Necedah

Just back from a weekend up north. I was with my group of friends who usually do the weeklong September getaway to Wildcat, near Boulder Junction, Wisconsin. This year, due to some extenuating circumstances (as in, one of our group went on vacation with her husband, of all people!) our getaway was a shorter stay at Karen's new cottage near Necedah, Wisconsin.

The cottage is an earth-bermed house, very cozy, with skylights, providing lots of brightness for our sewing, eating, and gabbing.

Most of us brought knitting. Renee was the only one in full quilting mode, producing orderly Fourpatches from this happily organized chaos:



Our stay was long enough for some adventures. There are a couple good little antique shops in Necedah, and when we asked at one shop about vintage needlework items, the proprietor told us in a conspiratorial whisper that she would give us directions to The Estate Sale.

We found the house holding the sale, and it was a sad case of an elderly mom moving into a nursing home and her family selling off possessions she'll never use again, including a trove of sewing, knitting, and quilting items. Deb and I combed through boxes and filled a box of our own to buy and divvy up. One of the sellers said he'd keep an eye on the box for us while we shopped the rest of the sale.

But when we came back to pay up the man told us that he was afraid he had allowed another shopper to take our box by mistake.

WHAAAAAAAT?

But, he assured us, she'd be back because she owed him money. That's right. He had quoted her a price for what she wanted to buy (and she didn't have enough money) and then let her leave with with that stuff, and in his confusion, he had given OUR box to this lady also. If this guy is a businessman, he sure doesn't have his eye on the bottom line.

Deb and I were not happy and had very cynical ideas about what this other lady was up to. She had been going through the needlework boxes also.

Well, we waited and waited for the woman to come back, all the time thinking the blackest and least complimentary things about her. And surprise of surprises--eventually she did come back to pay her tab, but the guy had to follow her back to her house to retrieve our box, which WAS intact.

So all ended happily in the end. And we got a good deal on our purchase and had fun dividing up all the loot.

Highlights from my portion of the goodies:

TONS of buttons, including several vintage cards of buttons which could inspire some design ideas on their own.


TONS of vintage knitting patterns. I let Deb take the baby ones, of which there were quite a few. Deb has an interest in babies, having one grandchild and another on the way.

But these cute bedjacket patterns: they look like sweaters to me and quite wearable at that.



And a whole book of forties ski sweaters! Some have nice Joan Crawford shoulders. Fun!

Sock monkey socks plus a monkey head. I have a thing for funky sock monkeys and after seeing this, I have an urge to try getting a little more creative with one or two this fall....

Appliqué scissors! I think this is a sign of Baby Jesus' smiling approval at my signing up for an appliqué class in December with this teacher. I plan to stick with that theory.

The postscript: Two of our group visited the estate sale on Sunday morning. By this time the guy had figured that the needlework stuff had some value and charged Liz a healthy sum for a collection of knitting needles. Liz said if it hadn't been for Deb and I hanging around glowering and waiting for that box on Saturday, she probably could have gotten a real deal on the needles.

Two more postscripts: At one of the Necedah antique shops, I finally scored a primo set of primary-colored Pyrex bowls. Yippee!


AND, to answer numerous questions, Lucy is fine now. The antibiotics did the trick and she is bouncing around like crazy. Thanks for asking. We plan to patronize a different kennel should we need to board her again.

There's more. Next time, a darker Necedah adventure.