I'll never forget this shade of Pretty Punch pink

A trip down memory lane — thanks to eBay — and a foray into the Loose Ends Project, which finishes projects loved ones left behind.

A short delay to our previously scheduled Nashville content. (You can read Part 1 about seeing country music legends at the Grand Old Opry here.) 

But I couldn’t wait to bring you a delightful little eBay discovery I made last week. 

When I was a kid, I did a little modeling for my dad’s craft company, Pretty Punch, whose products you can still buy on eBay.

Earlier this month, I was trying to explain Pretty Punch to some friends of mine.

“It was this company my dad and my grandma owned in the ‘80s when I was a kid growing up in Florida,” I always say. And then dive into a poor attempt to describe the craft and its very specific tool: a pink tube you hold like a pen to punch thread into fabric, which creates a raised texture on the back of the fabric that is actually the front. 

During my early years, I grew up surrounded by the craft industry thanks to my dad’s involvement in this company. My parents took me along as an infant in a car seat as they sold Pretty Punch at a booth at a flea market. I was so familiar with the tool, the yarn and the endless patterns used to make these kitschy designs with Tweety Bird and a cat in a teacup. 

I’m not sure whose idea it was to put me in some Pretty Punch outfits and become one of the models for the catalog, but I loved the attention and getting to represent their company. 

Pretty Punch yarn, which came in more than 100 colors, was a big part of my childhood. I have kept this ungodly bright green spool on my altar as a keepsake of that time. Now I have a whole kit.

Pretty Punch was built around a shade of pink that was suspiciously close to Mary Kay pink, but in my mind, my grandmother might as well have been driving one of those pink Cadillacs herself. She had a huge house and lots of jewelry and fancy cars. They were living The Life.

Well, that was until the business started to fail, and I realized that I was a bit of a performance. That maybe she didn’t know exactly what she was doing. That my dad couldn’t run with business with her and he couldn’t run it without her. 

There was too much pride and money and unresolved issues from the only recent discovery that Shirley wasn’t my dad’s “sister;” she was his mother, who had him when she was 16. 

My grandmother’s craftiness is all over the Pretty Punch brand, like the fact that they sold designs for “Vase Mats™,” complete with a trademark. These patterns are among the many available on eBay.

I definitely remember knowing that their story was more complicated than most son-mom relationships. I also remember enjoying the “fame” of being part of the company in this small way.

But over the years, Pretty Punch is one of those things that gets shelved in the cabinet of memories.

Until days like this. 

When I googled “Pretty Punch” to show the pink tool and maybe a picture of a completed piece to my friend, I was surprised to find a whole starter pack with yarn, the punch tool, a bunch of patterns and a color printed card with a picture of little Addie in a purple satin jacket with a Pretty Punch’d clown on the front.

A few days later, I’d outbid the other Pretty Punch fanatics trying to get this piece of 1980s craft history. For $15.50, plus tax and the cost of shipping, I bought a nugget of nostalgia. 

Now, the question is: Do I open the package and make something with what’s inside? Or hold onto it and get another one to break into for an upcoming project?

There are more than 400 Pretty Punch-related products on eBay right now. Lots of patterns, spools of the rainbow of colors of yarn I remember on huge spools in the warehouse where my dad’s office was located, where I could spend hours under his desk coloring sticky notes with highlighters.

Pretty Punch sold a punch tool, patterns and more than 100 colors of this soft yarn, which is thicker than embroidery floss and can be felted.

I don’t know what is next for this Pretty Punch kit and the ancestral crafting spirit that lives inside me.

It’s a gift that my grandmother left that’s just as valuable as this weird little craft brand that, if not for eBay and punch needle nerds that have taken over Instagram, would be relegated to history.

Not on my watch.

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Since I’m writing about crafts this week, I wanted to tell you about the Loose Ends Project, which was recently highlighted on NBC Nightly News.

This very loosely organized group of people helps connect crafters who want to finish projects with folks who have unfinished projects that were left behind by loved ones.

The group has gone viral a couple of times this year, first on Facebook and then again after the NBC News piece, so there are many more finishers than projects at the moment. 

My grandma Shirley left behind this unfinished crewel embroidery when she died. I don’t know how to do this kind of stitch, so I’m going to send it off to Loose Ends Project, which will connect me with someone who can finish it and send it back.

After I signed up to be a finisher, I realized that I just so happen to have an unfinished crewel embroidery project that my grandma Shirley left in her stash. I have no idea how to do a crewel stitch, and although I could learn, I’d really like to submit this and see what happens when I get connected with someone who can finish it. Maybe I can turn this into something sweet for my aunt, who misses her mom dearly…

These, my friends, are the invisible threads that connect us to our ancestors and our own roots.

I’ve been so excited to connect recently with Zak Foster, who runs a quilt community called The Quilty Nook, where quilters share their projects, tutorials, questions and general love of all things creativity and fabric.

He’s a quilter from the South who is living in Brooklyn and is one of the leading thinkers and artists in modern quilting today. (If you were to ask me.)

When I first heard about him, he was making death quilts, and now he’s working on what he calls the #southernwhiteamnesia project, which is exactly what I would call ancestral healing through quilting. He and I are talking about doing a workshop together at some point this year, so I’ll keep you posted about when and where if you’re interested in fabric and family history.

So, what’s going on this month?

I have a few South by Southwest-related events I’m going to this weekend, including the Future of Food and STL@SXSW party hosted by, get this, the Midwest House. (Made my little Missouri heart sing.)

I have a couple of Substack posts about Nashville in the works, starting with the National Museum of African American Music and ending with an unforgettable trip to a plantation-turned-winery.

Look for those over the next couple of weeks.

Boys and I are headed camping without Frank next week for spring break. And then it’s a quick slide into wedding weekend.

Lots to juggle, but lots to love. Couldn’t be happier to do it.

Thanks again for your subscription! Remember: Paid subscribers will start receiving a print zine twice a year starting in June. If you want to get the first one, be sure to upgrade from free by the end of May.

Talk soon,

Addie

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