magikquilter April 11th, 2008
This week I hunted for a Salvation Army store I was sure I had seen sometime last year. It was raining and cold and gloomy, making it hard to see where I was going, then I found it tucked in next to the back of a nursery [plant shop not childrens centre] up a back street which is used more for offices and real estate agents etc.
I tried to look relaxed as I walked in but wondered what I had let myself in for. It is a rambling old building which by the look of it used to be a house. The rooms are all knocked through but the layout of them is still there, it was like going into someone’s dining room, lounge room, then bedrooms and finally working back to the old kitchen area. It probably had been used as offices or something but it didn’t feel like it as it is such a rambling old place. I started looking for fabric…no chance and worked my way through various rooms until I found myself back in one of the middle areas…..a lot of mens coats and on the other side of the hallway formal womenswear. After looking for some time and getting dead itchy I had a half hearted look through the mens jackets in case something was there that I could cut up for my throws. I spotted a vinyl jacket in a turquoise colour and after checking realised it was a woman’s swing jacket from the…. wait for it ….the 50s. I found a changing room with a door, unlike the vinnie’s ones with curtains that people can see around as you change. It fitted really well as it was meant to be a swing coat and would therefore have been really roomy anyway.
I paid for it and started talking to a gorgeous young chap about some blue Spodelike dishes on a sideboard. It was like being in my grandmother’s house except no doors! We established that it was Spode and a divine shade of blue and I showed him my coat and he said “but that is kid leather”. So I went outside into the light to check and there it was, in all its glory, a sort of hand dyed swirly kid leather. Not a thing wrong with it and doesn’t even smell after all that time and what with the company it was keeping in that store!
So I skipped along…I wish…..hurry up damn knee replacements…. to Westfield and smiled my way through coffee and banana bread and everyone smiled back…..it is like being in love, everyone picks up on it! I had better be careful in case this feeling becomes addictive but there is really no fear of that as it is so rare that I find anything in my size and for my sort of age bracket. Okay I hear all you women screaming in rage…what is she talking about …we can wear whatever we desire…well maybe but it doesn’t mean we should!
I try to wear quality clothes of rich colours and textures in natural fibres and they are not readily donated to charity shops in my size I find. Okay I am a size 16/18 Australian….see Sulz it is not too hard to tell people your dress size, if I can admit to that then how difficult is it to tell all you are a size 8? [ Sorry, that's a whole other story! ]Last week you may remember I did not actually shop at all so this week I allowed myself $50 and the jacket was $25 can you believe it? Can you?
Speaking of value, Melissa of tinyhappy fame sent me some fabric in exchange for the embroidered linen that I found her and the floral fabrics are wonderful, thanks so much Melissa. It isn’t easy giving people who have particular tastes and needs fabric etc but we seem to have done it! Also a huge success was the Melly and Me swap that Dawn in Durham, England and I are doing together. Her swap arrived here the day before Melissa’s and I truly feel that I have let her down as she did not want too many florals [and me the floral queen] so I sent hand dyed and batiks and now am really really worried. Her fabrics are different to my usual though, bright and quite gorgeous so maybe we will both be moving out of our comfort zone. Perhaps that is why swap challenges are so successful.
Speaking of moving out of my comfort zone, after the thing with flickr and being banned by the administrator I decided after encouragement from several ladies to start a different group and since Monday we have over 150 contributers and over 650 photos. I have chatted with many artisans and been really astounded that the more talented these people are, the more humble. Most are truly delighted to have a new platform to share their work and to also share in the work of others. I have assured them that they will always be informed if there are any problems and that there will be no banning with no recourse here. Of course that has led to a few emails this week trading horror stories of being kicked out of quilting guilds or being asked to leave because their baby gurgling with delight was such a distraction to some of the members. The thing I love about our new group is that there are no rules apart from not flooding the pool with too many photos and I am really enjoying seeing the sheer quantity and quality and range of some of the work on offer. The generosity of the contributors is heartening and their support of the group has been overwhelming. Sally who offered to resign from the other group has been a huge support and her experience as a fabric rep, quilt shop worker and artisan is really appreciated. Some of us are trying to stylise our photo shoots more in future ….to show the quilts and artworks as they are meant to be used.
So this week has been really rewarding and interesting how sometimes painful experiences can be turned around, and an even better outcome develops…all I need now is for my son to start feeling a little better after he had a setback this week healthwise. But he turned things around bless him by writing the funniest post which had his core readers crying with laughter instead of the usual sadness his work evokes. He also fixed my google reader which is wonderful and means I should always be up to date on all your goings on!
Tags: "50's leather jacket" "Salvation Army" flickr, swaps
