Like I said yesterday, I’ve had this tin of buttons for about 20 years. But it’s just today that I found the small piece of embroidery thread wrapped around an old piece of newspaper.
I couldn’t help it, I just had to unwrap the thread and see if there was a date on the newspaper. When unwrapped, the piece of newspaper is about a half-inch wide and 2 inches long. And in that small space is the date, September 10, 1895. The article is about a new kind of skein holder and embroidery threads.
It does make me wonder if the woman (it was most likely a woman) who wound that small piece of embroidery thread around the newspaper left the date on it intentionally. Even if she could imagine someone in the future finding the thread, she wouldn’t have been able to imagine someone writing about it on the internet the way I am.
One of the things I don’t like about my Viking sewing machine is that there’s a certain amount of thread that gets left on the bobbin that can’t be used. I don’t know why someone would have designed a bobbin this way when we’ve had the technology to use every last length of bobbin thread for over a hundred years at least.
I always cringe when I pull that wasted thread off the bobbin and throw it in the garbage. It’s goes against some instinct inside of me. Sometimes I think it’s in my DNA to understand the importance of saving that last scrap of thread.
This all makes me want to save those pieces of thread at the ends of my bobbins. Maybe I’ll wrap them around a piece of newspaper, with the date on it, of course. A small sculpture of waste, I’ll see how big it can get.
“a small sculpture of waste” – neat wording and idea