look what i found at a consignment shop, priced at only five dollars. isn't it pretty? when i see a handmade item like this one in a resale shop or antique store, it saddens me a bit and i wonder about its history. i know what goes into cross-stitch and how long it takes. someone spent time making this, probably to give to a loved one or a special friend. so how did it end up here? did no one want it? certainly, i do not need another santa, and my walls are full of cross-stitch pieces. but i turned over my five dollar bill and bought this because i couldn't just leave it in the store, on the shelf. so JR '92, wherever you are, thanks for the cute little santa!
8 comments:
I am exactly the same way!!! I feel like they have been abandoned by their loved one....and I must take them home and love them. I have many pieces of rescued needlework and I have grown to love them all.....
I wonder if the ones I have stitched will end up the same way.
I do admit to feeling a ripple of sadness when I see an inscription on something at the thrift stores.
I have done many crafts over the years and usually give most of them away as gifts. I am most generous with my hand made items with people that are also crafty. They know the love, and time not to mention the expense that goes into making quality items.
I am happy you rescued the Santa where he will finally be appreciated.
BTW, I have been reading your blog for sometime now and really enjoy your photos and insights.
Do you feel the same way about seeing an old photograph of a person or family in an antique or secondhand store? Who would give away family photos? I feel like buying it and giving it a new home!
Mimsie: i actually do feel that way - especially with those big sepia portraits in the gilded frames. i wonder if it was someone's mother or father...Linda Chapman: i have a few embellished samplers i stitched for a good friend. when she died, and relatives were breaking up her household, i was asked if i wanted them back. they mean so much more to me now than they did when i made them. middle child: the only inscriptions i like to see are the ones in old books. it just adds to the history of it. KC: thank you for your kind words - and i too agree that crafts are best appreciated by those who also do them.
I am so pleased you rescued it and like you I wonder what the story is behind it.
I wasn't going to comment on this post because I didn't like your Santa Claus all that much. But then I thought that was mean spirited of me and that someone cared enough to make it and that you ate least appreciated it enough to rescue it. I've seen finer needlepoints, but it's the spirit that counts, doesn't it?
Nora: i have to admit this is not my idea of a great santa either. all that fruit is a little odd. give me an old primitive santa or the roly-poly red guy and i'm filled with christmas delight! but i bought this not so much because i liked the santa but because, like you, i liked the idea that someone had taken the time to make it. like Linda Chapman, i hope any that, if any that i've made end up in the same sort of shop, they get bought for a song by someone who appreciates my efforts.
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