I love using vintage linens in my work and as a result have been collecting them for some time. The other day I was downstairs soaking fabric in a print solution and painting a purse. For some reason the complete chaos on the fabric wall caught my eye. I must straighten that up…note to self! It’s odd that this moment when we are living in utter chaos due to remodeling that I would notice this cluttered stack of fabrics.
So I have just emerged from sorting and straightening the collection. And I have one word…STOP! Stop collecting, stop buying these wonderful tidbits of past lives and generations. Enough is enough already! In fact enough is so much that I am re-gifting to the Universe a large bag of vintage linens!
I sorted linens by purpose: damask dinner napkins, tablecloths, towels (dish, embroidered & hospitality), use for collaborative series and outta here! In the outta here pile are many linen dinner napkins I brought from my mother’s collection thinking I would over-dye them. That is not going to happen…outta here! I texted my daughter an image of some gorgeous yellow upholstery cotton yardage which she did not want…outta here! I don’t even remember where I got that piece except maybe at the Legacy where I donate fabric. Well it has stayed with me long enough, time to go back. I wonder how often they see inventory return?!
People are always offering me more. A local woman has told me on more than one occasion that she is going to give me bags of linens, and bags of fabrics. Another has promised me her family’s linen dinner napkins. Please don’t!
What is so interesting to me about the acquisition of said vintage linens is how that in itself has become a bit of joy! It is fun to poke around consignment shops, mostly while traveling or go to yard sales to find old linens. As a gal who was raised to enter thrift shops solely to donate (never buy…gasp!) it has opened my eyes to the potential of recycling everything. The other interesting tidbit is how the prices of vintage linens have increased since I began collecting them, maybe 5 years ago. It seems everyone wants them now. Not me. I am stopping and using up what I have. Or so I hope.