Thimble, Thimble,
Who's got the thimble?

Thanks for finding your way to my thimble page. I hope you enjoy yourself while you're here and that you will come back again.

Hi, my name is Helen.  I came to this small Iowa town of about 550 people in 1995.  My late husband, Charlie, brought me here when he became the pastor of the Christian Church. We had a wonderful life serving the church and serving the Lord. However, the Lord chose to take Charlie home with him on a Tuesday morning, the 5th of December, in the year 2000. I had the strangest feeling come to me that following Sunday morning after a 10 minute nap on the couch, before leaving for church. The feeling was all over me emotionally and physically that my son and I should stay here in Zearing and we are still here.
I have quite a number of Christian web pages that I have created with the help of the Lord.  If you would care to view the church home page I developed, here is the URL:

http://www.homestead.com/zearingchristianchurch/churchhomepage.html

In my spare time I collect thimbles...among other things...such as porcelain dolls, teapots, Santas, miniature tea sets, ceramic, porcelain and other types of eggs.
   My mother was a thimble collector before me.  I can not recall when she began to collect thimbles but I do remember that when ever I did not know what to buy for her I would  buy  her a thimble.

She had quite an extensive collection.  As she got up in to later years and her health began to really fail it became imperative that she move to a Care Center.  They advised her there not to display her thimble collection as some of the residents didn't know what did and did not belong to them.  So she kept it in a drawer where she could still look at it.  She always told me that when she no longer had any need for the collection that it was to be mine.  Somewhere along the line, I suppose as her mind began to fail, she gave the collection to my brother.  He gave it to his two daughters. 

I never saw even one of those thimbles ever again.
What's done is done...So I started my own thimble collection.  Of course, it is nothing to compare to my mothers, nor will it ever be.  However, I am pleased with it and it really grown from the six thimbles I started out with.

As of today, as I update this on Jan. 6th, 2002, I now have all 50 state thimbles. I have about 25 advertising thimbles and am now working on collecting thimbles from other countries.  I have Finland, Canada, Japan, Holland, Thailand, Sweden, France and a few others. The last time I counted, I had approximately 624 thimbles total.
The Avon Fashion Ladies, shown below, which were produced in the 1980's
are a set and the shelf was part of the original set.  I got this picture from e-bay to show what it looks like completed.  My late husband purchased the shelf and 7 thimbles at a local auction--the problem-- 3 were duplicates, so I actually had 4 of the thimbles. I had pretty good success in finding the ones I didn't have.  I now have all 8 of the Avon Fashion lady thimbles and the shelf which they are to set on.
That was such a happy day for me when I completed that collection! 

      1           2           3           4         5            6          7           8

Something new here--I just acquired some children's thimbles from e-bay.
Seven of them to be exact.  They are all alike, size 6, stainless steel.
They were stacked inside each other, possibly on a shelf in a little store somewhere.
The part of each thimble that was exposed is a bit of a different color than the unexposed part, of course.
Two of the thimbles appear to have been squeezed a bit to fit a tinier finger.
I have a bit of a fetish for children's thimbles.
I will try to scan one of this little thimbles and post it on this page.

This little thimble stick pin and thimble earrings came from the Thimble Palace.
Leslie also has thimble buttons for sale there.
See her web site at:
http://www.thimblepalace.com

   Shirley Temple Thimble Holder

Irish Stein Thimble

Lighthouse thimble

These little mini scissors are another
Ben Franklin purchase.  They didn't scan well at all.  They are gold and measure about 1& 1/8 " by 1/2 inch.

I found this little trinket at the local Ben Franklin store.

This is a World War 1 sewing kit.  The thimble on top is what holds the kit together.

As is quite obvious, this thimble holder is very old.  The hole in the sole is the thimble holder and the inside of the little shoe holds the pin cushion.

Aren't these delicate little lady slipper thimble holders?

English walnut sewing kit, lined with red velvet.  The shell itself appears to be gold plate.

