I’m a thrifter. I like garage sales and flea markets and thrift stores. I visit them when I travel and here at home. I adore a good bargain and I love a treasure hunt. (That’s not the confession.)
When I visited my daughter in Seattle recently, I headed to the Goodwill one rainy afternoon. And just about the first thing I spied was a set of three giant wise men by Jim Shore.
During the early fall and again after Thanksgiving, I’ve been piecing a scrappy version of Christmas Figs by Joanna Figueroa of Fig Tree Quilts, published by the Fat Quarter Shop.
Their quilt features the Christmas Figs fabric line by Fig Tree for Moda Fabrics. I had a fat quarter bundle of those fabrics that I’d purchased, and that’s what I used for the first few blocks. But I began to wonder if the blocks would be interesting enough with just those fabrics.
Another reason I’m calling this the Year of the Nostalgic Christmas is Abraham Lincoln. Not the president, really, but the children’s picture book from 1939.
When I was very young, the library at St. John’s Lutheran School had a copy of this book, and I checked it out often. I couldn’t get enough of the illustrations. I didn’t know that the book was by sophisticated artists who had won the Caldecott Medal in 1940.
I’m calling 2018 the Year of the Nostalgic Christmas. Everywhere I turn, I’m swept up in memories of my childhood Christmases. They’ve pressed down on me so frequently and with such ferocity that I’ve been finding the items in thrift stores, antique shops and online auctions. Most of the time, I wasn’t even looking for them.
When I around four or five, all I wanted in life was a Chatty Cathy. You may remember from the early 1960s that she was a talking doll with a sweet face, and you could get extra outfits for her. If I could have only one Christmas present that year, then fine, as long as it was a Chatty Cathy. Nothing else mattered.