This blog should be called "The Adventures of a Fabric Junkie!". I am passionate about fabric, threads, colours and textures. I can record my crazy quilting, sane quilting, embroidery and everything else that I consider important in my life.

Photo shows my block for the Hurricane Katrina fund-raising quilt "All That Jazz".

Thursday, June 09, 2011

Inheritance from Aunty Ame

Click on each photo to see the contents clearly.

Mum's oldest sister Amy (my Aunty Ame) died in March 1970.  Her house and everything in it was left to my four cousins including a large box of laces, braids, ribbons and scraps of fabric. Aunty Ame was a professional doll's clothes maker during the 1950s and 1960s so every month or so, a man would leave dozens of naked Pedigree and Roddy dolls in their boxes at her house and he would pick up the previous lot, fully dressed in knickers, petticoats, dresses and bonnets. Some were dressed as brides and Bo-Peep while others were dressed as little girls in their Sunday best but all of them were absolutely gorgeous in their taffeta and flocked nylon frocks. I am not sure if this bloke owned a chain of toyshops or whether he was a toy wholesaler but this business transaction went on for several years that I know of.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, my sister and I met several cousins for lunch on Sunday and I shall always be indebted to my cousin Jackie who has hung on to the box of bits for over forty years. They have not been touched........until today, when we met for lunch and she gave me the box.  I think I have died and woken up in Crazy Quilter's Heaven!!! I have just been going through the box and I actually remember some of the braids but the part that really spun me out was several little bundles of short length of laces and braids (obviously scraps) tied in bundles with ribbon.  I REMEMBER doing that when I was about ten or eleven and I was staying with my aunt and uncle during the school holidays.  She was sewing and I was bored, the hairs stood up on the back of my neck when I found them.....just as I had left them over half a century ago.



Right now, I am so delighted and stunned by all these treasures, some will undoubtedly find their way onto crazy quilt blocks.  I can never repay Jackie for her generosity nor can I repay my aunty for stashing all this stuff in the boxes and winding a lot of laces and braids onto cut pieces of cardboard from old Pedigree Doll boxes. Here are some photos of the stash which has not seen the light of day in over forty years.

12 comments:

Bear said...

Viv,
we thought it unladylike to come and snatch so we will leave you with our green eyes boring into your back from a far. oh my What a treasure Auntie left you, and how good of your cousins to give to you this wonderful wealth of treasures from way back when!
Enjoy it Viv you will be looking at this lot for months if not years to come and just being enriched by the beauty of it all
love n hugs bear xoxoxoox

Faye said...

Oh WOW Viv!!! All I can say is WOW!!!

Rose Anne B said...

OHHH WOW Viv this is just mind boggling for sure! And I sure hope your hubby took pics of you and your reactions looking through all these treasures? I can just imagine the AWE when you saw the ribbons you helped sort and tie up - that would have had me on the floor by the bed sobbing remembering those special times with Aunty! Lucky you and yes thank goodness Jackie did keep the box and that you girls met and you showed off your CQing!!! That was Kismet for sure!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Gerry Krueger said...

I am the world's biggest sentimentalist and would hardly be able to stop fondling it all... You must do some kind of special memory piece with it... Gerry K.

Connie said...

I think you had better pinch yourself - you may indeed be in Heaven!

Mánya said...

Oh, wow, Viv! What a wonderful box of treasures! And the fact that they brought back to you such lovely memories just makes it all priceless!

crafty cat corner said...

I'm dying from jealousy here, what a great gift. That's a patch workers dream.
I always hope I am going to find something like that at the car boot.
Still loving the blocks you are producing.
Briony
x

Unknown said...

What a fantastic box of vintage treasure! I think I would be stuck for hours fondling and going through all those bits and trims. So glad it found it's way to you, Viv!

threadgatherer said...

OMG - I thought you were talking about a shoebox size of box!!! LOL
I'm with Faye - WOW!!

piney cq said...

Lucky, lucky girl!! Have fun playing with it all! WOOHOO!!!!

kerrykatiecakes2 said...

Lucky you! I think you will be having fun-fun-fun with all these goodies! Enjoy!
Hugs,
Kerry

crazyQstitcher said...

Who better to receive such a bounty of fabulous stash than you Viv. I'm sure you have a stash Angel. Remember sitting in the dentist room stitching and ending up by receiving another lot of stash because someone could see your talent.
I'm sure your Aunt Amy would be looking down with a huge smile on her face now.
Enjoy and create
hugs Maureen