My name is Wren Morgan and I’m an auctioneer with Keystone and Sons Auctioneers, a family-owned company based in the little town of East Bledsoe Ferry, Missouri. You may have seen my name in the paper recently, after I went in to catalog the Campbell estate and found a naked dead guy on the stairs.
While dead bodies are a rarity, the fact is you find a lot of strange things when you’re preparing for an auction. One thing that always intrigues me is abandoned craft projects.
I don’t mean those that were interrupted by death, though there’s a certain poignancy to that; finding a half-completed afghan tucked into the corner of a well-worn easy chair, with the crochet hook stabbed into the ball of yarn and the hands that were working it forever stilled. But what truly feeds my curiosity is projects that were obviously set aside. Sometimes the reason is obvious, if the threads are tangled or the pattern has gone awry. But sometimes it’s not.
I once found a cedar chest full of perfectly-embroidered linens and tea towels. Everything was completed except for three towels and a pillowcase, already stamped with the pattern. The pillowcase was nearly finished, the still-threaded needle stuck through the cloth and the whole lot packed away and never used. The chest was in the estate of an elderly widower and I finally tracked down a daughter-in-law who knew the story.
His late wife had owned the chest before they were married and had been embroidering the linens as part of her trousseau. She stopped working on them when she found out he was allergic to the woolen embroidery thread she was using.
Sometimes the reason things get abandoned is heartbreaking.
In one estate I found a pink-and-white, crocheted baby dress, completed except for the final seams and about three inches of ruffling on the trim. The families of the people whose estates we sell don’t always come to the auctions. It can be a difficult thing to watch. The woman’s daughter was there, though, and I showed her the dress in case it was something she’d want to keep. She’d never seen it before, but was able to guess at an explanation.
Her parents had lost their first child, a newborn baby daughter, to SIDS.
The daughter didn’t want the dress. I considered buying it myself and finishing the work, even if only to give it to little Mercy Keystone for one of her dolls. In the end I did not. It seemed wrong to give a child something that had been made for the dead, so I let it go on to auction and pass to someone who didn’t know its sad history.
The strangest thing I ever found while preparing an auction, though (in terms of unfinished craft projects and barring naked dead men) was a Tupperware container that held thirteen 4″ Ohio star quilt blocks.
The Ohio star isn’t a difficult block, but these were tiny and pieced neatly and showed a certain level of skill. There were three each of red, yellow, and green stars and four blue. Thirteen quilt blocks does not make a quilt of any size no matter how you arrange them, so it was obviously the beginning of a larger project.
I found them, as I said, in a Tupperware container. Specifically, it was a vintage green Tupperware container dating to the early 1950’s. They’d been ironed flat, wrapped in brown tissue paper that had been trimmed from a sewing pattern, and put in the Tupperware. Then the Tupperware was wrapped completely in aluminum foil, wrapped again in a layer of duct tape, and labeled with a crude drawing of a skull-and-crossbones.
There was no one to tell me the story of the quilt blocks and these I did wind up buying. I added three plain white blocks and made a quilted wall hanging and every time I looked at it I wondered. Finally, almost three years later, I had a chance to talk to the man whose mother had owned that estate.
He didn’t know what I was talking about when I asked him about the quilt blocks, but when I described the package he recognized it. He hadn’t known what was inside, nor had his mother. It had already been wrapped up like that when she got it. It was in the bottom of a box of books she bought years and years ago.
At an auction.
You can read more about Wren in Death and the Redheaded Woman, the first book in the NEW “Auction Block” mystery series, published by Midnight Ink.
GIVEAWAY: Leave a comment by 6 p.m. eastern on February 17 for the chance to win a copy of Death and the Redheaded Woman. The giveaway is open to U.S. residents only. Winner will be notified within 48 hours after giveaway closes.
Meet the author
Loretta Ross is a writer and historian who lives and works in rural Missouri. She is an alumna of Cottey College and holds a BA in archaeology from the University of Missouri – Columbia. She has loved mysteries since she first learned to read. Death and the Redheaded Woman will be her first published novel.
Visit Loretta at www.lorettasueross.com
Wow! I will never look at an estate sale the same way again. Sounds awesome! Thanks for the chance!
Sounds like a great read; auctions are both personal and impersonal– sad.
Thanks for the opportunity to win.
I am really looking forword to reading this new one. I enjoy Antique Cozies.
It’s on my wish list.
this book and author sound great!
This sounds like an interesting new series.
I watch Storage Hunters so this should be a fun read.
I love estate sales , you can find some great treasures. This book sounds like a lot of fun Can’t wait to read it
It makes you want to get a job like hers – except for the bodies.
Death and the Redheaded Woman sounds like a great book.
I forgot to add my email address: myrifraf(at)gmail(dot)com
Looks good
I really will enjoy reading this book!
I love hearing the family stories. I too will pass on unfinished craft and handiwork projects when I go to my reward.
