Friday Find

Do you like to go to yard sales?  When I was a kid, my parents turned their noses up at a family friend whose entire family piled into the van and drove around to yard sales all Saturday morning.  The feeling has stuck with me, and I always feel uncomfortable looking through other people’s junk.  Then, a neighbor introduced me to this place.

On Wednesdays, all clothing is 1/2 off the ticketed price, and many times almost everything in the store is marked 50% off.  Lately I’ve been buying most of my kids’ and my own clothes here.  Name-brand jeans (like Old Navy, Chicos, and Ann Taylor) are about $3-4 a pair.  Can’t beat that! 

After the third or fourth time going, I realized there was a jewelry counter up in the front of the store, so I always make it a point to take a look in there before checking out.  I found these beauties laying upside down in the case this past Wednesday.

I think they are maple leaves and made of pewter or something heavy and rhinestones.  There is no sterling silver mark or maker’s mark.

I am guessing they are vintage since the backs are not for pierced ears and are screw-backs.  I have a thing for vintage jewelry and have bought quite a few pairs of earrings on Ebay.  I’m not sure these would have been high on my list, but they were only $1.99, so I couldn’t pass them up!

So, back to the whole yard sale thing…our neighborhood had a huge yard sale earlier this week.  My daughters and I drove down to one of the developments and spent two hours walking around.  The development is strangely laid out, and we found a table in an alleyway with tons of jewelry.  My kids spent about $10 on different necklaces and bracelets.  Only later, when we were in line at the post office and they were modeling their finds for me, did I look closely.  Everything was stamped .925 meaning it all was real silver.  Amazing!  I don’t know the going rate on precious metals, but I’m sure the necklaces are worth more than the $10 we paid for them all.  I wish we had bought more!

I’m hoping to share some of my thrift store finds on Fridays, hence the name Friday Find.  I love to see things my friend Donna at Donna’s Lavender Nest finds when she goes thrifting.  I haven’t seen anything quilting related at the Salvation Army yet, but I’m hoping for the day when I find a box full of feedsacks!

Sliced Apples in Pink and Brown

It’s complete!  I finished hand sewing the binding to the back last night and popped it in the washer and dryer this morning before taking this photo.

I ended up using a yard of brown fabric that has little speckles of color.  The binding is Hope Valley by Denyse Schmidt.

And, amazingly, my walking foot started working again about a week ago and I used this sweet little posy decorative stitch to quilt along the diagonals.

I used a polyester batting that I don’t think I’ll ever use again.  A quilter gave me two {yes 2!!!} 30 yard rolls of this batting.  She is a local long-armer and didn’t like it.  I knew it would be a long time before I got through a roll, so I donated one to a local quilting charity and kept the other.  I’ve only used this batting a handful of times, but I always end up with a snag somewhere on the back.  I don’t ever have that problem with Warm and White.  I’m sure plenty of quilters use this kind with no problems, but it’s not for me.  I have a new motto…if I don’t love it, I’m getting rid of it, so this batting is going!

Sliced Apples Progress

I finished piecing the HST portion of the baby quilt I am making.  My friend is due in July, so I am on schedule for getting it done!

All the seams went together reasonably well, and I didn’t sew any rows on upside down {for once}!

I tried to include lots of fun fabrics, but mostly use up some scraps.

It has a small border sewn on now and is ready to be basted.

Bees and Bluegill

Just finished up my Stash Bee blocks for Sara for June.

Her idea is so original—the blocks will be used to make a wedding quilt (she is getting married) that guests can sign at the reception.  What a wonderful idea!!!

Over the past few days we have spent quite a bit of time outdoors.  The weather has been a little cooler than normal in summertime, so we’ve been out fishing and crabbing.

I’ve also been trying to do some sewing at night, but it’s difficult now that the kids stay up later on their summertime schedule and seem to still get up just as early.  I joined the sliced apples QAL and have all my blocks ready to join together.  This is the color scheme I picked.

I’m doing pink and brown.  A friend is expecting a baby (the gender is a surprise) so I want to have two quilts on hand ready to gift.

See & Sew

One day last week my daughter was really excited to sew a dress.  She picked out fabric from my stash and drew several designs, not understanding what a pattern actually was.   So, in the excitement of it all, we drove to Joanns to look through the pattern books and she picked out this pattern for her dress:

The front says “Yes!  It’s Easy” but sometimes I feel like the tissue paper kind of patterns are anything but.  Step 16 literally says, “Turn facing to inside, turning shoulder straps out; press.  Turn under ends of facing to clear zipper teeth SLIPSTITCH to zipper tape.”

Incomprehensible to me since I don’t really have any garment sewing experience.  But, I had about two hours to get the dress sewn.  So, what did I do???

I made it up!  Thank goodness I’ve been sewing long enough to know the rule to sew right sides together.  I just winged it and figured out a way to get the bodice lining sewn to the dress in a relatively unhaphazard way.  The dress looks great from a distance, and pretty good up close.  I omitted the zipper and put about 4 inches of elastic in the back instead.  The dress was done by 10pm and my daughter stayed up late for her “fittings” so I could adjust the elastic and situate the straps, and she happily modeled it for her dad who was mildly impressed.

We used coordinating Barbie fabric from Over the Rainbow.

Here is the back sans zipper.  I kind of like the elastic better, to tell you the truth, because she can get herself dressed without my help.

My first love is definitely quilting, but sewing the occasional dress is fun, especially if it means spending time with my daughter.

Mod Mosaic Quilt Block

I just made this block from Elizabeth Hartman’s tutorial found here.  It was fun to make and I enjoyed picking scraps for this block.  Sometimes I have a hard time sticking to just using scraps for a bee block project, and usually end up cutting into my fat quarters and bigger pieces, but this time I stuck to only scraps and I’m quite happy with how it turned out.

Today was 1/2 price at the “Treasure Store” (aka The Salvation Army Superstore).  My daughter found this cute clock for $1.

A little bit of paint scratched off on the 3 when I removed the price tag, but otherwise it’s in great condition and works.  I have a little beef with the way the price tags are attached to everything in the store.  It would have been way better to stick the tag to the back of the clock, and many times the clothes have permanent holes from the price tags.  But it’s still a fun and cheap shopping trip.