It was a quick response to my post yesterday about getting rid of the silky scarves. Beth wrote on my facebook page that she’s just the kind of person who would buy that box of scarves. She does Furoshiki, something I had never heard of.
So I Googled it. Furoshiki, according to Wikipedia, is a traditional Japanese way of wrapping bundles so they can be transported. Beth is teaching a class in it and she likes to have lots of extra material so that people can have their choice and take some home.
How perfect! It was just the kind of thing I was hoping for.
I brought the box of scarves to the Post Office and on my way out picked up the mail in the Post Office Box. In it was a curiously wrapped package from Antoinette. A cardboard tube, probably from a roll of paper towels, wrapped with with decorative duct tape.
Rolled up inside the tube were three cotton hankies from Japan. Each with a beautiful Japanese Iris printed on it.
If I needed anymore evidence that sending off that box of scarves was the right thing for me to do, I now had it. It was like a trade, the scarves went out making space for the hankies to come in.
So thank you to all the people who sent me the scarves over the years and to Beth and Antoinette. I don’t see this circle as complete yet. I think that will happen when I create something from the hankies (I can easily see a quilt made around these hankies. Something with the same strength and delicacy they possess.) and send them off to their new place in the world.
I have seen mention of using fabric to wrap gifts, Martha Stewart maybe.