Basketfull

Hubby is always charity shopping and keeps his eyes out for thimbles he found this basketful.

It had some amazing ones in it. Mostly a good portion of the WWF set.

cottage thimbles - ebay

My recent royal purchases. 

One on the right is coronation 2nd June 1953 the other duchess of York and princess Elizabeth and princess Margaret.

So my royal rack is looking pretty good. 

This isn't all of them but a nice display of some of my favourites.

How do you display and house your collection?

Anniversary

It was our anniversary recently and I asked hubby for some royal thimbles.

 

I got 2 batches from ebay all were individual buy it now but with having the postage combined and for ones I rreally wanted it wasn't bad prices.

 

I got these from one seller all look fairly old ones nice pictures and inscriptions on the back.

 

 These I got from another seller Miss Mouse's store and thimble corner (prospectjean) gave a stellar service. They were helpful as hubby put through 2 of the same thimble. They then sent them really fast and packed really well. And even sent one extra which is very nice of them. So I would highly recommend them.

Mostly they are royal ones with a couple extra and mostly Sutherland thimbles too.

Cottage thimbles - Royal

I have been looking on Cottage thimbles a few times, with it being one of the few places to get thimbles. I then saw some on sale for a pound each so thought that I'd give them a go. Now I'm over the moon with the thimbles. However it took them 10 days to even dispatch them from my order, which seems a long time these days. It then came and I'm missing a thimble. They have said that it will be sent but it is a bit annoying to have waited all this time for it to arrive with one missing.

I am happy with the additions to my royal collection. Mostly by the free thimble they offer every  month. This months being:

How cute is that. Can't wait for the ones with the proper details on to turn up.

Displayed

Since sorting my storage out, I had a look at the display racks and managed to get some out on the wall.

 

I have so far put the maps which I love onto the house. 

These ones are some that mean the most to me. Espcailly early ones like the alice ones and my name one are the starter ones grandma got me.

 

I've also put the royal ones on this one. 

 

This was taken before the influx of new royal ones I have recently acquired so I need to have a bit of a sort and now that I got those new racks at the air show I might see about putting some more up. 

Flying high

This week is flying along, and I've done well on the thimble front too.

It was the airshow here and we decided to take the boys down. The weather was gorgeous.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

On the way down we pass a street with a few charity shops along and hubby normally checks them out. The last one we came too he went in and I stopped outside pulling the pram up outside the window. Then I came face to face with three beautiful full thimble racks. I'm tapping on the window jumping up and down. Hubby looks up and nonchalantly nods. I carry on jumping up and down until he picked them up.....what if someone else had picked them up before him. He thought it was hugely funny especially as its usually the other way round for his collecting and wanting them grabbed and bought as soon as.

 There was all these royal ones on. And a few nice Sutherland ones and also a decent set of Japanese ones. I will work over the next few days to up date these individually into the photo galleries.

I also couldn't resist when I saw the Red Arrows display team thimble. It was a bit pricey at £5 but decided I really wanted it and together with the amount I paid for that alongside the collection I snagged in the charity shop it worked out at 33p a thimble which is great price overall.

 

 

Plenty more updates to come.

Broken and boxed

I've been saying I needed to get a better storage system for my thimble collection rather than being all piled in shoe boxes. I've been on the hunt for something and hubby spotted this

The boxes are small so a handful of thimbles fit in each but means less to chink together and easier to find ones if I want.

It was not a moment too soon as well. When I went to try them in the new box I lifted the old box but the lid popped and some slid out of the back. They landed on some fabrics had out for sewing but one didn't make it.

Totally gutted, it's one of my early ones. I do have a swap of this it the national trust logos on the back were actually different. At least now they are all safer in their new home. I just need to figure where to put these apples now ha

The plastic box has the boxed and domed ones in and the smaller box has my swaps in for now.

