Yummy Stash

I got these wonderful items at the last estate sale I went to. Do you not love them? I especially am fond of the velvet leaves. The sheer pink with gold edges do it for me also though. (-; This person had 4 rooms of fabric. It was so much stash that I became overwhelmed. It was like a store full of quilting supplies. It was one of the first estate sales that I've been through that I couldn't look through all the stash. Just overwhelming.

How excited can a girl get over a little lace anyway? Plenty!

I went to an estate sale in Denver recently because they had a big bin marked "Lace". When I went they had several $3 bags of which I picked up "several".  (-; But, my favorite bag was marked 50 cents. Here is the contents. Do you think they mispriced it? I LOVE the Irish crocheted lace, especially the narrow ones in the 2nd photo since I didn't have any before I picked up this baggie.

I am wondering about the top piece of lace above. Is it handmade? What kind of lace is it? The second piece is a nice filet lace. The third is hand crocheted. The 4th and 5th are both handmade Irish lace. I just love Irish lace. The bottom piece is attached to some hand embroidered netting lace. The photo doesn't show it, but these are healthy lengths of lace.

The first 3 on the left are machine made laces. My favorites here are the hand made Irish lace pieces, 5th and 6th from the left. The two hand crocheted pieces are very nice also (7th and 9th from the left). There are 4 laces that are on netting (4th, 8th, 10th and last). I'm fairly sure the last one is hand done and probably the one before it, but am not sure about the other two - they are possibly machine made. Whenever I see laces like these they are labeled french lace. A lovely group of laces to add to my collection to be sure. I am ecstatic! If you know something about the laces here, please leave a comment. I always like to know more about lace.

Antique Store Find

I don't know why I keep buying these. I guess because I keep finding them at decent prices and I have fantasies of putting crazy quilts in them. Fantasy is right!

Check out....

I bought this 1920's lamp at an estate sale recently. It was in one of the big victorian houses downtown. I can just imagine the lady's who have stitched under it and am so happy to have it!

Estate Sale Finds - Lace

Aren't these little pieces of lace and silver buttons pretty? I just love them. I can just see the one in the center used around a silkie. The silver buttons have little rhinestones in them - well, at least some of them do! I like the spiral design on the narrow lace trim and the other trim is so unusual.

Find: Vintage original Rialto handbag

This is so pretty in person. It has beveled cuts into the acetate with rhinestones!

Vintage Molas Find

I found this 1960's molas at an estate sale. It was made on the San Blas Island in Panama and uses the technique of reverse appliques. I just love the design.

Estate Sale killings

My Friday estate sale excapades continue to reap great rewards! This week it was tatting and crochet threads, scraps of yarn good for embellishing, and a lovely cross-stitched cluctch purse that i get to finish for the nice lady who left it for me (another needlepoint rescue). They sold it to me for a criminal price - $1.50. Shame on them - they obviously don't know the work involved in these works of art. I am thrilled to have it though. .

Buttons Galore

Yesterday I went to an estate sale and made a find. There was a box, about 12x8x3, full of buttons. It was hard to get past the top level of buttons to see what was really in there because the box was so full and many of the buttons were still on cards obstructing the view of the others. I couldn't see a price and so took the box to the gal in charge and she unburied the price tag - a whopping $10. Well, the buttons looked a little less than promising, but I thought "there might be little jewels hidden underneath all of that" and pull out my wallet, secretly wondering if I was throwing away my money, but also hoping there would be something redeeming in the box to make it worth it.
Well, it was a couple of hours before I got it home and started to sort through it. I like to sort buttons mostly by color, but also have a spot for buttons made of shell and buttons that are uniquely shaped. At the very end I pull out my favorites - buttons I know I'll use on a quilt - the plan already laid in my mind. When I finished sorting my fingers were covered in grime (in fact I had washed them several times in the process) and I didn't want to think what was all over those buttons! I decided then and there to wash them by color group. Each group required fresh water because the water had turned brown from the years of dust that had accumulated. I didn't realize how dirty they were until I saw them clean! Wow - there was more there than originally met the eye.
I laid them out (by color of course) on paper towels in my kitchen. It's funny how I agonized over the sorting. I had tons of white buttons. Many were shell and went in the shell pile, but the rest I sorted into two groups. One was the "has some potential" and if there is something, even if remotely interesting about it, it went in that pile. It might be that it had larger button holes, or was very small - something I like to use on a QC block - it seems as though I didn't want any button to go into the last pile. The "last pile" was where the absolutely ordinary white buttons went. The whole process took a couple of hours.
One thing I am sure of and that is that I certainly doubled my button supply in one day -- what surely took this woman her lifetime to accumulate. She can know that I will lovingly take care of her buttons. I was lucky enough to find several lovely abalone shell buttons without buttonholes (perfect for painting on Gerry). Also, I love all glass buttons and I found several of these. There were also some lovely black buttons – just right for my black QC quilt that lives in the back corner of my mind! And there were many uniquely designed or shaped buttons that move the imagination!

These are not even all the buttons and the pictures don't do them justice! An idea came to me as I admired my new stock --how many buttons do I typically use on a quilt block? Not very many! So I then considered how many buttons I'd have to use and blocks I'd have to make to use all of my buttons -- I guess I'd better get busy!!!! I do so like to look at them though - they are very inspiring to me. One thing about crazy quilting is that the more embellishments you buy the more time you have to spend sorting -- a part of crazy quilting I apparently relish since I keep buying embellishments! Well, whenever I think of how many buttons I have, I've decided to think of Laurie's (who I met at CQ International retreat in CO) beads so I can feel better. You cannot imagine a stock of beads large enough that is Lauries supply!! (Poor gal hardly knows me and I pick on her so!) Ahhh - if only I had the beads Laurie has!

For displaying my next Crazy Quilt

This is the other piece I found at an antique store to display my Crazy Quilts. Isn't it gorgeous! The space for the "work of art" is currently holding a floral fabric and is a pretty good sized space. Kind of daunting to think of making a quilt to go thereeeeeeeeeee. (-:

Estate Sale Find

Here's another thing I found today while cruising estate sales. It is a pin cushion. Of course, these cushions are just dying to be removed and replaced with something crazy!

Garage Sale

Look what I found at a garage sale! An unfinished crazy quilt done by the WI mother of the salesperson. An all the extra ties I wanted. Most of the quilt is made out of ties. That is my suave cat Oreo who had to start something. Soon all three cats were roaming around on it. Now to decide what to do with it. Add stitching? Back and bind? What?

Silk Flowers

Here is a great deal I got on some 1980's silk flower kits. I will not be making flowers in the traditional sense with them, but adorning my crazy quilt blocks with them. I bought an entire box from a gal who had been a craft store owner years ago and didn't realize quite what I had until later. Here are pictures of what the flowers look like and a picture of what I did with one of them. I can't wait to play with more of them!