frenchtown fiber

Chris Mundy and Kate House try to make art while navigating the crap life throws at them.

Monday, June 8, 2009

Antique Stores = Heroin for Me

We had nice weather in NJ for 2 days in a row! On Sunday Joe and I took a ride on the Motorcycle. He says I need to get my ass toughened up for the trip. I was down with that, but I suggested a stop in Quakertown PA, which is supposed to have good antiquing. He was OK with that.

So, we took the back roads, up through Canada and down through California, along the Gulf Coast and finally got to Quakertown. Of course, I'm kidding. But, someone asked me how far Quakertown was from Frenchtown, and I have no idea. It could be 5 miles for all I know, but it took around an hour. The weather was great and Pennsy has so many scenic roads.

Quakertown DOES have good antiquing. There were 3 different antique malls on the same street, and we only did 2 of them. I scored some linens at the first place. Once you start looking for this stuff, you find that it is everywhere. Every woman in America must have embroidered doileys at one time. I try to pick things that seem a little unusual, and not too expensive. If you can live with stains you can get some deals. Things like, 3 embroidered linen napkins pinned together for $1. I found someone's half finished log cabin quilt top for $12. A few yards of old lace for $2. I think I ended up spending $18.

Then we went to the second place. Joe felt we were wasting a good day indoors, and we needed to make this visit quick one. We spent 2 hours in there! When we first walked in, there was the most gorgeous old sewing machine. It was not a Singer, some other brand, but with the beautiful table and the machine itself in black with the gold decoration. I've been thinking that I wanted to have an old sewing machine, and this one was on sale from $180 down to $120. Not bad. We went through the rest of the place and found a room with so many ancient photographs of Marching bands. It seems that every town had a respectable band. One photo had the entire band seated in their smart uniforms, with 2, count 'em, 2 harp players. My guess is that they don't always march. There was even a picture of the Allentown Junior Band, a bunch of kids that seemed really young. The whole thing got Joe and I thinking of how different life used to be, and how incredibly accomplished people were compared to how we are now. Any educated person would be able to play an instrument, write beautifully with a pen and ink, recite poems they had memorized, and speak another language. Now, we just make and spend money.


That brings me to the back of the store, where we found another sewing machine for only $60!!! This one was not working. Joe was looking that baby over, muttering, "I'll bet I can fix that, just needs a belt." I knew it was mine when I saw the Sphinx in gold on the machine. This one is a Singer. I have no idea what the Sphinx has to do with anything, but I love it and for $60, that was MINE. Here I was, making and spending money! Spending money on things that I think bring me closer to those people I romanticize so much. I hope Joe really can fix it. It would be cool to be able to actually sew with it.


We will have to pick it up this week. (Then I will find out how far Quakertown really is)

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