Flea Market Sundays

Man am I ever behind! First some business -

*HALLOWEEN SWAP~!** Tomorrow is the last day to sign up. Right now we have ten swappers, so three spots are still available. I will be sending out confirmation emails with all the directions tomorrow evening at 5 pm. Marci, your comment had no email address, so please email me!

Second, we have had the preschool plague for a week+ now. UGH. Go away!

Third, I hope you can stand a lot of photos of junk for several days in a row.

And last, Sammi just came in the living room buck naked and said she wanted to be shirtless like Daddy. LOLOL

This is stuff I bought when we went to the lake. We took Grant and left the big kids with Grandpa and Grandma for a few hours one morning to hit up a flea market. It was really, really small, but it was better than the HUGE 61mile yard sale we went to on Friday.

A rusty paper towel holder. We always need paper towels in the playroom so we just have a random roll who knows where down there. Fixed that.

A quite crusty wall lamp. These are super useful in the kids rooms.

I honestly never buy tablecloths for myself anymore, but when I saw someone else holding this amazing strawberry one I waited and waited for her to put it down.  I knew she would because her conversation with her friend indicated that they had no clue what a vintage tablecloth even was and there was no way she was paying $7 for a stained tablecloth. Lucky me lady!

A still very vibrant dish cloth (we actually use these to wipe up the never ending river of milk in my kitchen).

And another tablecloth.

AWESOME!

Pretty calico apron.

Each of these was in a different Ziploc, each with a different price, and each marked things like "feedsack squares", "Cotton squares", etc. Aside from the red and pink ones they are all feedsacks I am pretty sure. I am not sure why she thought some were and some weren't.

Halloween, of course.

This is a different buy for me. Its a super heavy duty, industrial white dish.  Something about how useful and heavy it is made me buy it. It had to be some kind of medical something or other? Its pretty large.

These bowls are always cracked and this is no exception. They still hold fruit or crayons or what have you on our counter.

And a semi rusty dollhouse for $2, already on the dollhouse shelves.

Back with more junk tomorrow, and sign up to swap with us!

Vintage Quilt Rescue The Three Little Pigs

When I bought this quilt for $2 in the spring I really didn't have plans to do anything with it. I hung it up on the quilt rods in the living room and enjoyed it. But looking at it every.single.day made me twitchy to fix it.

It was stained and torn and had been quilted onto a wool blanket, which felted when someone tried to wash it. There was no way to clean it in that state.

You can see the batting hanging out of one the holes in the right corner there.  The applique and the polka dots are SO stinking sweet though.

So I did what any crazy quilt lady would do - I ripped it apart. I took out all the quilting, threw away the felted wool batting and set to fixing it a little. I used the fabric I took off the back (which was the same solid pink) and some fusible interfacing to repair the holes and tears. It's not perfect, not even close, but I just needed it solid enough to try and requilt and clean.

I used the 505 spray and rebasted it and requilted it on EXACTLY the same lines as she had quilted it originally.

Originally it had been self bound, but I prefer a traditional binding, so I used a fun turquoise dot.

And I back it with a vintage polka dot I have had for years.

Despite many, many goes with the iron and washing it still has that puckery look to the fabric!

The stains didn't all come out (there is a small area of mildew damage and the only thing I know that really gets rid of that is bleach, which is not an option with a pink quilt), but I definitely feel like I gave it a new life!

Top - vintage rescue, likely 1940s
Batting - Pellon natural something or other
Backing - vintage pink dot
Binding - new Turquoise dot
Repairs Finished - August 26, 2014

P.S. Yesterday I bought this one:

 I swear I bought it to sell.

But man! these Wizard of Oz panels are SO sweet. It started calling me from the back of the van to fix it too. I am not in the quilt fixing business, I am not in the quilt fixing business...LOL

A trip to the big lake

We took the kids on our first vacation (I use that term really loosely when you have a nearly 2 year old and a 3 year old) in many years this last week to the lake of the Ozarks.  The kids were excited about fishing and swimming and Grant let me know every single night, all night long that "he sees boats mama!"

