Wooden spools

The last time I was down visiting with Brett's family I brought the sewing machine with me to try and help Brett's mom with some sewing projects.  I brought the machine but I didn't bring much thread with me so she got out her supply to work on the projects.  What we found in the thread box was not so much helpful or good for using anymore, but it was a treasure.  The thread was all old and on bunch of wonderful wooden spools with great bright colors.  All the spools came from Brett's grandma. I just love the colors that she picked out, and could only image what wonderful projects she was working on with the bright colors.  As we were going through all them I laughed because many of the colors actually are in the bed spread that I have on my bed.  It must be that great minds think alike.
   The more we dug in the spools and looked at the different colors we also started to notice the prices on each spool.  How I wish that thread still only cost 15 cents!  Even the most expensive of the threads was only 30 cents.  It was so much fun to take a glimpse at the history of sewing with something as simple as a box of threads.  At the end of our visit Brett's mom sent the box of spools home with me which was an unexpected and delightful surprise.
Now the spools have a new home on my type tray where I can see them everyday.  I love how they fit just perfectly in the little boxes of the type tray and the colors look bright and cheery with my tiny knick knacks.  It is also fun to have something of Brett's grandma in something that is linked to my own grandma.  My grandma was an antique collector (specializing in toys) and she used the type trays to display small knick knacks in her house.  It has become a tradition in our houses ever since with all my siblings and I getting trays of our own to display our special treasures.
I just love how the spools fit in with all of my other things.  It was fun to arrange them through out the tray and mix and match them with what I already had.  I even made a little tribute to the inflation of thread prices with the spool prices increasing from 15 cents to 19 cents to 25 cents and then 30 cents.  These little additions will make for inspiration for my sewing projects to come as well as just making me smile whenever I see them.