I was just able to answer one of my own questions...and isn't that a great feeling?  LOL
I just decided to try scanning a few of my thimbles in my flatbed scanner.
I didn't think it would be successful but SURPRISE!! it worked.
So I will be scanning some of my collection to show on this page.
So if you like and use e-mail stationery and are a user of Outlook Express, I have some
cute thimble stationery I have developed.  I would be happy to share it with you if you send me and e-mail I will send you the thimble stationery.

e-mail me here

Thimble Cookies (Canadian Purity Cookbook 1932)

1/2 cup butter 1/4 cup sugar
1 egg, separated 1 tsp vanilla
1 cut sifted flour Nuts, chopped finely
Fruit jam of your choice
Cream butter, add sugar gradually & mix well.
Add well beaten egg yolk, vanilla & flour.
Shape into balls about the size of a walnut.
Dip in unbeaten egg white, then in finely chopped nuts - almonds, walnuts etc.
Dent in the center with a thimble.
Place on greased baking sheet & bake at 350F
for 5 minutes & dent again. Bake 12-15 mins.
Fill with jam while still hot.
Enjoy!

Wooden shoe thimble holder

Little goat-drawn cart thimble holder

I have done thimble presentations for several groups.  I found some great thimble printed fabric, again, at that same Ben Franklin store.
I made a skirt, a reversible vest and an apron, which I wore.  The border on this page is the reverse side of the vest.  I could only get one yard of this fabric as it was the end of the bolt.  The other thimble print, however, there was an ample amount of.
If anyone is interested in an Iowa thimble I would be happy to do a thimble trade for one for a foreign country.  I now have all the states as I said but I would trade for another kind of thimble.
Just send me an email
hmb@netins.net

              Here is the content from an article in the local paper about the first thimble program I did. ZEARING SENIOR CITIZENS ENJOY AFTERNOON SPEAKER

   The Zearing Senior Citizens had their monthly meeting and pot-luck meal on May 9 in the Christian Church basement.  John Lund reported that he finally added up the volunteer hours that the seniors report to him each month and came up with a total of 200 volunteer hours.  He wanted to congratulate the members and their work. 
   This month Helen Bywaters spoke to the group of seniors about her thimble collection.  Bywaters has a collection of sewing items that includes books, sewing baskets, pin cushions, tape measurers and of course, thimbles.
   Bywaters says she started her colection of thimbles in 1990 with a wooden thimble house with six thimbles inside.  Now she has about 220 thimbles.
   She admits that she is not shy about asking friends that are traveling to pick up a thimble for her. 
   "I have thimbles from the different places I have travelled  and also from friends that travel and I know people in several other states that have helped me with my collection," says Bywaters.
   Some of the thimbles she has are advertising thimbles.  She knows some of these thimbles are quite old since the products are no longer made that are being advertised.  Other types of thimbles she has include a 2000 Millennium thimble, a collection from Avon, a hand beaded thimble from a friend in South Dakota, 11 foreign country thimbles and some children's thimbles.  Bywaters also reported that in her search and collection of thimbles she learned that thimbles have been around since AD 79 and were found in Pompeii.
   For more information on thimbles check out Helen Bywaters' website at www.oocities.org/hmbywaters/ThimbleThimble.html.
   The next meeting of the Zearing Senior Citizens will be June 13 at noon in the basement of the Christian Church.

I used these as centerpieces.  The one on the right is one of the "Little Women" dolls and she is embroidering.
On the left, a rocker pincushion with little pegs for thread on the sides.

Some of my sewing baskets, pincushions, old buttons, thimble books, etc.

More thimble pictures from the thimble presentation.

These are poor quality pictures but I just wanted to give you a few shots of my collection. 

These are the state thimbles.  Since I am from Iowa I have more than a dozen different Iowa thimbles.

This was the little shelf unit that began my collection.  I started with 3 bird and 3 butterfly thimbles.  Now it holds my advertising thimbles.

The higher shelf holds the Avon fashion lady thimbles.  Those sitting on top of the lower unit are those that are too tall to fit in the thimble units.

This is one of my favorite thimbles, a pewter church.

I now have a second thimble web page.  I hope that you will visit
there, also. The thimble directly below this text is the link to that
page.  Just click on the thimble and
travel to the "Thimbles and More... page.

Click on the button below to visit the Top 50 Thimble Web Sites...

Thank you and please come back soon!

Proud to be a member of the Thimble Collectors International
http://www.thimblecollectors.com/

Proud to be a member of the Yahoo Thimble Collecting Club...
http://home.talkcity.com/ParadiseDr/docslin/Home.html