A few years ago, Aunt Theresa passed away. Aunt Theresa was a character, and I’ve written quite a bit about her life and death: here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

I saved a few of her things in my basement, including her vintage makeup suitcase. Check out the old ocean liner address label. I sold a few of the menus from those cruises she took to Europe in the 1950s.

I opened it last month and found a mess of sewing stuff.

I sorted out the mess and set aside the vintage thread on wooden spools.

Then I glued down the loose threads.

I lined all spools and just admired all the colors and vintage wood.

This morning, I strung up the wooden spools with wooden beads to make Christmas garland.

I’m going to make another three or four more for the tree, but here’s how it looks so far. I think Aunt Theresa would have liked this project.

Update: Here’s the finished project.