Just can't get enough!

I've never felt the need to accumulate lots of possessions. I have things I like and with no regard for fashion trends I keep them forever or until they fall apart! I do have precious things of course but mostly they have sentimental rather than monetary value.

On the walls I have paintings and drawings that my talented daughters made while they were still schoolgirls. Above is one of four honesty paintings Frances created using acrylic paints and below is a pencil drawing Laura made of her sister. Can't remember how old either of them were then but it's been quite a while.

I have lots of wooden treasures my father made when he taught himself to use a lathe after he had retired. He often turned pieces of wood he found on his walks by the local river where he was bailiff. Isn't it wonderful that such lovely things can be made from odd scraps?

My mother is the family magpie - visiting her house is like going into a museum! Every surface is covered with 'stuff'. You turn around at your peril - an errant bit of anatomy is quite likely to send some fragile object plummeting to its doom. I like space and I hate clutter - it's so claustrophobic. So can someone please explain to me why I have suddenly found it almost impossible to walk past a dusty antique shop or pass by a flea market without examining every stall? What possessed me to buy this for instance?

Or this, although at least this is useful - it was made by recuperating soldiers and meant to hold cutlery but it now organises my pencils beautifully.

The latest discovery is even more dangerous than the temptation of the antique shops and market stalls - I have found the local auction house. Today we waited patiently for several hours to bid for this fantastic fabric container. I don't know much about its history yet other than it was something to do with a linen producing factory.

Here's a detail of the image showing a huge loom.

It was meant to hold fabric so it's very satisfying to put it back to work in my studio!

Obviously some of the things I am acquiring lately have a textile connection and if you were being kind you might justify the purchases as being useful to my work in some way. Not sure that I can use that excuse for the find below however. Can you picture the quilt this might inspire - no, me neither! Still had to buy it though!

Seems that we grow to be like our mothers after all. Would someone please warn my daughters what they've got to look forward to?

I'm off to dust my finds - talk to you again soon - Linda