Category Archives: Thrifting

Stash Update

I have had some really good luck in the thrifting department lately. Of course, this was just after making the vintage patchwork quilt! When I saw these on the shelf at our local shop I decided to add them to my collection.

I love the colors – especially the one on the far left and the green on the far right.

Even if I don’t use them right away, they belong with all the others I have collected. For those of you that might want a piece or two of these, I have cut some fat quarters and added them to my shop. Sold as single fat quarters or a bundle, they are a bargain.

I also spotted a bundle of blue fabrics that I couldn’t pass up ($5.00 for the bundle… What quilter would pass that up?). These cuts are 1/2 yard to one yard each totaling over five yards of fabric.

Moving on to fabrics a bit more modern, I received my order from Green Fairy Quilts. Honestly, they ship faster than any shop I know. It always amazes me how quickly I receive an order from them. I got two large pieces of Kona, one in Fig Tree Cream and the other in Stone. These will be for the wedding quilt for my nephew. (I really need to find a name for this project!) Since I was shopping, and since there was a sale, and since I have never, not even once, bought any mini charms, I chose two packs. Once of Chic Neutrals by Amy Ellis and the other is Black Tie Affair by Basic Grey. They are both really nice lines and will be fun to make a mini or table runner with.

Finally, I was lucky enough to win a giveaway on Instagram a couple of weeks ago. Brooke (@sillymamaquilts) hosted a giveaway and I won a charm pack of Pixie Noel fabric, designed by Tasha Noel. This line is adorable and I am happy to have this little win to play with. I will have no trouble using this sweet charm pack up on a fun holiday project.

Clearly I have lots to work on but the wedding quilt is my priority for now. These other bits will just have to wait for a while.

Thrifting Success & Another Pattern

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We had one of those weekends where things didn’t go as planned. Julia had invited several girl’s for a sleepover on Saturday night to celebrate her 15th birthday. Friday afternoon she started looking a little peaked and by Friday night she was feeling lousy. Saturday morning she cancelled the sleepover and parked herself on the couch, where she has spent the vast majority of the weekend. Poor girl – feverish, headache and all congested. No fun.

So, instead of celebrating her birthday, I snuck out to get her some dvd’s and run a few errands. I passed a thrift store that supports our local Hospice organization and saw that they had a bunch of office/desk chairs out front. I have been sitting on an older chair that is fairly uncomfortable. I ran in and bought one of their chairs – very comfy and it doesn’t have any arms so it can hug up close to the machine. Yay! While there, I had to at least take a quick peek at their little craft area. Sometime there is fabric there, sometimes not. I happy to see a few bundles of fat quarters on the shelf which I promptly purchased, brought home, washed, dried and ironed them. I was on a roll!

Love these autumnal prints. Especially the gray/rust piece at the far right.

Here is another bundle.

The black batik and the Asian looking print on the far right are great – the piece in the middle is only so-so.

These two are nice additions as well. Black is always quickly used and I love the geese on the right. Eight fat quarters for about 50 cents each. Score.

I also want to share my May is for Makers pattern for this week. It has been years since I have made a dress but the time has come. I chose the Washi pattern. You may have seen this floating around for a bit. The Washi dress was designed by Rae who blogs at Made by Rae.

I love the neckline and the side pockets on the dress and the fact that the back is shirred with elastic thread. It looks like it will be very comfy which is what I am all about. My list of projects is growing really fast so I’d better get busy!

I need to get to work on:

Washi Dress (though I don’t have the fabric for that yet)
Fleur Mini
241 Tote for myself (I started pulling fabric for that today)
Finish sewing the binding on the Stepping Stones Quilt (almost done!)
Prewash fabric and start cutting out the Courtyard Tiles project with my Dear Stella fabric

Ok, get ready, get set, go! What is your list looking like these days?

Check out “Link Ups” at the top of the page to see my favorite places to link to.

Thrifting SCORE

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I went to a few of my favorite thrift stores last weekend. While I was out I also shopped at Humble Fabrics, it’s not really a thrift store, because she sells both new and “pre-owned” fabrics. It is, however, one of my favorite places to hunt for unusual fabrics. Last weekend I found an abundance of both new and pre-owned fabrics.

My favorite score has to be this set of quilt blocks! Two rows of four were stitched together.

There were also these three additional blocks.

I was thrilled to find them in a tub of scraps! The tub mainly holds small pieces that are not big enough to fold and put on the shelves. I don’t usually rummage through this but one of the quilt blocks caught my eye. I dug through it and was able to find two pieced strips containing four blocks each. The piecing is lovely – great points and tight stitching. Before I took these pictures (which I apologize for because they were taken at night, indoors. Forgive me. 😉 ) the blocks were labeled – A-1, A-2 etc. So I could sort of tell where the quilter was headed. However I wasn’t able to place the blocks as they were intended. Having only a few of them, I just did what I could. It looks good though!

