A bit of a surprising day as the curator of the museum, me and my stitching pals visited, turned out to be the daughter of a bosom pal of mine from the sixties.It felt like the usual linear narrative of time had suddenly made a hand break turn and looped back on myself.
She's the dark haired one on the left, sorry no need for explanation, she's the young one.
I guess it was a bigger surprise as my old mate lives in New Zealand, I knew her daughter was around but I never expected to just walk into a room and find her there.
I had to sit on myself for a while so I didn't just jump in her lap and yell Surprise, specially as she doesn't know me from Eve, after all she grew up on the other side of the world and I don't do longer haul than San Francisco.
Our friendly local curator had gathered together accessories thru the ages which largely meant in this case shoes, bags and hats. This neat Regency bootee was extremely attractive, and could have been worn by young Jane Austen, well possibly not literally as i don't know if she came to this neck of the woods, but I would happily have worn them if my feet had been quite a few sizes smaller.
Wish I could find some like it now, but with a tougher sole, these weren't meant for walking the doggy thru the muddy fields round here.
The late nineteenth century little baby boots are just cute, and now I am a g'ma I am helpless to resist.
There were lots of hand embroidered drawstring purses. The usual discussion about how "they" had more time as they didn't have many distractions then............not like me now, surrounded by the entrails of various bits of half completed projects, The Shield on the gog and the lap top in the appropriate position.
But i guess they didn't have washing machines, fridges, stoves with timers, cars, take aways, all to save time, but somehow we still don't have any more.
By the way, does anyone understand what the hell is going on in The Shield any more?
This tiny purse is seventeenth century, the 3 pansies make it seem very familiar, but it was used 400 years ago. Things survive, people don't that would be irritating if one thought about it too long.
I really liked this crazy Crazy Patchwork bag, the maker has gone potty scribbling stitches in patterns designs, pictures, looks like it would be fun to do in - spare time.
I found time to say hello to the curator, and when I got home I sent her some pics of her mum and me, when we were new.
