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Coins Quilt Progress

Last weekend I found some time to stitch together the strips for my coins quilt -- paying special attention to the seam allowances.  Despite my best efforts and the use of a 1/2 in. foot on my machine, my final strips are 1 in. too long!  Each step along the way I measured and adjusted and re-measured.  A little math explains the difference -- there are 26 pieces in each strip for a total of 25 seams.  So each seam is off by only .04 inches.  I suppose no matter how well I measured, this small difference was bound to go undetected.  And I can't really determine if the difference was in the cutting or the sewing. 

At least I can take solace in the fact that all of the three strips are the same size.  So I'll just have to cut the middle strips and side borders one inch longer.

Here's my question to all experienced quilters out there.  Is this acceptable?  Or should I be worried about this 1 inch difference?  In the end, I guess the simple fact is that I really did try to get the seams exact and I was still off, so I probably have to live with it.

In other news, thrifting season has begun!  While there haven't been too many garage sales yet, the church rummage sales are in full swing and today I picked up these sweaters for $1 each.  Two are cashmere and the other is 100% wool.  Combined with some thrifted sweaters I got last summer and the bag of colorful scraps I purchased from Betz, I'm ready to try out some projects from Warm Fuzzies!

There are a few more sales tomorrow, so we'll see what they bring.  Last weekend I missed out on 2 looms at a church sale -- and we arrived only shortly after the sale began.  Tomorrow we're getting up bright and early!

Hawkeye Picnic Basket

On Friday Pete took the day off of work because we were driving down to Champaign for the U of I game, so he was able to join Maddie and I on our weekly garage sale expedition.  Every Friday we get up, head out the door and hit the yard sales, stopping for junk food and coffee as needed.  Maddie loves it and always looks forward to Fridays.

This week was pretty good.  I got this great, vintage Hawkeye picnic basket (made in Burlington, Iowa) for only $4.  What a bargain!  It still has it's hanging shelf inside and is big enough to hold a whole bunch of things. 

As you can see, the cats had to get in on the photo shoot.  First Spike walked in. . . then Mud had to see what all the excitement was about.  They don't prefer hanging out with each other all that much though, so Mud made a swift exit.

Leaving the adorable, yet constantly befuddled Spiker to pose with the basket. 

I also picked up a little "Weave Easy Hand Loom" for only 25 cents.  It was complete with the original box and directions, so I'll have to try it out and report back.

Buttons!

Last week I washed a bunch of my buttons.  I picked up a huge bag of them a couple weekends ago while we were out antiquing and they were pretty filthy, so I figured it was a good time to collect the buttons I had stashed here and there and give them a bath.  I filled a shallow container with warm water and a dot of dish soap and let them sit for a while, then I scrubbed them a bit with an old toothbrush and laid them out to dry.  The water was very dingy, so I think the bath was a good idea.

Last weekend we went to my favorite antique show -- Sandwich -- and I picked up a few more old canning jars.  I love the ones with the glass lids.  And now I have a pretty way to organize my buttons.  I'm all about organization because this week I'm moving out of my office so that the remodel can begin -- forget that I have no workers lined up, no cabinets picked out and nothing in the works.  Once I'm all moved out and shoved in the spare bedroom with all kinds of things, I'm sure the fire will be lit underneath me and things will get rolling!  Wish me luck!

Good Garage Sale Day!

Well, the drought has ended.  It seem like the last month was just terrible for garage sale-ing.  Rain, storms, lack of sales -- you name it.  Maddie picked up a few books, but that was the extent of it.  Today it all changed!  I stumbled across all this Frankoma at one sale.  The woman who was selling it was a Frankoma collector and said she had picked up pieces here and there -- mostly at thrift stores.  She was selling each piece for only $1.  So $5 got me this great haul -- a canister (without lid, but not a problem since I want it to hold craft tools in my office), two different creamers and a couple of mugs.  Sadly, one mug has a crack, but I still love them.

At the same house we found this little demitasse set -- Maddie had to have it and at $3 it was a pretty good deal.  They had it marked $5, but I could tell it wasn't old because of the box and they were willing to bargain (I love that).

Now this may be the deal of the day -- a big stack of old postcards and greeting cards for $2.  Quite a few of the postcards were actually mailed, so I have postmarks to date them by -- 1909, 1910, 1916!  It looks like whomever owned these was a collector because prices are written in pencil on the back of about 1/2 of them.  Considering they were purchased for for anywhere between $.25 and $3.50 each, I would say paying $2 for the stack was great luck!

Not too bad for one morning.  I'm so glad things are improving, I was starting to lose hope!

Ouch!

