Monday, April 15, 2013

Blue Monday: A Wonderland of Thimbles

Blue Monday is hosted weekly by Smiling Sally.
To see more offerings, or to participate yourself, please head on over to her blog.

My mother was a thimble collector -- over a period of twenty years or so, she amassed an enormous collection of the little do-dads.  I'm not a thimble collector, but after she died I inherited her collection, put them in storage, and really didn't think too much about them for the next twelve years.  But after our move back to Texas last year, we decided it was time to do something about all those crates of thimbles stacked in the garage.

Hello, eBay!

So, lately we've been doing a LOT of thimble sorting around here.  There are hundreds (quite possibly more than a thousand) of them to get through, and some I'll want to hang onto myself.  Like these Alice in Wonderland thimbles (I do collect Alice stuff) -- some of which have lovely blue elements. (Sorry about the photo quality -- I took it with my cell phone camera. You can see more detail if you enlarge it by clicking on it.)


Here's another shot of some of them spread out on the hubby's workbench.


And one more, a little closer up.  Definitely some touches of blue there.


I have a feeling you'll be seeing more thimbles, here at Joysweb in the coming weeks.

So, do you collect anything?  What?  Why?  How did you decide on what to collect?  And how big is your collection?

I definitely inherited the collecting gene from my mom -- dolls, books, bookmarks, paper dolls, coloring books, comic books, postcards, greeting cards, stamps, Teddy bears, cat figurines, decorative nutcrackers, Hallmark Christmas ornaments, blue and white Pyrex ware, vintage clothing, Enid Collins handbags -- I've collected all these things at one time or another.  My collections are vast and still growing.  Good thing we have some room to spare in the garage!

7 comments:

  1. One day your mom counted them and came up with about 2500! Of course, they were on that shelf in her apt. so I would figure that was a guesstimate. I still have my mom's thimbles as well but they aren't all displayed and most of them are in a basket. My Lenox Christmas ornament collection was started by you and I love it -- I just put it away for the year actually -- I just love looking at the colors on them. I guess I tend to collect books and always have. Oh, and little porcelain boxes. I have a collection of Precious Moments both ceramic and pewter and David Winter Cottages. I guess it is a genetic trait isn't it?

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  2. Some lucky people will love your mom's thimbles.

    I collected corn husk dolls, but gave half of the collection to my DIL years ago (when she was decorating "country"). The other half are now packed away as there is no good place to display them. Uh, actually, the place they used to be has be taken over by my Lladro collection!

    Thanks for joining in to Blue Monday.

    Happy Blue Monday, Joy.

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  3. I collect anything "Wizard of Oz" and lots of metal vintage objects. That's a LOT of thimbles. Good luck at sorting.
    Ann

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  4. What a really wonderful collection, so pretty. I used to collect national costume, historical and antique dolls, also stamps, viewcards, spoons and china, slowing down a little now.

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  5. I HAVE BEEN AROUND ALONG TIME, BUT NEVER SAW THIS MANY THIMBLES. WHAT A COLLECTION! SOME OF THEM ARE GREAT TREASURES AND MAY BE WORTH A LOT.I HAVE A COLLECTION HUMMEL FIGURINES. THEY GOT SO EXPENSIVE, GAVE UP BUYING ANYMORE.

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  6. I've collected sewing tools through the years, but never concentrated on thimbles. My collection is mainly small scissors for handwork and needle cases. Good luck with the sale of your thimble collection. I'm sure you will make some collectors very happy. Happy Blue Monday!

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  7. Those are too cute! Love the thimbles.

    I played too. Mine are here and here.

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