When I got home, I pressed them and played around a bit. Finally I decided to piece them for a baby quilt to be donated. I love the bright colors. In the center I used two blocks from a set of hand dyed fabric that I won last year in a giveaway for RSC14 over at So Scrappy. They were made by Vicki Welsh. Her work is fantastic.

The squares finish out at 8″ which means that the body of the quilt comes to 24 x 36″. I felt that was too small even for a baby quilt so I played around with various ideas for borders.

The left side with the square patched border looked way too busy. On the right was a piece of blue and black print. I rejected that one because it was too dark and I wanted to stick with solids and batiks (like the body of the quilt.)

After trying a number of borders, I decided on this combination of purple (Moda Marbles line) and solid green. Softer than the others I tried and remains neutral (so fine for either a boy or girl).

Here is the end result, made with thrifted blocks and fabric from my stash. It finishes at approximately 33 x 42″.

We are having a rainy day (Yahoo!) so I had to tape this to the wall for photos. Not the best but good enough to give you the idea.

While I am very excited to finish this up, I have to set it aside and finish up some Christmas secret sewing. I have the backing and binding all ready to go, so after the holidays I will finish it up and donate. I know about Project Linus but are there other nice organizations to donate baby quilts to? If you know of one, leave it in a comment for me. Thanks so much and have a wonderful weekend!

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out the giveaways on Sew Mama Sew. You can enter my giveaway until Sunday night. Take a peek!

Linking to Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Crazy Mom Quilts – links for both are at the top of the page, under Link Ups

An Unlikely Find

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This morning was, as it has been all week, too hot to work outside. My husband and I were cleaning up our basement (it stays nice and cool down there!) As we went along, I made a huge pile of items to donate at one of our local thrift shops. I came across a bag of odds and ends and thought it best to take a quick look before adding it to the pile. I’m so glad I did!

In the bag was a pile of fabric that I had purchased some time ago at a garage sale. It was the sort of thing where you buy an entire bag without being able to take it apart to see what is really contained in the bag. I threw caution to the wind and spent my $3.00 on the mystery bag because that’s the kind of person I am. Most of the fabric was not my type of thing (lots of shimmer and shine.) So it ended up in the basement. This morning I took a closer look before donating it and found a set of African wax print fabrics! Score.

I hand washed them as I was fairly certain the bright colors would run a bit (and they did.) They looked so pretty hanging on my line in the way too hot sun. They dried in about five minutes!

Two of the four pieces are marked as being Sotiba prints, made in Dakar, Senegal. There are conflicting accounts of the status of Sotiba. When I was googling the company there was reference to it going out of business in the late 1980’s and also some reference to current production. I honestly don’t know if they are still making fabric. Anyone out there have any info on this??
The pieces aren’t large – they measure about 14″ x 25″. Not quite a fat quarter in size. The colors are so bold.

I was first introduced to African wax prints last November when a customer requested a custom order through my Etsy shop. She sent me this beautiful fabric and asked me to make a Chemex cozy with it. I posted about that project here. The fabric she sent me was Ankara, and it felt like a higher quality weave than these pieces. It was wonderful to sew with.

I think I will use these pieces to create some items for my shop. These pieces are not large enough to make Chemex cozies so they will probably be used for French Press cozies instead. At any rate, I am so glad I took a minute to scan that bag one last time.

Linking to Molly Sparkles Sunday Stash.

Vintage Heaven!

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Remember the post I recently wrote about the estate sale that I went to in Downieville? I had scored some quilting supplies and was/am so excited about the purchase. Well, there’s more to tell. I know, I know…. how much can a person handle! Bear with me. This will be a longer post than usual. Lots to say, ok?

While I was at the estate sale, I struck a conversation (as I am wont to do) with the nicest woman. She is probably in her 70’s and lives in Downieville. We started talking about things that we like to find at estate sales. I told her that I usually keep an eye out for unusual fabrics. She became interested and told me her mother enjoyed sewing. She asked me if i would like to have her mother’s fabrics. I almost fell over. Keeping my composure (not really, my smile probably spread happily across my face!) I said indeed, I would. She was almost apologetic, saying that while there were nice pieces in there, it might not be what I am interested in. Oh my, the thought of having a bag of vintage fabrics to poke through was so exciting. We exchanged addresses (me – “I bought Viola’s old house” & her – “oh, I live behind the forest service housing” Love this small town!!) I told her I would walk over later that afternoon, but an hour later she was at my door with two large plastic bags of fabric. I thanked her over and over and happily took them home with me that night.

