Treasures

My sewing machine is truly broken. I am going insane because I have been too busy to get it to a shop to be fixed. Hopefully sometime next week I will be able to figure it out.

In the meantime, here's a sampling of my latest crafty yard sale finds:

I noticed a guy was selling a sewing machine, so I went ahead and asked him if he had any sewing stuff. He proceeded to find these two old sewing baskets filled with notions- most notably thread and buttons! I was thrilled. He also had a brand new Vera Bradley purse and coin purse - which he threw in with the sewing stuff, all for only $5! (The extra bonus is that I am selling the purse on eBay right now- hoping to make a profit.)I am drowning in thread now- but I can't stop hoarding it when I see it at yard sales for such cheap prices!!!!!!! I got these little cases for $3. Aren't they pretty?

One of the last sales of the day was when I hit paydirt. The person doing the sale was a retired Armenian tailor lady- very nice, but not too willing to bargain. Nevertheless, I got some awesome stuff. When I asked her about all of her thread, she informed me it was 4 for $1 - which honestly is not very great at all. BUT, I was able to convince her to sell all of it for $20! I wanted to count all of it to give an exact number of how many spools there are, but I got tired of counting after I reached 100. I would be willing to bet there is about 200 spools!

I noticed that she had a few things of fabric lying around, so I asked her about it. She led me into her garage where there was a pretty sizable stack, each piece being only $1. Most of it was not the kind of cotton blend I prefer to work with, but I was able to find some really cute things. It's all vintage stuff, which is kind of hard to find right now- so I am thrilled!

This one is my favorite!!!!!!!!!!! I love it! The houses are my favorite. Today was like Christmas! I am so spoiled to be able to get all this stuff! Now I want to go and sew! I guess I will have to settle for working on my cross-stitch.

My sewing machine is not working!

This is what I was working on when my sewing machine broke. It's the beginnings of a baby quilt for a good friend of mine..... The last time my machine stopped working, the solution was cleaning out 3 years of lint in the bobbin case area. This time, I picked up a "can of air" (the kind you buy to clean out a computer keyboard or something) this time, hopefully it will work. In the meantime, as I gear up the patience to deal with the problem, I have been reading lame-o chick lit books, working on another African-themed cross-stitch, and thinking about the next projects I want to do..... One project I need to do ASAP is clean up my craft room, 75% of my supplies are litterly on the floor right now. I am keeping my eye out for deep, tall, and narrow bookcases at yard sales- as my ideas of using large tupperware containers and my old bureau have not been terribly effective (evidenced by the current disarray of my supplies).

More Fabric Finds

Okay, so I know I need to stop shopping for fabric and actually make something out of it. But shopping for it is part of the whole fun of crafting. Nick and I had our second anniversary this past weekend- we celebrated by taking a quick trip up to Bar Harbor, ME. We had a rainy day that ended up helping us to discover: Marden's. A department store that buys out the stock of stores which have gone out of business. They have a HUGE fabric department that is filled with quilt shop leftovers - nothing was over $3 a yard! I was in heaven! Here are a few of my finds:

It's rather bright, but that is what appeals to me the most. I got a lot more there, but it wasn't photographing well. Later I will post the "creations" I make with it all.

Right before we left on our trip, I made a stop at my nearby Joann's. I picked out 3 things and was ready to have it cut, when the lady in front of me at the cutting table ended up taking 25 minutes! (And she didn't even end up buying ANYTHING!..... I guess I should also blame the fact that Joann's is always understaffed.) While that lady was harping about the price of some sort of upholstery foam, I found this: and this:and this:
This is not even counting the few things I had intended to buy at first. But who can live without red polka-dot whale fabric (this will have to be the theme of the first quilt I make for if and whenever I have a baby boy).....? And I almost died when I saw this Muppett fleece- I've only seen it on eBay- going for at least $15 a yard (I got it for $5, thank you very much). And I just loved this Oriental theme pack of 5 fat quarters- it might make a cute wall hanging, or maybe a patchwork purse or two...........