Sewing basket with a story

Had one of those op shop experiences this week. The sort where you not only find something that had been on a searching for list, but something most wonderful and unexpected. This sewing basket with it's murky green velvet and floral embroidered lid,  was for sale, with all its contents as well.

Suspect the original owner was probably around  my vintage, it has a  70's  vibe about it. If I had received this for my 10th birthday I would have been over the moon. The name pencilled carefully on the bottom in extremely neat grade 8 style handwriting says " Susan Grinsell". It is always exciting to take a peek at what treasures are inside. Look at the gorgeous mint green satin lining with built in pin cushion.

I can tell you that Susan had a fondness for tape measures ( she had three), was dabbling with fusing wire (whatever you do with that I have no idea) and was contemplating a " bra back repair" but this was never done as the required piece is still in the packet. She had a lovely assortment of buttons and most revealingly, a 1982  Commonwealth Games embroidered badge still in the packet. 

Last week I was reading another lovely Brisbane blog and stumbled across a link to my old year 11 boyfriend who is now a photographer. When we dated he was a drummer in a rock band. Knowing my luck he is probably married to Susan Grinsell and she is going to want her sewing basket back. Despite having over a million people, there seem to only be about 3 degrees of separation between people in Brisbane. A few months ago we sold Liongirl's cot in the weekend shopper. How super to discover that the purchaser was one of my clients at work who turned up on a Saturday morning when I was still in my pyjamas and the kids were running feral around the house.

Look what else I found. Three lovely pyrex bowls, 50 cents each and superb colours of course.

And check out the gorgeous crochet number for miss Liongirl. Inspiration for making my own. I have to say, after the cardigan to fit a guinea pig disaster, I really needed something to get me motivated again.

And the action shot, she wanted to put it on as soon as it came off the washing line.

And the item that I had been searching for? Well, would you believe I had been scouring ebay for some velour corduroy in a mustardy yellowy greenish colour to make a cushion for our bedroom. The inspiration came from a new painting that I will share shortly. And low and behold, a huge piece of yellowish mustardy greenish velour corduroy was just there waiting for me. I kid you not, I really had been looking on ebay for this but it is a tricky colour to search for.

It's the one on the bottom, a bit of a chameleon colour, in the top sewing basket photo it looks quite green. The fabric on top of it was bona fide polyester all the way baby. In this super cool mustard, white and brown zig zaggy pattern. No idea yet what to do with it, but could not bring myself to leave it behind. And the final item, well no photos yet but let me just say it involves a king sized chenille bedspread in immaculate condition. I think I was hyperventilating and frothing at the mouth when I stumbled onto it and then when she told me the price I just promptly had a turn and passed out. Images arriving soon, of the chenille, not me frothing at the mouth.

Linking in with Sophie and her fabulous thrifting adventures.