cut them in half and hemmed them, getting two dish towels per flour sack. Then she stamped them for me, and I stitched the designs.

When my allowance increased and I started junior I started buying my own flour sacks. I loved to embroider - my mother started me stitching when I was five or six. I can remember many summer days when she'd say "Enough Patti Jo - put down that embroidery and go outside for some fresh air and exercise!" My reply was always the same - "I don't want to go outside - I don't need fresh air and exercise!" Didn't usually work, so I had to ride my bike for awhile before I could sneak back inside to go back to my stitching.

As years passed my birthday and Christmas gifts to mom expanded from one or two towels to an entire set. I laugh now when I think of that - because my sister and I did the dinner dishes and probably used the towels way more than she did. I loved the designs with days of the week the best - even though the towels were never used on the appropriate days! I stored my thread by clipping the skeins into good lengths and braiding them. I'd hook them around someones finger if one was available - otherwise I used my big toe for braiding the thread! I still have thread from my youth that I keep and use this way, though I started storing new thread differently when I became addicted to counted cross stitch.

Fast forward to last Monday. Floresita talked about buying vintage transfers on Ebay, so I took a look. What a wealth I found - including many of the very same transfers I'd stitched as a child. That's when I knew I had to have a few of them. The towels I made as a child turned to rags long ago - I never did make a set for my hope chest as I'd change my mind and give them to my mother for yet another gift. Now I will make them again - stitching to my memories of wonderful times. I will hang them in my kitchen to be pretty - not used - and will be reminded of happy times whenever I see them. I bought this set on Ebay on Monday evening, paying more than I probably should have but worth every penny for the memories. I won another set Tuesday - kittens in the kitchen - which should arrive soon. Just thinking about stitching these designs again fills me with happiness.

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Gratitudes:
1. A glass of ice cold milk
2. Treasures brought by the mail carrier
3. The colors of my world
4. Another pound lost!