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Firstly, the famous bag of unfinished patchwork bought by my grandmother or mother at a Devon jumblesale in the 1980s - I decided to actually MAKE something with one of my favourite sets! More on that later, but here's what I found inside:
On magazine clipping with this black and white bike photo on one side and part of an article about London in the Second World War on the other...
Two maps of the Dorset/Devon border with information about walks in the area...
Inside a second patchwork set I spotted this piece from some camera instrutions, and the sweet little girl at the top of this post.
And to end this wonderful little time-capsule, a charming picture of a boy next to a Christmas tree. It all makes me think that this patchwork is earlier than the one I cut up, which seemed to have 1970s pieces of paper. 
Now, you may remember this sweet Florentine mirror I bought in an Edinburgh charity shop last year:
When Ben and I took it apart to repair it we found this cardboard on the back...
Macnab seems to have been a dyer of wool for the tweed industry. The cardboard also had this postcode on it, which I've tracked down to North Berwick, near the harbour. Another time-capsule peep into someone's life, and in fact the life of the city of Edinburgh...
Finally, you might remember that I took some 1980s ikat fabric off a cushion I'd made, back in my teens... and this was underneath! I'd hated it at the time, I remember.
But I like it now, and when it was clear the fabric wasn't surviving life as a 21st century cushion, I decided to take it off to save it. I put a piece into an embroidery hoop, and underneath that fabric was another cushion, made of...
...vintage ticking!
That was full of holes too, so I washed, ironed and chose a good piece, and put that into another embroidery hoop. Both are displayed above my vintage fabric boxes, where I think they look quite in-keeping.Do you have any stories of these little 'time-capsule' finds?
14 comments:
Your little finds within finds are fascinating, a peep into a bit of history.
Fascinating - what a great way to unearth history!
The only one which springs to mind for us is a postcard my husband had kept (the only one) which his dad had sent from the States in the 80's showing the twin towers which is sadly not part of the skyline anymore. I guess the postcard now forms part of history.
Oh Floss! How excited you must have been to find these lovely treasures! And how funny about the fabric that you didn't like as a girl! I love all of that old newsprint. That really is fascinating!
The two pieces of fabric framed in the embroidery hoops are just lovely........ such a nice way to display them. Such a journey those little bits of patchwork have made.........
Funny how you like the pillow now when you didn't like it back then...things always chang hey? So much nostaliga in this post...xxx
Home found treasures! I like a rummage in our loft, amazing what is up there.
Really enjoyed this nostalgic post and love the way you have displayed the material in your hoops (might just "borrow" that idea!)
Carol xx
Finding these bonus bits of the past are so exciting and helpful for figuring the era of found treasures. My very favorite are newspaper clippings of recipes found in old cookbooks.
It really is fascinating finding these bits of the past in unexpected places.
What a lovely post - you found some interesting things 'inside' other things!I sometimes use old frames to frame material - taking a picture out once, I found 5 little curls of hair at the back - all different colours!
It's lovely that you find beauty in so many unlikely things and, like these pieces of fabric, make them into something everyone can admire.
How lovely, all that history. What finds you have uncovered x
How one changes an opinion about certain things over time is interesting.
That's what I like best about thrift/charity shopping... It feels like you are unearthing a secret treasure box. And not to mention, the often good bargain deals :D
I think these fabric wall decor you did with the embroidery hoops are very pretty!
What wonderful discoveries. It's very exciting finding unexpected things hidden in purchases.
My story isn't along the same lines but thrilled me at the time. I have a photo of my g-g-grandmother in Wales. It was probably taken in about 1920. It looks just a photo of her standing in her front 'parlour'. When I blew it up on the computer just to see more detail, I found a large dog underneath the armchair. He's totally invisible in the ordinary picture. I was thrilled! xx
How wonderful to find all those snippets of past ordinary life.
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