Linens and things

After carefully ironing my treasured find -- 70 x 180 white damask table cloth I found in the dark corners of some thrift store, I noticed two small repairs. So small I had never seen them before. I thought of the person sewing tiny perfect stitches. It made me smile. I love table linens that are laundered to perfection, silky, the drape of of the cloth. Setting a table with a beautiful table cloth as the base, in anticipation of the perfect meal, friends, family, laughter. After dinner I found a small hole in the table cloth and will repair it as the person before me. After I have passed it on, someone else will discover all the repairs and appreciate that this wonderful cloth as been around a table or two. Treat it with care.

So speaking of table linens. I became obsessed with table linens and dinner plates that I could find at thrift stores. Now overwhelmed. I still look, but no longer purchase. Here is something I wrote about my dish obession for Guilty Pleasures, MSNBC.com

I rarely meet a plate I don’t want to buy, or a wine glass I don’t covet. I have thrift stores lined up on my route home, stopping at each every day. I am breathless when I happen upon a glistening set of cut-crystal wine and champagne glasses for $25. Or find a set of Harmony House “Scroll” china with calligraphic black scrollwork (soup and berry bowls, dessert plates, sugar bowl, creamer, etc, for $35). I can just imagine the place card in calligraphic handwriting to match! My brain is overheating and I have the table set in my head before I leave the store.
With no place to store them in the house, and not wanting to explain why I HAD to buy the Knowles ‘Scandia’ with a sweet bunch of pastel flowers arranged on berry bowls and plates, I drive around for weeks with my purchases in my car. Visitors might encounter a spring table of eclectic antique floral plates, cups, saucers and linens — with Chinese lanterns hung from the ceiling in a great mass of floating pastels. For our “fall” china I found Noritake Helene with beautiful silver and brown leaves. I discovered them at my favorite antique store for a bargain, and at once begin collecting more for the big Thanksgiving dinners we host. I think my next obsession is going to be buying big old china cabinets in which to store the first obsession.