Tag sale treasures

One of the great things about living in the 'burbs is the abundance of garage sales, yard sales and the like that pop up in the spring and summertime. This past weekend we stopped off at a tag sale that was held at Beacon Studios, an artists' workspace in our town's old high school.

For a dollar, I picked up a remnant of this cool yellow and grey cotton fabric. I think this might make a nice little purse or tote bag lining. Might be fun to embroider, too...

(Please forgive me the lousy cell phone photo.)

Steven is just crazy about silkscreens, so he was psyched to find some silkscreen artist proofs from the 1970s by an illustrator named Lloyd Birmingham. He chose this nude:

...and this radish. I think this would look great in our kitchen.

But the find of the day, in my opinion, was $2.00 for Needlework, a book by Adolph S. Cavallo, which is billed as "...an enchanting introduction to the history of decorative needlework in different parts of the world."

I just love this American sampler from 1773:

I had always thought of cross-stitch and embroidery as an American craft, but the truth is that embroidery and decorative needlework have been practiced in cultures across the world for centuries.

I'm pretty excited to have this resource to help me learn more about the roots of my little hobby!