I thought it would be fun this summer to share some of what goes on while Clutch and I are at the cottage for the summer. We do our best to keep each other out of trouble but once in a while one of us slips up.
Cold, rainy days seem like the perfect time for a little ebay browsing and that's just what was doing a few days ago when I saw this -
Would you stop and click on that listing? I have to admit I probably wouldn't but for some unknown reason I did! This is the description that accompanied the auction -
THIS WAS MADE BY MY GRANDMOTHER AROUND 1920-30'S...REALLY CAN'T SAY FOR SURE THE EXACT DATE. THERE ARE NO TEARS BUT THERE ARE A FEW STAINS WHICH MAY COME OUT WITH CLEANING. STICHING IS FINE AND EDGES ARE FINE. HAS BEEN STORED SINCE 1960.
This is the only other picture included. Not much to go on huh? I should have hit the back button on the mouse and moved on but.......Clutch was taking a nap and before I knew it I had entered a bid of $9.99 on this auction for a quilt I could only see was an unknown shade of yellow with prairie points on some of the edges. What was I thinking? My family would tell you the last thing we need is another quilt in the house! The shipping charges were $12.00 which meant I most likely just flushed a $20.00 bill down the toilet. By this time Clutch sensed my anxiety and tried to reassure me that with a starting price of only $9.99 someone else would place a bid on this auction and I'd be able to retrieve my twenty from the toilet.
As you can see the days passed and no one else bid on that poor old quilt. Being a seasoned ebay buyer and seller I knew the rules and dutifully sent my payment when the auction ended. The seller stuffed the quilt in a box and it arrived on what would have been my Daddy's birthday.
That's never a particularily happy day for me and we were on our second straight day of non-stop rain so I was in a pretty crappy mood when I took that quilt out of the box. Trying to justify my purchase I grumbled to Clutch about what a terrible person the seller was for parting with their grandmother's quilt.
Clutch heard me gasp and came running. He thought it would be great fun to dance all over quilt doing his "tough guy" jig. I was just standing there in awe of what was spread out on the kitchen floor.
The first thing I decided to do was get out the vaccuum cleaner and get rid of all that dust packed in the folds.
That was a big help but not nearly enough. I'm not equipped with a washer and dryer here. A day long trip to the laundromat didn't sound like fun but I knew the quilt needed a good long soak.
We have one of those really old porcelain and metal sink units in the kitchen. I took what little Oxy-Clean I had on hand, filled the sink with water and eased the quilt in.
The quilt has been soaking for a couple of hours already with some gentle squishing from me every once in a while.
So...... would you have bought this quilt? Do you wonder why I did? I'm not going to get into a big discussion about life, death, superstitions and fate but I will say this. I believe it was divine intervention that brought this quilt to me and having it arrive on what would have been my Daddy's birthday was probably part of the plan. The fact that the quilt is yellow, from the 1930s and an applique quilt is not lost on me either. If you consider the fact that when I was little my favorite song was You Are My Sunshine and my Daddy used to sing it to me all the time it'll come as no surprise to you that I've decided this is The Sunshine Quilt.
My only sunshine
You make me happy
When the skies are grey
You'll never know dear
How much I love you
So please don't take
My sunshine away.
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