I have spent hours sorting through these bags of joy. The fabric is very old and very dusty. I have been washing and ironing it all week. This seamstress would take the pieces of matching fabric and roll them up, tying them with another scrap of fabric, into bundles. The pieces are gorgeous. This picture shows less than half of what she gave me. Most are cottons but there are also several garments and some satins.

I have been trying to figure out how old these pieces truly are. There are a few clues. One is that the width of the pieces of yardage (those where the selvedges are intact on both sides) varies from 22″ to 36″; only one piece so far measures at 44″ wide. According to an article on Fabric.net, fabrics were made in 22-24″ widths into the early 1930’s. After that, 36″ fabrics were introduced. I know that when I worked in my father’s fabric store in the mid-1970’s we sold mostly 44″ wide cottons but had a few 36″ pieces now and then. For the most part though, 44″ had become the standard. There are no markings at all on any of the selvedges. I don’t know when that became industry practice.

Another clue to the era of this collection is the bundle of patterns that I discovered in one of the bags. The copyrights on these patterns run in the 1950’s. The styles are just wonderful.

In addition to those patterns, there was a promo for JC Penney’s in the bag. It was an apron pattern and the promotion had a Cinderella theme. “It’s magic how much you can do when you sew!” (Which happens to be true, by the way.) On this ad, they talk about JC Penney’s being ‘almost 50 years old’ and JC Penney’s was started in 1902, so that places the ad in 1951 or so. The promotion included ads for Percale cotton fabric priced at 39 cents per yard and also for Broadcloth cotton at 49 cents per yard. This pattern is so cute and I hope to find a way to hang part of it in the Downieville sewing room someday.

The history of textiles is really interesting to me. It is hard to explain my love of all things vintage but these fabrics make me so very happy! I have been hunting around for someone who has some expertise in this area. (If you have a resource for me, please leave me a comment. I would be ever grateful.)

Here are a few of the pieces that I have washed so far. I picked out some of my favorites.

I think this next piece with the teacups looks to be from the 1950’s or so. The size of this kitschy print is larger and very bold.

This piece is a mystery to me. There are several scraps but no uncut piece to measure the width. I love the print. Anyone have any clues on this one?

I think this is enough vintage fabric joy for now. Just know that this gift has enhanced my stash immeasurably. I don’t think I can even store it with my other fabric. It deserves its own tub! Next week I will show you the garments that were in the bags. More vintage treasures!

Linking to Molly Sparkles and Coastal Charms’ Show and Share.

Estate Sale Score

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Last week I spent some time up at the Downieville house painting. The house is located on a quiet street with charming older homes along the street. While I was there, I found an estate sale happening up the road from our house. I couldn’t resist. It was only a few houses up the road so I walked over. There was quite a crowd of people (for Downieville anyway) waiting for it to open. I was curious about the interior of the house – I love walking through homes and this one looked promising.

With no real goal in mind, I wandered through the yard and each room of the house. The home was packed with stuff. It was actually hard to look through everything. I did score in a major way though. There was a tub (the under-the-bed storage type) of quilting tools. I grabbed it as soon as I saw it. I have been wanting to collect a second set of tools so I can equip a sewing room in the Downieville house (as soon as we are at that point!) Take a look at what was in the tub (which I might add was all of $6.00!!)

Scissors, two rulers, several measuring tapes and an assortment of zippers (yay – love those for making little pouches!) Also…

Three cutting mats, metal clips to hold the quilt while quilting it, 5 bobbing cases, and four hoops! This gives me a huge start on equipping a second sewing room. By the way, one of the mats is a little bit warped. Anyone know how I can flatten it, or if it can be flattened? If so, please leave me a comment.

I also found these sweet pictures. Adorable line drawings. The frames need to be cleaned a bit.

They are quite small, maybe 5 x 6″? Really cute though.

Finally, I happened upon this vintage Betty Crocker Cookbook, published in 1961.

I have only just started to read it but it is so entertaining. This page made me smile.

This section is great.

Hope the week is starting out on a positive note for everyone! I am working on a few projects this week so hopefully I will have a finish to share in a few days.

Linking to Coastal Charm’s Show and Share link up. Also linking with Connie at Freemotion by the River.

Two Down and One to Go

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Yay!! Got my second UFO of three finished up this week. Completing these three quilts is on my list of 2015 goals. Going well so far. I’m very glad to be done quilting this one. It didn’t take long either. I don’t know what the deal is. I think I get bored about 1/2 way through the quilting process. It looks great though. It was a bit narrow so I added a green border to each long side for width.