Sunburnt Seaham haul

Today we made a trip to Seaham car boot. It's quite a big one but for us being non drivers not so easy to get to. It was a decent hike from the train and what seemed to be a cloudy windy day...we've come back horribly burnt...why did I wear a top with funny shapes cut in the arms. I'm also shattered but considering the distance we covered I'm not surprised. I did however get an excellent haul of thimbles for my troubles.

All were about 50p or under so good on prices. A couple of royal ones and a Blackpool tower 100 years which is pretty cool.

I do still have ones to add in the galleries along with these now but hoping to be up to date very soon.

Scotland

My parents recently came for a visit. They had been to Edinburgh for my mother's birthday to see the pandas at the zoo. Knowing about my thimble collecting I now have a new thimble from their trip to add to my collection.

A sheep with tartan wellies how cute is that.

I've made huge progress with the galleries. I now only have my mother in laws collection to add and caption in the various categories, that's still  few but more than halfway.

Maps

The map thimbles I had were always some of my favourites. I found this lot  on eBay and got for a good price.

I did get a couple of swaps but that's all parcel of buying job lots.

I'd managed to nearly caption all the photos in the galleries. I'd added in one to show my mother in laws collection in its entirety alongside my reblog collection as well as the galleries showing the whole collection together. I'm currently working from a massive list to  finish off adding the photos. Just with two small boys and a suddenly expanded collection it's finishing the time.

My latest big issue is to work out storage. I have the small racks from my mother in law to display some favourites. But the rest I don't want to just be tossed in a box but it's finding the best option.

Royal additions

I got this lot from eBay recently to add to my royal thimble collection.

There's some great ones there, the queen mother's 85th, 90th and 100th birthdays. Prince Charles and Diana's wedding, Princess Diana's 21st and life. The birth of Prince William and 2 for his first birthday.

My mother in law also found out some more of her collection

Some interesting ones in there too. Hubby loved that the boxed Scotland thimble has a made in Taiwan sticker on its side...snicker.

She also had some thimble display cases

So I can now decide which are my favourites to display. I'm also looking as to how I'm going to store my collection as they are just in boxes at the moment which is probably not the best way to keep them.

Only thing now is I've got a lot of organising to do to fill out the galleries ha

Newcastle

I had a trip into Newcastle yesterday. The charity shops were a bust but I did manage to get to the tourist information shop which had a handful of thimbles. I got these two

 Newcastle Tyne Bridge and

Hadrians wall.

Pleases to be adding to my collection and I spent some time making notes so I now have a list to work from for checking where I'm up to with the picture galleries, as they are taking some organising.

Inheritance

After mentioning to a few of the family about my rekindled collecting of thimble, it came to light my mother in law used to collect them too. I then was offered her collection to add to mine. I was over the moon with the ones I've come home with but have been assured that stuffed away somewhere she has more!

There's some fab ones in there and a couple swaps but I'm pretty sure they are older versions so maybe not quite swaps after all. My hubby was happy to see me get passed these they remind him of all the places they visited as kids and his mother used to have them displayed.

I am still sorting and adding all the individual pictures to the galleries and having had an influx of thimbles to add it's taking a bit of time to sort. So bear with me. And I may yet have more to add if mother in law remembers where she stashed the rest.

Thimbles thimbles every where

The job lot I got from eBay arrived yesterday. I picked it up for a bargain price and its got some great additions to my collection.

There was quite a few Mallorca thimbles:

 Some map thimble, I quite like the map ones

 Some places

 Nature thimble including a Spode flower flower of the year iris from 1991

 A few royal thimble, I now have two Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson wedding and and one engagement thimble. I'm looking a working on my royal thimble collection.

 Some random ones of various materials

 A load of places from abroad

 And some lovely scenic ones

There was only one swap that I already had and two doubles within this lot itself so not bad going on that front.

I have been adding all my thimbles to to the photo galleries down the side in categories and adding any info into the captions. But it's taking a little bit of time so bear with me while I get it up and running.