Tuesday 22 September 2015

Vintage threads ..... The joy of collecting and using!





Hand stitching and embroidery is such
a gentle art ......





As most of you know who read this blog on a regular basis I am an avid collector of vintage threads, be it cottons or embroidery ones.  I do love to use them as well, they are not just in a drawer or box to be looked at occasionally.  What I do however is never use all of the cotton on a spool, I do keep a little for prosperity.

I am particularly partial to any cotton spool that has the sticker on the end 'Coates' because of my lovely late friend and neighbour who used to work for them and because we used to talk about threads of all sorts made by this Company.  He said they were the best and I believe him.

Coates PLC is a British multi-national company. It is the world's largest manufacturer and distributor of sewing threads and supplies, and the second-largest manufacturer of zips and fasteners to this day so it actually speaks for its self and is not just an ex employee being loyal and bias.

J P Coates for the hundreds of years that they have been in business used to do some wonderful advertising and I also collect some of the advertising cards that they used.  I have about 5 now and when I come across them I do like to try and buy them.  Not only are they beautiful in their own right but I suppose it is the loyal person in me that likes to keep my friends memory alive.  I like to think he smiles every time I make a J P Coates purchase of any sort.

At vintage fairs that I attend I am always found rummaging in jars and boxes of spools to see if there are any Coates ones to come home with me for my collection.

Embroidery threads too, I enjoy when I find them and then if it is possible to use some original thread on one of embroidered pieces that I am working on the more happy I become.  Of course it is not always possible so I do use the hand dyed shaker threads as well.  However I picked up some beautiful grey and pale green colour embroidery threads last month so I am in the middle of incorporating those into some work I am currently in the middle of.

When I go to America next month I will be on the look out for any of the Coates products that were particularly made for the American market and of course whatever I find I will share with you on here.  I have been very busy trying to get things sorted but I am battling with an ear infection so I feel slightly out of balance and it has slowed me up.   It must be sorted before I fly!

I am taking it a little easy today and not going to worry so much, I will get done what I can. Tomorrow when I do not write a blog I am going to go to my stitching room and slowly and quietly sort through some things so that I can continue with writing my list to take to America.

So for today I am going to sit in a cosy chair with a warm drink to sip and continue with my hand stitching.

Whatever you are up to have a great day and as always Happy Stitching!






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