Okay, before I tell you about my great weekend thrifting/antiquing I have to tell you about my little accident.  Last night I was obviously not thinking clearly.  Pete was in the spare room and had a new dress shirt in his hands.  I asked him what he was doing and he started to say something about ironing.  I figured he had just gone in the room and the iron WAS NOT ON YET -- and I grabbed it.  See there is all this muck on it from my crafting and I wanted to let him know we should try to clean it or scrape it off before he ironed his new shirt.  At any rate, my thumb hit full force on the bottom of the VERY HOT iron -- I immediately dropped it (thankfully not hurting anyone else, or hurting myself even more) -- and  I spent the rest of the night with my hand in a bowl of ice water and then held above my head (if I lowered it it burned and throbbed).  Today it is much better -- luckily it was the inside (palm side?) of the thumb where the skin is thicker. 

Man, I feel stupid.

Okay, on to the thrifting!!  Maddie and I go to garage sales every Friday morning.  It's a fun new ritual that has yielded quite a few treasures.  We can always find her a book or two for some change -- which makes her happy -- and I usually find something fun before the day is out.  This Friday I found a complete set of Jeanette Glass ice cream dishes!  There are 4 milkshake/soda glasses, 4 banana split dishes and 4 footed sundae cups.  (The sundae cups have been getting a major workout since I made homemade ice cream earlier this week so they are all in the dishwasher right now and not in the photo.)  And the cool thing is that all 12 dishes were purchased for only $4!!  I love garage sales!

Then Saturday was Sandwich Antique Fair -- and as any thrifter/antiquer in the Chicago area will tell you, this is a great place!  We try to get there at least twice a year.  You can find everything from furniture to dishes and just about anything else you can think of (or not even imagine!)  Many dealers specialize which is also nice.  There are some vendors that we go back to again and again.

I found a couple of bargains.  First was the basket full of wooden spools -- I snapped it up for $10.  Besides little thread spools, there are larger bobbins and itty bitty silk spools.  I'm going to have fun putting my trims on some of these and doing something crafty with the rest.  I also got that nice pile of fabric for only $2.  I couldn't resist the folk-ish print at the top, or the nice green/red/gold print below it -- plus there are lots of other pieces and scraps too. 

Other than that, I'm trying to finish Book 6 and I'm getting close!  By this weekend I might be able to start on the final book.  The rest of my time has been taken up with the work -- the new Fall & Winter rubber stamps are already coming out -- and the charity golf outing in my Dad's name.  July is always crazy busy! 

I get a little thrill everytime I look at it!

I've been looking for one of these for awhile now.  No luck at garage sales and eBay prices were a bit too much -- especially after you calculate shipping .  So this weekend when we made a trek out to Sandwich, IL for the Sandwich Antiques Market, I had it in the back of my mind to keep a sharp lookout.  Lo and behold near the end of the day I found one (maybe Pete spotted it first -- although he didn't quite know what it was before this, so I'm not sure.)  The price was *so* right -- and Pete didn't mind hauling it all the way back to the car -- so now it's mine!!  I *love* it!

Here's what I know about it -- it is a Stommen Bruk Hamar sewing cabinet made in Norway.  Here's the sticker inside the lid:

And here's what it looks like opened:

I don't know that much about these sewing cabinets, but the seller thought it was probably from the 50's.  She got it at an estate sale.  The web is surprisingly devoid of information about these cabinets.  If anyone knows anything about them or the company that made them, I'd love to know more!

Garage Sales

Right now Pete is between jobs (although not for long -- yeah!!) and we've been trying to enjoy his "time off".  One thing that we've been having fun with is garage sale-ing.  For the last two Friday mornings we have hopped in the car as early as we can get ourselves out of bed, stopped for some coffee and gone off to the sales.  There have been quite a few in the area and some treasures have come home with us. 

Up first is a really nice enamel box (that is until I dropped it on our tile countertop and chipped the enamel off one corner -- c'est la vie -- at least it was only 50 cents.)  And this Pyrex dish had to come home with me for only $1.00.  Maddie also got an old toy phone at this stop -- they gave it to her for free -- sorry no photo.

At another yard sale I picked up this fabric.  I love the cursive writing one!  They had big bins of fabric and were selling each piece for only 25 cents.  Great deal!

Today this trio of cross stitched gingham aprons had to come home with me.  I can hardly ever resist aprons at garage sales -- they are always so inexpensive!  Here is the detail on my favorite of the three:

You can see the hand stitching on the backside of the apron -- I think almost the whole thing was made by hand. 

Some books were also purchased at 25 cents each (Night & Under the Banner of Heaven).  And probably the best deal was the Mamiya C330 that Pete found (a very cool old camera) for only $15 (well, $20 -- but we talked the seller down to $15!)

Even with the $15 camera, I don't think we spent over $20 all together.  Not bad for two full mornings of fun!  We're very happy that Pete has a new job, but sad that our short-lived Friday morning ritual is coming to an end.

Instant Bakelite Button Collection

So, after Pete & Maddie had seen about as many sheep and bits of yarn and fiber as they could handle, we headed out to see what Allegan, MI had to offer in the way of antique shops.  The first shop we entered left me happy as a clam as there was a booth filled with all kinds of buttons.  I ended up spending much more than I thought I would on buttons that day, but getting what I think was a *very* good deal on an instant bakelite button collection.  I even got an added bonus of three little bags of my favorites -- colorful floral plastics. 

