January 4, 2021 by Born To Organize

A Vintage Postage Stamp Table for Sharon

Earlier this year, while recovering from foot surgery, I spent some couch time sorting postage stamps. When my sister, Sharon, moved to her new condo, she asked if I would make her a vintage postage stamp table like mine. We’d both had one of my father’s stamp albums on the shelf for years. It was an emotional journey from album to table, but a healthy one. It was time we pulled our grief off the shelf and brought Dad’s gorgeous collection into the light of day.

A page from Dad’s vintage postage stamp album

As project planning goes, 2020 was a strange year. Just as I started to literally get on my feet, we entered a three-week lockdown. Casual trips to the hardware store became a thing of the past. When we eventually made it there, I waited in a long line, just to order a small quart of paint. Once home, the simple act of painting the circular wooden top alluded me. Mike eventually offered to paint it for me, and from there, I found some momentum.

I had hoped for more of a royal purple but I settled. Most of it will be covered anyway.

When I made my own table-top back in 2015 I had the benefit of four triangle-shaped stamps to use as a center. From there I worked my way outward, placing stamps in rainbow order and using multi-colored postage for the border.

Lacking any triangle-shaped stamps for Sharon’s table, I had to come up with a different approach. I sorted through dozens of stamps and eventually came up with this:

The red stamp is marked Nov, Sharon’s birth month. The next two stamps are 50c and 9c (Sharon’s 59th year), and the stamp below that is from Canada (our birthplace), and the year I made the table (2020).

I sorted the postage by color, setting aside the multi-colored stamps to use along the border. I divided the painted top into pie-shaped sections and filled each one with one color, moving from the center outward. I really enjoyed seeing it take shape.

I adhered the stamps as I moved from the center outward using Mod Podge decoupage glue. It’s easy to apply and it acts as both a glue and a varnish. I continued to build up layers of the water-resistant finish over several days, smoothing out any bubbles and allowing it to dry.

In the interim, I assembled this flat-pack black table purchased online. I originally planned on scouring some thrift stores for a table to use as a base, but it was a good alternative since that was out of the question. Mike helped me attach the postage stamp tabletop to the black table’s underside using wood screws.

The table sits between Sharon’s two velvet chairs. A slightly taller table would have been nice, but the colors are perfect. We’re both happy with the final result.

Vintage postage side table (sticky tape on chairs to discourage kitty)

Check out what these artists are doing with vintage postage:

Artist Juan Carlos uses postage stamps to beautiful effect.

Donna Boss creates gorgeous cards using vintage stamp art.

Philatelic fans, please note. These stamps are sentimental and are of no inherent value. I understand that for some of you, this amounts to destroying a piece of history. For us, it’s a way of valuing our father’s legacy and a way to celebrate and honor his beloved hobby. We were 8 and 9, respectively, when Dad died. These tables mean the world to us.

March 11, 2020 by Born To Organize

More Projects from the Couch

I have another project in the works for my sister Sharon.

I’m using my surgery recovery time to carefully remove hundreds of postage stamps from one of our dad’s stamp collections. When I’m fully mobile again, I’ll move on to phase two: a stamp-covered table.

Antigua Half Penny Postage Stamp 1916-18

Our dad had many hobbies, but the one we remember the most is stamp-collecting. Mom kept his albums for years after he died. She eventually sold a few and gave each of us the money toward college. It wasn’t much, but it was important for her to turn his collection into something more tangible for our future. Thankfully she hung on to a few albums.

Ascension Postage and Revenue 1935

Dad died when we were 8 and 9 respectively, a short time after immigrating to the United States. Dad started life in Oldham, England, moved to India, twice, immigrated to Canada where he met our mother, and then ended life in California at the age of 54 from lung cancer.

His albums took on a certain status. They were our connection to our beloved father. I don’t remember looking at them individually, but more as a collection and a representation of what to us seemed like an exotic life.

Ceylon Postage and Revenue, over-stamped with War Stamp

Assorted colors postage stamps Chamba State India

Multi-colored India Postage embossed/stamped with Chamba State, 1907

I wrote about the emotions around his stamps back in March of 2015. Here is an excerpt:

Last August, on the anniversary of my father’s death, I was finally able to re-frame my feelings about his stamp collection. I once viewed his stamp albums as life interrupted. They reminded me of my loss instead of the joyful hours he spent pursuing this hobby. The stamp albums sat in a cupboard, revered. Now I see them as a gift to be shared, and as a way to celebrate my father’s kind and curious nature. I hosted a blog giveaway and sent many of Dad’s stamps to friends and acquaintances around the world. It was an extraordinary exercise in letting go. If you would like to read the post in its entirety, you’ll find it here: Vintage Postage: A Daughter’s Love Letter and a Blogging Giveaway.

Five years ago I made a round accent table using postage from my album. I created a few cards using his stamps, and then mailed extras to bloggers around the world. Pauline King turned several of them into a wonderful piece of art. It’s a treasure!

Sharon loves my table and asked if I would make one for her using stamps from her album. So here we are.

I’ve removed about 400 stamps so far, each meticulously mounted in the album with gummed labels. If those stamps could talk. I’m sorting by color as I go, with a special pile of multi-colored stamps that I plan to use along the table’s border. I’m thinking a lot about my dad as I go and about my sister too. We’re both excited about the table.

Here are a few more pages from his album.

Trans-Tasmanian New Zealand postage stamps

India Special Issue China Expeditionary Force or C.E.F., 1882 to 1900

Here is a gallery of Pauline King’s art made incorporating some of Dad’s stamps, along with my postage stamp table, and a few greeting cards.

Alys in Wonderland: Art by Pauline King, The Contented Crafter

Mixed Media art using postage stamps by Pauline King

Postage Stamp table using my father’s collection

Postage Stamp table close-up

Postage Stamp table detail

Initial cards made with vintage postage stamps

I’ll let you know how it goes.

May 13, 2015 by Born To Organize

Campus Quilt Gem

For years I’ve seen ads like this in the back of magazines. You send in a pile of t-shirts and they come back to you as a quilt. A few of my clients have mentioned the idea to me as well but I don’t know anyone who followed through.

Though I love to sew, I’ve never learned to quilt. I lack the patience, but love the idea and the finished results. The idea of making sentimental clothing into a functioning quilt however, intrigued me. In the ‘old days’ most discarded clothing saw a new life as a quilt. Nothing went to waste.

So after helping my sister clean out some drawers, we decided to turn her small pile of keepsake t-shirts into a sentimental quilt.

Sharon worked on this ad campaign at The Mercury News

Campus Quilts has the ordering process down to a science. I made a deposit online, then ordered a package with directions. They send you a large waterproof envelope for mailing your shirts, along with assorted fabric swatches and a detailed order form. You let them know what order to place your shirts, what kind of backing you want and if you want strips of fabric between each shirt. We opted for the strips and it turned out nicely.

Four shirts, including one with a button placket

The dark fabric frames each panel. There are two styles of machine quilting and even an option to add photo panels or an embroidered name.

Closeup of purple flannel backing and machine stitches

Our design is a simple one, but turned out even better than we imagined. Sharon chose her favorite color for the back of the quilt and black for the framing.

We’re tickled pink.

The quilt is big and cozy

The boys were nice enough to hold up the quilt for the photo, but asked to remain incognito

The Shirts:

Top row, San Jose Mercury News and a pair of wildlife t-shirts
2nd row, A gift from Mike, work shirts from Zazzle and Pindar (no she never went to prison)
3rd row, More shirts from Pindar
4th row, Shirts from the Spartan Daily, San Jose State University