The Bottom of my Sewing Box

My sewing box is crammed full with all sorts of odds and ends. Threads for general mending, needles, embroidery skeins, buttons, safety pins, the quilting foot from my sewing machine, rotary cutters, scissors, beads, bits of aida, yarns of wool, knitting needles.  The general bits and bobs that stitchers tend to accumulate over years of crafting.  In fact I've managed to accumulate so much stuff that the first sentence should read "my sewing boxes" as I actually have two.

I recently had to empty them both out as I couldn't find my needle threader.  Now, the little red one is a relatively new addition so I sort of knew more or less what was at the bottom of that one.  Not my needle threader unfortunately, only some rather nifty dressmaking pins with hearts on the end and my glow in the dark embroidery skeins.

The blue box has been with me for the best part of twenty years so is slightly fuller and the finds at the bottom of that one were a lot more interesting. 

My very first stitched item ever.  A sampler that I stitched at school way back when I was 8 or 9 years old.  I had completely forgotten I still had this.  It's in fairly good condition for its age but could do with a bit of a clean.  Any hints and tips on how to clean old embroidery would be gratefully received as I'm really not sure if I should wash it or not.

This next picture is one that I finished in the early 1990s.  It's stitched onto a printed canvas.   This one needs blocking as it's kind of a lopsided rectangle at the moment.

This next one is the birth sampler I did for Eldest when she was born. Which reminds me, I have a Noddy birth sampler in a box somewhere that I still haven't stitched  for Youngest yet...  I really need to get around to that. 

Amazingly enough, I can remember stitching every one of these.  Just a shame I can't remember where I left my needle threader.

Bye for now

Olly