Jack caught at least 5 fish his first morning.

We played the hottest round of mini golf EVER (110 in the shade).

The kids loved feeding the Koi.

And they loved this weird "scarecrow" too. LOL

It was nice to have a break from the house, but also nice to be back home in our own beds!

Vintage fabric coin quilt finish

****There are still 5 swap spots open, this is the last week to sign up before I close the sign ups and we swap with whatever number we have!****

Finally finished! I bought a big stack of vintage 1930s/1940s 2 inch by 3 inch fabric pieces at some point last year at the flea market. (I can't seem to find that post.)  Then last fall I decided I wanted to use them in a rainbow-esque quilt so I sorted them all into color piles while watching many hours of the bachelor.

Then I was off and running with a coin quilt.  I REALLY took my time with this making sure all the seam allowances were equal. Then I did the big experiment with solid colored fabrics to find one that fit in with the vintage fabrics perfectly.  And it paid off!  My quilting is improving.

(After washing.)

I happened to find a backing fabric in the perfect shade of vintage green.

This was my first quilt with the 505 spray and the back, while not perfect, is pretty darn good. There are still a few puckers, but mostly because it took Dave and I about three tries to get the hang of the spray basting. (And it only looks lime green inside the house.)

Details:
coins - vintage
white sashing - Michael miller cotton couture in soft white
batting - cream rose
backing - Michael Miller cotton couture in Pastille
binding - vintage navy micro dot
finished - lake of the Ozarks, August 24, 2014

I have another quilt I am restoring that I am nearly done with and some flea market finds and some kids on vacation photos I will be back with soon!

Flea Market on Wednesday

My to do list is threatening to become the to do list that swallowed New York at this point. This plus two small, dawdling, fighting toddlers is NOT a good mix. Yesterday I was pretty sure I would just have to lie down in the driveway and DIE when it was taking almost an hour to get us all in the car to go to the darn grocery store!

It does not help that for the first time this summer it is 100 boiling degrees and my beloved St Louis is the center of the entire world of controversy right now. It is all anyone thinks, watches, hears, talks about and breathes here at the moment. I am NOT optimistic by nature, but as I grow older I am trying very hard to be. It's something about having kids I think - the need to believe the world is going to be okay. I am feeling maxed out on the nasty right now and I am banning myself from the tv and the internet and everything else for a few days. (I am sure somewhere someone is snarking on that very idea, but sometimes it is all just TOO much.)

Anyway.  Flea market Sunday stuff on a Wednesday.

I might not have bought this fabric but I am searching for large vintage yardages for quilt backs. It was marked 78 inches, not enough for a back, but enough to piece a back. I opened it up after I bought it (oops) and it is less than a yard. Silly me.

There are at least two yards of this, but its a cotton duck, so no good for quilts. I will, however, work for backs/backpacks/things Grant will need for PDO. Soon, I hope that happens soon.

 

There was another stack of quilt blocks. I have played with laying these out - debated making them my next quilt (I have two done right now waiting for binding), but I am not sure I love them enough to make that happen.  They do not work in this configuration either.

They might be Etsy bound.

Speaking of etsy, if you were asking about the Christmas seals a few weeks ago I have started listing them. It's slow going, but they are getting there.

I have no clue what this is or why I bought it other than it was cheap and cheerful. And I wasn't finding a whole lot to buy.

I did, however, snag another quilt. A very sweet Dresden plate.

With an ice cream cone border.

I really need to swap out the quilt display, but yea, please let PDO happen soon. (Grant has to turn two and I have to scrounge up the insanely high fees). LOL

If you have emailed about the swap - you are in. Do not mistake my lack of response as something other. I wait until we are full to email. There are still 6 spots open. Join us, wont you?