There's something about the bakelite that is hard to resist -- I think it's the patina.  And my absolute favorite of the bunch?  This one:

And another picture, to try and give you a better idea of the color:

So now I fancy myself a button collector.  Pete is happy -- buttons are after all, quite small!  I've got these books on order at the library:

• Book of Buttons
• Buttons: The Collector's Guide
• Antique & Collectible Buttons

Do any button collectors out there know of any other button books I should read?  Or any button collecting websites?

Habu Silk Yarn & Japanese Linen Ribbon & Thrifted Buttons!

What a busy weekend!  On Friday, Maddie & I headed out early and went to the Joliet Farmer's Market to pick up some fresh fruit.  I got some lovely peaches and blueberries -- fresh from Michigan.  Then we hit Starbucks and any yard sale we could find on the way back home.  All we found was an old copy of Richard Scarry's Going Places for only 25 cents which Maddie thought was a very funny book!  Friday night I pulled out my King Arthur Baking Book and made a peach cobbler, which was really yummy!  So far that book hasn't let me down.

Saturday morning found Theresa, Bonne Marie & I at Stitches Midwest.  I think one of my favorite booths was Habu, where I picked up this orange, slubby 100% silk.  They only had 4 cute little balls/bails -- whatever you want to call them.  I love them because they are neat little center pull balls and they have a nice piece of tissue in the middle that you pull to get the starting thread out.  How clever! 

But I digress. . . So they had 4 balls in this perfect orange color and I decided that I'd just make a shrug.  So far I swatched and the texture is quite nice due to the slubs.  Hmmm. . .

My other favorite booth was the ribbon & button booth -- Nifty Thrifty Dry Goods in RI -- where I got this super-cute linen ribbon.  It's a japanese import and it cost way too much, but I had to have a yard of it.  She also had lots of vintage buttons that were not matching but went well together and were carded together.  Not sure I'm explaining this well at all, but they were so wonderful!  I could have just spent the day in this booth.

And since I was thinking of buttons, I took a picture of the buttons I got from Goodwill a few weeks ago for 99 cents.  They were all taped up in a bag and you couldn't see what was inside, but I figured I couldn't go wrong for that price! 

Sunday was spent at the river for my sister's birthday.  The water was wild!  We took my mom's boat up the river to a restaurant and just had a nice afternoon, but everyone was exhausted from their various weekend activities so we weren't a very lively bunch. 

This week is for organizing.  My office is a mess and it's time to take control!

Antiquing whilst sick

On Sunday we went to the Sandwich Antiques Market and had a really lovely day.  It was sunny and pretty warm, although a bit windy.  The only complaint I have is that I woke up with a sore throat (no surprise since I went to bed with a sore throat).  I *really* wanted to get out and go to Sandwich though, so I pretended that I wasn't really sick.  (I was.)

Sandwich runs monthly starting in April and ending in October and it's our favorite show in the area.  We have a favorite furniture guy who is always there ( Mike's Antique's) and there are always quality things -- mostly at reasonable prices.  The dealers will almost always come down a little on price, so you feel like you've gotten a deal.  And there is a pita vendor, so you don't have to eat greasy carnival fare.  (Maddie also loves the "mother/daughter potty" -- yes, a stall with a regular and mini potty.)

So anyway, armed with a packet of tissues and a real hand squeezed lemonade we searched the booths.  I found the lovely Frankoma leaf dish (pictured above) in my favorite glaze.  This is my second piece of Frankoma, so I almost feel like I'm becoming a bit of a collector at this point.   (Here's the first Frankoma piece I bought.)

I also had the great luck to find some cute plastic buttons -- the one thing I actually set out to look for.  I wish I had a better picture, but it's cloudy here and to tell you the truth, I'm sick, so I really can't be bothered to make the effort to get out the tripod and find decent lighting and all that at the present time. 

I saw so many quilts at the show Sunday!  Quilts in all states of disrepair and quilt tops, gorgeous, well-preserved quilts and quilt squares that were never assembled.  It was a gold mine!  I behaved myself though.  There was one quilt I would have loved to photograph, but I was camera-less.  It was an  "Eagle Quilt" from the late 1900's -- something that I had never heard of.  Apparently they are quite rare.  This dealer was friendly and willing to chat a bit about the quilt.  She said that this was the first one she had ever acquired in her many years of quilt dealing.  I couldn't really find much info on the web about the Eagle Quilts.  There is a picture of one at the top of this site that will give you an idea.  The dealer held the quilt up to the light so I could see the cotton inside the quilt which was not run through a cotton gin!  You could still see the seeds and bits of VM -- cool!  (This quilt, btw, was priced at over $1,200.  Quite rare indeed!)

So, I had a good day despite the cold, but once I stopped moving I collapsed and I've been feeling pretty crummy since.  The hot tea has been doing wonders though.  And better to get sick now then a few days before MS&W, right? 

Must go lie down.  Writing this post wore me out. . .