Grandma's House Treasures

My Jacobus, PA grandma died a number of years ago. She had lived with Alzheimer's for a decade in a special wing at a nursing home.  When she went to the nursing home the family cleaned out her home of more then 45 years.  She never threw anything away.  We found toys from her six children, clippings of weddings and funerals, letters, and in the basement old ketchup bottles from when people made their own ketchup.  I was just getting into sewing and quilting and so looked for fabric, sewing items, and other miscellaneous trinkets.  Some of the things I acquired included all of the buttons I recently sorted into old assorted Kerr, Mason, and Ball canning jars.

In a previous post I mentioned fabric sample cards -

 well my grandpa also brought home button sample cards.  I found about 16 full with some doubles and some that had many of the buttons already cut off.   I left the full cards as they are and removed the buttons from the  cut up cards(they were all double anyway).

I was good at finding odds and ends in small tins and nooks and crannies of various drawers.  Treasures like old jewelry, game pieces, a Kennedy button, cracker jack toys, and  these stylish belt buckles

I loved finding special handmade items like these Sun Bonnet Sue needle cases and miscellaneous crocheted items .

Also a vintage fabric apron that is back in style today. 

 I recently found a great pattern for one at Stash Manicure.

In my hunting I found some items of historical significance including this armband and pin from World War II.  My grandfather was an air raid warden before he went into the army.

 

And from a later era are these head bands and peace belt-guess what decade?

I especially love these very small belts from my mother's nurse uniform when she was a student at Polytechnic.  She had such a tiny waist!

These are just some of the treasures I found when we cleaned out my grandma's home.  What was the most meaningful to a then young beginning quilter were 13 quilt blocks made by my grandma.  They were simply appliqued cat and dog blocks, outlined and detailed with embroidery.  She made quilts for the second generation of grandkids using these blocks.  What I love is the fabrics she used-from those sample cards for the cats and dogs and old pieced sheets for the background.  She was a true scrap quilter.

Keep dreaming,

:o) Colleen