Resistence is Futile

It's nearly impossible for me to resist opening an old trunk.  When I open one.... and find a stash of vintage fabric scraps, well,  my resistance just goes right out the window.  I can walk by a beautiful old quilt in an antique shop, admire it, then walk on by, but... there's just something about scraps and half finished quilts that makes my heart just get to pumping.  Anyone else know what I'm talking about? 

I jump right into textile detective mode and begin trying to identify how old the fabrics are by observing color, pattern and cloth content.  This particular suitcase full was great for my inquiring mind.  The quilter had done something I have never seen done before.  She stitched her finished squares to newspaper backings and even left them in place while joining.  Was this commonly done?  What is the purpose of the paper?

While I don't know what the newspaper was for, it does give me a general date for the fabrics... 1951.   I now also know something else... I could have had my car painted for just $49.50 down in Memphis, TN. back in February of 51. I'm gonna have a wonderful time when I untie this bundle of partially finished piecings.  I can't  wait.  I think I'll just wash them,  hang them up in the sunshine, hoard a few and then share a few with you folks.



Momma's Pancake Breakfast

You don't need to dig too deeply into your sub-conscious to realize the title of today's post seems awfully familiar. That's because you've probably ordered and consumed at least one of these belly busters at a Cracker Barrel Restaurant's somewhere here in the good old USof A. The fellas who started the place in Lebanon, TN back in 1969 were hoping to set up a comfortable, homey place where folks could sit around relaxing with friends or family vexing and jawing about the state of affairs and other interesting stuff.

Some friends of ours joined us early last Saturday to grab a breakfast and head on out to the local flea market to see what kind of vintage treasures we could drag home and we got to thinking...... How much do you think the antiques in a Cracker Barrel are worth?  Next thing you know we were appraising everything in the place and multiplying the whole thing by 540.  Let's just say... the total was a pretty big number.

Curiosity got the best of us, so out came the i-phones and we started searching up some pretty interesting facts.  It wasn't long before we decided Larry Singleton has the best darn job in America collecting all the antiques to put in the new stores when they open. He and his family have been decorating Cracker Barrels since the day the first one opened.

Larry, we think we found some stuff you just might be interested in and if you don't like what you see, well sir... we would sure be willing to look for some more, as soon as we finish that last biscuit, drain down to the dregs of our coffee cups and come to some kind of agreement on what a rusted RC Cola sign is really worth in today's market.