FLEA MARKET LINENS

LADIES HANDKERCHIEFS

Local Flea Market Find

Growing up my mother always made sure I had a clean handkerchief 

in my pocket or purse.

It was the Mark of a Lady!

Child's Handkerchief

These are not as common

If you look closely, the words say 

Find the Cow

A child has tried to write their name with marker

which gives it character in my opinion.

Why do I LOVE these little hankies, and vintage kitchen linens?  

Perhaps it brings back memories of growing up in the 50's & 60"s.

JUNE CLEAVER WAS my mother!

I remember receiving hankies as gifts for Christmas embroidered with, say, the days of the weeks, and I remember how they made me feel so much like a grown-up lady! My Great Grandmother embroidered every little girl in the family a hankie and apron for Christmas.  It was her way of expressing herself through her choice of fabric, color, thread, and her needle art.  Perhaps that's why I'm drawn to them.  I can envision the women who embroidered them fifty, sixty, or more years ago and it makes them come alive for me.

I can see using this print in a quilt block, can't you?

TABLECLOTH OR TABLE SCARF

I love all the little details in this cloth and even though there is a slight stain, it certainly won't keep me from using this on top of a chest, side table, or even layered with other table linens.

Stains only prove these cloths were well loved.

TWO DOLLARS$$$$$$$!!!!

5 1/2 YARDS!!

I found this bolt of material as I was walking by a Fabric table of various 

Hideous looking fabrics and out of the corner of my eye...I was actually PAST the vendor...when I saw this Fabric sticking up in a tub.

I know, it's not REAL vintage fabric, only Reproduction but I still LOVE IT!!

I will make a HUGE Tablecloth for my Dining room table and/or my 

my NEW KITCHEN TABLE that I'm going shopping for next week. Yippeee!!!

I ate off a Tablecloth with this same pattern as a child...lots of good memories of Mama

cooking in the kitchen and sitting at the table watching her prepare our meal.

IN FACT............

I have a funny story to tell about the day I invited the town "HOBO" (as we called Mr. Claude) to lunch.

Mama had recently given me one of her  "lessons" on good manners concerning how to treat people who may act or look different from us.  She even used Mr.Claude's name as an example of practicing Christian Charity.  Claude in real life was the heir to a large family fortune but had spiraled downward into a fog of mental illness.  He roamed the streets wearing a burly black wool coat regardless of the season and on his back he carried a HUGE sack of glass bottles he picked up all over town.  Remember, this was the 50's and soda's only came in glass bottles that you collected and returned for a deposit.

One day, while playing outside, I saw Mr. Claude ambling down the sidewalk in front of my house.  I immediately knew what I had to do...knowing Mama would be so proud...I invited him in for lunch.  Mr. Claude followed me to the back porch where I proudly announced Mr. Claude was going to have lunch with us!  I never doubted for one minute that Mama would be thrilled to have us BOTH for lunch!  Mama was peeling apples at the kitchen sink and I will never forget the "deer in the headlight" look in her eyes when she looked up and saw Claude standing on her porch with his sack full of glass bottles and me standing there  full of pride and smiling with my bottom two teeth missing!

  Mama later told me she knew in an instant where I had gotten the idea and to have refused Mr. Claude lunch would have undone any lessons she had ever taught me.

SO...on that hot summer morning, Claude and I had a lunch together of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at my kitchen table covered with a clean tablecloth matching the pattern in the fabric shown above.  I can still hear the Klink of the bottles as he shoved the bag under the table.  Once lunch was finished, Claude dutifully got up, gathered his bag, and left.  He never removed his coat and I can't remember if he thanked my Mama or not. I remember him mumbling during lunch and not understanding a word he said but it didn't matter.  I was too excited to be sharing my lunch with Claude.

I will NEVER forget that summer lunch, the kindness and wisdom of my sweet Mama, the lesson learned,and my pride in "doing lunch" with Mr. Claude, the Town HOBO.  It was a memory my mother and I often reminisced about over the years and even during her long decline into Alzheimer's, the memory remained.

I hope you enjoyed going down memory lane with me.  Vintage linens and prints do that for me.  They trigger memories, sounds, smells, and long ago days of childhood.  I think my youngest daughter will be the only child to appreciate my collections from the Linen Closet.  Anna Laura loves old things and has what I like to call an "old soul".  She will give them a good home one day.