To quilt it I free motioned large, loopy flowers all over the top. They reminded me of the flowers girls would draw in the margins of the notebook when you are supposed to be taking notes in junior high but your mind is wandering. Anyway, I mean I’m pretty sure I saw the other girls doing this…..

Oddly enough, the flowers also brought to mind a weird memory of this PE teacher I had when I was probably 8 or 9 years old (so we are talking 1968 or 1969 here – hippy days). I went to a parochial school through 8th grade. Mostly we had nuns for teachers and usually the classroom teacher/nun was also your PE teacher. But for a while, we had a young woman that as our PE teacher. I bet she wasn’t more than 21 or 22 and I thought she was SOOO cool. For one thing, she wasn’t a nun and she was young. (To me, the nuns seemed old no matter their age since I couldn’t see their hair.) For another, her name was, get this…. Flower!! Looking back, I’m guessing that wasn’t her legal name but that was what we called her. Shocking, right? It sure was to me. Ahh… the 1960’s.

I also quilted flowers along the gray borders. Once I got to the green, I switched to a medium sized leaf. Kind of wish I had switched to green thread when I quilted that portion. Oh well. I also attached the binding by machine on both front and back sides. Not sure I like that as well but I gave it a try.

In my on-going resolve to upcycle, I used a duvet cover for the backing. I found it at a thrift store for $7.00 and it is huge. I will easily back a couple a quilts with it. One side of the duvet cover is a green stripe and the other is a green floral print. I had the green binding sitting in my stash so this quilt is all scrappy and used a good portion of my stash. The only piece I purchased directly for this project is the gray print that I sashed the blocks with. Not too shabby.

Trying to start the new year out right with better scrap management habits. (Wow, “scrap management” sounds so quilty-dorky!) But really. When I trimmed the excess off around the perimeter of the quilt I actually trimmed the scrap into usable pieces. This is definitely a first for me. Three inch and 2 inch strips plus a stack charm squares!! It hardly took any extra time and it’s done.

Not exactly sure what I will work on next. I want to do some piecing. I need a break from quilting for a while. I have some blocks that have been sitting around for a while. I don’t love them, know what I mean? I think I am going to create a quilt to donate to a fundraiser at my daughter’s middle school.

The lighting on this picture is horrible. (I took it at night with my phone.) I think I will set the blocks on point and sash them with black. I have a cute black and white print for the backing and maybe I can find a jewel toned batik to use for a border and binding. Hopefully that will jazz this up a bit.

Linking to Freemotion at the River, Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts and Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts. Links to these amazing ladies are found at the top of the page under Link Ups.

Will also be linking this post to A Lovely Year of Finishes as this completes my January goal. Hurray for that – three days before month end.

A Vintage Week

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The week has come and gone. It started with a Monday holiday (Martin Luther King’s birthday) which always makes the rest of the week go by quickly. Monday holidays also cause me to remain in a state of confusion for the rest of the week, wondering exactly what day it is. At any rate, it’s nice to be looking toward the weekend.

I was focused on my Etsy shop this week so not a lot of regular quilting was accomplished. I had two custom orders which are finished and shipped off. I also decided to cut into a pile of vintage sheets that I have been collecting and get those listed in the shop. For the past several months I have had my eye out for vintage sheets whenever I was in a thrift store. As the pile grew, it became clear that I don’t need to keep all of it. Sheets are large! I decided to cut some into fat quarters to list.

There are some really pretty sheets to be found.

The florals are so sweet and feminine. I try to look for flat sheets as opposed to fitted. The fitted sheets can be a bit worn but the flat sheets don’t take the abuse and are often in great condition. Vintage sheets are almost always 50/50, cotton and polyester. I haven’t quilted with them yet but have a plan in mind. Jeni Baker of In Color Order has posted about some really cute projects she has done with vintage sheets and I am using her work as inspiration. I like her use of stripes with the florals. I haven’t found any stripes yet but my eyes are peeled. They will show up!

The three in the picture above are my favorites so far. Especially the middle one. The colors are just gorgeous. If you’re interested in working with any of these, check my shop. I bundled a few sets but if you see colors you want I am happy to create a set of the pieces you like. This week I sold a few sets to a young woman who is making bunting flags for her wedding this coming spring. The venue is a rustic barn and I think the flags will be adorable. Hoping she will send me a picture when she gets the buntings finished up.

Moving off topic a bit, I found a pile of vintage magazines this week when I was in a thrift store. They are a blast to read. Not sure what I want to do with them but am so enjoying looking through them.