So . . . I have a few of my own abandoned craft projects. Perhaps I should revisit them. What a fabulous tease! I want to read this series!
Sounds like an interesting and fun book.
wow is right.
great story line, thanks for the chance to win 🙂
Wow, this sounds like a great book. Can’t wait to read it.
xzjh04@gmail.com
The setting of the story is close to home (I live in Illinois) so this should be a fun read. Enjoy auctions too so this will hit a lot of favorites. I’d like to start this series.
thanks.
Sounds interesting. Thank you for the chance to win.
Sounds really good. thanks for the chance to win.
I have never been to an estate sale but I would love to go. My mother and I once went to a garage sale in a very rich area. It was so much fun. I bought some great old magazines that were so much fun to read. That sale had much more interesting stuff than a regular garage sale. Would love to read this book. Thank you for the chance to win.
I can imagine a whole bunch of interesting “castoffs” that one might find at an auction. Thanks for the chance to win.
I feel the same way when I see an old house! I wonder who lived there and why no one kept the house up. There are many stories out there. I look forward to reading this book.
This sounds so intriguing!
Don’t you just love estate sales! Sounds like a great read, thank you for the chance!
Estate sales bring us the opportunity to walk in another’s shoes. I love the idea behind the mystery in the items at the sales. Thank you for the review and the chance to win a book. robeader53@yahoo.com
This book looks very interesting, can’t wait to read it. Thanks for the giveaway. 🙂
I hope to read this soon!
Love auctions! This book sounds great~thank you for the chance to win a copy!
Sounds great!
Sounds like a fun read!
skkorman AT bellsouth DOT net
I love that this book is based on estate sale auctions and I have wondered about how those companies evaluate and prepare. I will be putting this one on my wish list.
I loved the stories the author shared with us. Vignettes of real history!
Sounds like this will be a fascinating book. Thanks for sharing with us Dru!
Sounds like a great book!
I think working in the auction business would be fascinating. Uncovering all that old stuff, I’m sure there are plenty of treasures to be found. Thanks for the chance to win Death and the Redheaded Woman
This book sounds like it melds together two of my passions: mysteries and estate sales! Thanks for the preview.
Wren sounds like she’ll be a champ. I’m eager to see her first (and successive) outing.
I enjoy a good auctions—-and a good cozy. Thanks for the contest.
suefarrell.farrell@gmail.com
Death and the Redheaded Woman sounds like a great read. Thanks for the chance to win a copy.
sounds really good!
Sounds like an interesting book. I haven’t read any books by this author yet, so I’m looking forward to it. Thanks for the chance to win it.
Ohhhhh, auctions are fascinating to me. I look forward to reading this series!
This sounds like a great book – would love to read about an auctioneer, especially a lady auctioneer! I love cozies, and this is the first I’ve heard by this author.
What fascinating finds and stories.
I’m trying real hard not to add any new authors but I really want this book.
Love the sounds if this one! Looking forward to reading more about the auctions. Good story line!
Interesting premise.
Love trying new series at the beginning. Thanks for the giveaway.
Sounds great; I would love to win. Thanks for the chance. Happy Valentine’s Day.
LOVE this cover!!!
thank you for the giveaway……..
Sounds like the beginning to a great series! Put it on my wishlist 🙂
Absolutely on my “To Read” list.
I have always enjoyed auctions. It was something my mother and I did together before she died with dementia. I would love to win this book. Thanks so much for contest chance
This book sounds like one I would really like. I hope to win a copy.
Really interesting to see what makes its way into an auction, and to see if you can figure out the “back story.”
I love to go to Auctions and I have won several neat things including a leather 1940’s chair. So this is right up my alley..
Marilyn Watson ewatvess@yahoo.com
I’d like a good auction mystery book. The part about the baby’s dress was sad.
Lauigl [at] carolina [dot] rr [dot] com.
Sounds fascinating. Please pick me.
It seems like an interesting series. Thanks of for the opportunity to win a copy.
I love to read about ginger-haired people. They’re some of my favorites. Vintage should be my middle name.
This sounds like a must read series for me. Most of whats in my house came from auctions.
This sounds very interesting!
Sounds good
Sounds interesting! Thank you.
Thank you for the opportunity would love to win this book!
Death and the Rea headed Woman sounds intriguing. Would love to see where this series will lead. Thanks for the giveaway.
Thanks for the giveaway. This book sounds interesting!
Thank you for giving us a chance to win this book. I’m looking forward to reading it, even if I don’t win.
LOL. I’m a grandmother who has one of those half finished afghans packed away in my attic. I haven’t worked on it for at least 25+ years. Got too caught up raising kids & just plain living. Came across it 4 years ago when we moved. It went right up into the new attic. Guess I need to tell my girls about it one day!
Can’t wait to read!
Sounds just like my type of book. How intriguing. Looking forward to what it sure to be a great beginning to a great new series. Thanks for the chance to win.
contest is closed.