Road Trip: Museum of Uncle Billy

Five days in the car with my parents and brother and nobody got killed!  Woo hoo!

Unfortunately, my sister-in-law was teaching and couldn't come with us, although now we'll just have to plan another trip because there are so many things we want to do again when she's with us.

I have a ton of stuff to process and post but I'll start with some easy things.  Sorry about the terrible pictures--my "real" camera needs cleaning.

My father's youngest uncle passed away last fall at the age of 96 (he was my grandfather's youngest sibling).  Nieces and nephews are still cleaning up the house; he was apparently quite the pack-rat.  

It's missing its case, but this 1951+ Singer Featherweight had been promised to me awhile ago.  We were originally told it belonged to my great-grandmother but I think that it's later manufacturing date means it probably belonged to Billy's wife, Marian.  We'll get another case for it and get it cleaned up.

I think I should add that "Featherweight" is a relative term.  Featherweight for 1951, yes, but it still outweighs a lot of modern machines that aren't all-metal.


Piles of ancient sewing supplies.  This paper of pins has a National Recovery Administration logo (1933-1935):

 
My great-grandmother's ironing board.  Surf's up!


Aunt Edith's telephone.  Edith was the oldest sibling; I'm not sure when she was born but it would have been around 1908 or 1909.  She worked for a telephone company for awhile but I think this was probably just a home model.  I found one like it online on a dealer site, which said that phones with metal bases and F1 handsets were made between 1938 and the "early 1940's".  My guess is either 1945 (the phone bases became plastic in 1946) or possibly they weren't manufactured during the height of World War II, to conserve metal.  This one has the box and notes on rewiring it.  The note says "Sis' phone" and Dad tells me that "Sis" always meant Edith.


These two quilts were given to us as packing material.  One is a Grandmother's flower garden (or mosaic); dirty but not too threadbare:


I thought the other one was a pink wholecloth bedspread until I opened it and discovered the flower baskets (circa 1930's-1940's).  Some of the black thread, which I think may have had iron in the dye, has disintegrated, but that's a pretty simple fix.  I absolutely love the Art Deco squares quilting.


Comments

PepperReed said…
Beautiful Quilts! And what a great gift to get those things passed down from family.