Saturday, December 8, 2012

Estate sale and antiquing: what I did and didn't buy

A library colleague emailed me earlier in the week to say that his mother, a quiltmaker, had passed away and that the estate sale would be this weekend (December 6-8) in Crystal Lake. "You won't believe how much fabric she had," he wrote.  Well, yes, I would!    I wasn't able to go until Friday afternoon -- after a morning meeting and picking up this year's shipment of grapefruit and oranges for Rotary.  Crystal Lake is about 30 miles away.


 
        It was just as well that I went on the second day. The fabric was bagged in 2-gallon plastic bags, marked at $8.00., stuffed in higgledy-piggledy. There was less to choose from (so I was assured by two women who'd been there Thursday). The estate sale woman was amenable to dealing, so I got the fabric for half price. I didn't know until I got home what treasures I'd gotten. I weighed the packages and reckon 55 yards, for $31.00.

 I also got a stack of quilting books....and this charming china rose bouquet, 2" tall, no broken petals.  

On my way home I stopped at the Volo Antique MallBonnie Hunter posts about her antiques mall finds and I was channeling her.  Look what I discovered!  

This is a Wheeler & Wilson treadle, Civil War-era.   Here is more about the company -- if you scroll down a ways there is a drawing of this very model.   The price for this was $200.  It's a beauty but I have NO place for it.

Nor do I have a place for this thread cabinet -- at  $1100 I couldn't afford it.


 Marshall Field's boxes are collectable now.  (I keep cookie cutters in a MF&Co. box because that's what my mother did. She did so because it was expedient; I do so because of sentiment.)  

There was a nice Sunbonnet Sue quilt.


This is what I did buy, for $2.57 (with tax). It's a cotton hankie that may be WWII era.  (I recently read Wearing Propaganda which is about WWII-era textiles in the U.S., Europe, and Japan.) 

(I got the soldier-print silk hankie at an estate sale last summer.)

12 comments:

  1. We clutch at our hearts in excitment, but I've parted out two quilters estates, and by the pound is about the only way to do it. I'm trying to use up all MY fabric :)
    Sharyn in Kalama

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  2. Why don't I ever find estate sales? Good dealing, Nann! And thanks for showing the antique treadle machine, wow! I'd say you exercised good restraint in your shopping. Tell Santa you've been good.

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  3. What a marvelous haul. I am NEVER that lucky. Enjoy your find.
    Ludmilla in Maryland.

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  4. What treasures... and the treadle and thread cabinets are gorgeous. How did you manage to walk away? I would have mortgage my first born for them... lol lol

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  5. What treasures... and the treadle and thread cabinets are gorgeous. How did you manage to walk away? I would have mortgage my first born for them... lol lol

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  6. Thanks for sharing your finds -- even if you didn't get to keep them yourself, the rest of us can have fun drooling over them with you!
    :-)

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  7. Ohhhh. Is that text fabric at the bottom? You lucky girl!

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  8. Great fabric and what a cool machine! That book sounds interesting. I bought a feedsack f few years back with WWII motifs all over it; airplanes, ships, etc., and some not-so politically correct depictions of the Japanese and the Germans.

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  9. I'm sure you were sad not to get the thread cabinet and treadle. Sometimes ya just got to be realistic. Darn it. I hope you share your fabric finds with us. It'll be like opening a treasure chest when you get into the bag.

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  10. The treadle machine is a Wheeler & Wilson #4/5. It has a glass presser foot. And they take curved needles.I have one in my living room, though I've never sewn on it. There used to be leather straps on the foot pedals.
    The one you showed looks to be in beautiful shape.
    Kitty in rainy Syracuse

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  11. Thank you for taking pictures to share. I've never seen that type of Treadle before. Very unique and OLD. The hankies are much easier to store than a big machine in a cabinet too.

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