A Thimble's Tale

Quite a few years ago, my parents, my husband and I were at an antiques shop in the Finger Lakes Region.  We spent quite a bit of time browsing and I happened upon a beautiful thimble. Now, Murphy's Law says that anything you love will not fit.  But...Hoyle was on my side that day.

Here is part of the lovely engraving on the side:

And some on the other.  Sorry, no 3D images for this techno nerd ;-)  

This is the view from the top of the thimble.

And from the inside of the thimble.  You probably noticed the holes....

Now for the tale.  On the tag was "SS" and the price.  Now SS really stands for Sterling Silver, but it also stands for Sharon Stroud.  The price was reasonable and, the SS not withstanding, I decided it was fate.  I took the thimble to the counter where the nice gentleman asked me if I knew what the holes were for.  I decided this was too good to pass up and said I did not (well, actually I didn't know what they were FOR, but I did know what they were FROM).  He said...okay, be prepared--this is laugh-out-loud funny--you've been warned...they were air holes so that the thimble would not get stuck on my finger when using the thimble!!!!!!  And he was serious!  After getting myself back under control, I nicely explained that they were holes made from the needle hitting the same dimple repeatedly.  And they significantly devalue a thimble.  But, because I use the side of my finger to push with, holes in the top are not a problem for me!  I paid the full asking price for the thimble, because the story was priceless!  (As an aside, even my husband knew what those holes were for from!)


To show you that I am actually doing some work, here is a pic of my hand quilting sample.  I wanted to test the backing, batting, top and thread on a sample before committing to the full piece.  I am really happy.  The top is Oakshott from England, the backing is a batik, the thread is Sulky Blendable in 12 wt, with vintage Thermore batting.  I have over 1/4 of the actual piece quilted today.  

I think that's about it for today.  Hope you enjoyed the thimble's tale.  It had to be better than a mouse's tail....


Hugs,
Sharon