Kind of a risque cover for 1965!

Take a look at the upper right corner of the Look magazine shown below. A “hot dog” diet? For real? I couldn’t help but laugh. Just in case you want to try it, the article suggests that you eat three hot dogs per day with all the trimmings (mustard, onion, relish and bun). This diet allows you to add a beer or coffee and suggests you add a glass of tomato juice or a piece of fruit for added nutrients. They estimated that this would be equal to about 900 calories a day and if you follow this diet for a week, you should drop a pound per day. 900 calories a day? Three hotdogs for seven days?? Ugh, 21 hotdogs? Nutritional insanity circa 1963!

Check out these ads for cigarettes. Print ads for cigarettes were banned in January of 1971 but wow, prior to that they were on every other page. Love this one. So glamorous. Except, why does he get to go swimming and she has to settle for wading and wearing jeans and a long sleeved shirt? No fair.

I don’t think I like the way this guy is checking her out….

This guy is the epitome of sophistication.

Finally, I leave you with this chart showing average income and spending for a single income family of four in 1973. I found this interesting. (My apologies for the crummy copy. I was being lazy so I took a picture of the page rather than scanning it.)

Have a great weekend everyone!!

Linking to WIDTW at Sew Stitching Cute and Molli Sparkles Sunday Stash.

The Hidden Cost of a Quilt Retreat

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A few weeks ago I posted about a quilt retreat that I went to located an hour north of my home. Remember I was describing the story of the lynching of Josefa Segovia (aka Juanita) and how her ghost now haunts the town? If not, you can read the post here. Well, while on breaks or taking lunch during the retreat, my friend Sophia and I would walk around the tiny town of Downieville. It consists of a few restaurants, a post office, hardware store, gift shop and a few other shops. It is a cute little town that attracts hikers and mountain bike riders (and quilting afficionados like me and Sophia!) As we wandered about the two block radius that is “town”, I noticed a little, worn out house for sale. I looked at the price and joked with Sophia that we should buy it and come up here to hike the river and go to the quilt retreats. We laughed and that was the end of the discussion. Or was it…..

When I got home I kept thinking of that little house. I looked at the listing on-line and showed it to my husband. He immediately got excited about it. The house is reminiscent of the Charlie Brown Christmas tree. It just needs someone to love it! The owner was elderly and after passing away a while back, the house has stood empty. We decided to make an offer on it and after minimal negotiations, we bought it. Escrow should close this afternoon!! We are soooo excited about this project. Everything about the little house speaks to us. (Best part…. there is even a tiny room off the only bedroom that will be a sewing room where I can keep my old machine and some supplies!! Yay for weekend sewing up at the river.)

It needs to be completely renovated. However, it is so tiny with basically four rooms (the living space is just shy of 700 square feet) that it is a manageable project. It was built in the 1930’s and we plan to keep the vintage feel to the house. Here is the kitchen:

Isn’t that floor gorgeous? All of the flooring in the house is hideous and will be replaced. The colors are odd, to say the least, and really dated. The walls all have wall board and need to be updated. I like the vintage look of the cabinets and will just refinish them. Buy why is the paper towel roll on the outside of the cupboard??

The living room…. again, oh the flooring!! There is dark hard wood under that ugly carpet so we will peel it up and refinish the floors. I like the little built in cabinet and book shelf but need to refinish both of them. They have about 138 layers of paint on them.

Now for the real reason we bought it. This is basically in our back yard. Walking about 100 feet brings us to this:

The view upstream is wonderful.

Look at our tiny neighborhood library, which is just a few doors up from our house.

We start working on the house this week, soon as we get the keys. It will be a long project but a fun one. So….lesson learned. Quilt retreats can lead to all sorts of unexpected expenses. Be careful when attending. On the plus side, I will have a place for Sophia and I to stay at the next retreat. So really, that is a money savings, right?

In the interest of keeping the house’s vintage feel, I have been thrifting and collecting vintage dinner ware and kitchen items. Yesterday I was out looking and while I didn’t find much for the house, look what I came home with:

I was so excited. Most of the pieces (with the exception of the upper left corner) are at least a fat quarter or larger. The fabrics were about 25-75 cents each. The top four on the right side are from an older Mary Engelbreit line for Moda. Score.

Looking out the window now and leaves are blowing off the trees like crazy. It is supposed to start raining soon. It is shaping up to be a nice day.

Linking to Freemotion by the River, Let’s Bee Social, and Sew Cute Tuesday. Links to these and other link ups can be found at the top of the page, under Link Ups.