Look What I Bought!

A friend and I went to a large antique show last weekend, something neither of us had done for a very long time. Being so out of practice, we were both experiencing sensory overload and s l o w l y making our way through the outdoor booths.

A large bakers rack with assorted linens caught my eye, because it held a few cutter quilts. I quickly decided that they weren't for me and was about to step away, when I saw the corner of *something* peeking out from the bottom of a stack.

Garishly bright, stitched with wool in 1869, but a truly old sampler nontheless.

On the $10 shelf.

An 140 year old hand-stitched sampler? Sure, it isn't in my preferred color scheme, its small, a little rough, and not of the high quality caliber most collectors look for. But surely, they couldn't REALLY mean to sell it for a measly ten!

So, I headed over to the guy taking money and said,
"This was on the ten dollar rack?"

"Oh!" he said, "It doesn't belong on the ten dollar rack!" Grabbing it from me and heading back over to the linens.

Sure that he was going to put a much higher price on it, I was thinking that I would be walking out of there without it after all.

But then, my chin nearly hit the ground when he flippantly tossed it onto a shelf and said, "it should be on the one dollar rack".

Yes, my friends, I paid ONE DOLLAR for this:


The next few weeks will be very busy around here (have I told you yet that we are hosting my baby sister's wedding?), but once the air clears, I fully intend to share my little windfall by charting it and giving it to you for free. Stay tuned...