Doing A Few Estate Sales & Thrifting ...

Hi,

I told you I would return and I am keeping my word.  My daughter and I went thrifting and estate shopping on Friday.  She always finds stuff.  Me, since I am older I guess, I can always do without or wait, it's not so urgent anymore.  But I did find 2 things that I am so excited about!  First is this wonderful hankie:

Around the edge it says "Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country."
Do you remember that in typing class?  It took me a while to figure out that the squiggles were shorthand.  I asked my 24 year old son if he knew what dictation was and he didn't so I explained it to him.  Imagine, this is now a lost skill, it's not needed anymore.  This simple handkerchief is a piece of history, not only are hankies a defunct piece of clothing (I need to come up with a better word than defunct), the skill on it is too.

My surprise find of the day was a surprise in 2 ways.  First, was the place that I found her, one of the Deseret Industries thrift shops in Salt Lake, second was the price of 3 dollars!  I know I have gone a little  (ok, a lot) Crissy crazy but it was too good of a deal.  So here she is:

This is the Crissy from the late 70's early 80's and she does not have the growing hair feature.  Of course the dress has got to go but she has all her body parts and they move well, she needs to be cleaned up and then I will see if her hair needs to be replaced or leave as is.  It's been a while since I have done a reroot and with a larger doll it could be fun.  Maybe a little repaint too, hmmm, this could get interesting...

I hope you all have a great week and I will be writing again soon.

Make sure you do something that you love today!!

Susan

Been Doing Some Thinking...

Hello out there in Blogland! (yes, it will be a real word someday)...

I have been reorganizing, my brain mostly, and thinking about what I want to do as I enter the next stage of my life.  Life is a constant series of new beginnings and I am at another one.

I LOVE to quilt, that is my main passion.  I have urges to create in other mediums but I always come back to this Love, and my quilting waits patiently while I cheat in other areas always knowing that I will return to her. ( Yes I am using the female tense and no I don't swing that way...)

I guess I should explain a little better.  For a while we have been busy with my daughter who has had some health problems.  Although she is 22 and it has been mostly moral support, it just drains you.  Anyone who has been through this knows what I mean.  During all this she has wanted to do something to generate income and feel useful.  So we started going to thrift shops and a few garage sales when she has been up to it.  She has a fashion sense that I will never have.  She knows prices and brands.  So she has been selling things she finds on Ebay to give herself pocket change.

So what does this have to do with me?  Well as I said my first love has been quilting.  I am also a huge fan of Bonnie Hunter.  I decided to create my own sewing product.  It is almost ready to be shown and I am VERY EXCITED about this.  I also have a new love, vintage stuff.  Hats, clothing, jewelry etc.  So from time to time I will be selling some of the best things I find on Ebay.

If you have noticed, I changed the name of this blog, I have a FaceBook page that is of the same name and my Ebay name is almost the same name (I goofed on the spelling and cannot change it for another 30 days, hey I am human too).

So this is wonderfully scary for me to put myself out here but I won't know unless I try so stay tuned for my wild ride...

And because I know that all posts should have pictures...

     This is my daughter, or part of her, modeling this fantastic pants that I came across.  I knew they were something special when I saw them and although they didn't fit me and are a tad big for her, I know someone out there will appreciate these wonderful pants from days gone by.

     I did some research on them and the designer is Jack Winter.  Here is a picture of the tag:

     Isn't it fabulous?  So since I don't know much about designers, I researched and the info I found just made these pants more special.  From the New York Times:

"Mr. Winter was the founder of Jack Winter, Inc., one of the first manufacturers of women's slacks and one that set trends in women's sportswear and knitwear. The company also operated 100 Clothesworks Stores, a nationwide chain of discount women's clothing.

He founded the company as a men's pants manufacturer in the late 1930's but in 1953 began to design and manufacture women's slacks. He retired in 1986."

Mr. Winter has passed away, but imagine what a pioneer!  I watched reruns of the Dick Van Dyke Show when I was little, I wonder, did he design any of the pants that Mary Tyler Moore wore?  I wonder if who ever wore these thought about things like that, that when they bought these they were part of a trend that would change the way women wore clothing.

So, I am going to be putting these up for sale on Ebay shortly, I just know there is a woman, a tiny woman, who would love to have these great vintage pants.  If you should happen to be interested in them just go to Ebay and search Jack Winter pants and I am sure you will find them.

Thanks for sticking with me in this very long post and I hope to post more frequently in the future!

Create Something Beautiful Today!

Susan

Getting Ready for the Mystery!

Hello All!

     So those of you who are Bonnie Hunter fans know that each year she publishes for free a mystery that usually begins sometime around Thanksgiving and lasts anywhere from 4 to 6 weeks.  She gives us a color palette but we are not required to stick to that and we don't know what the quilt is gonna look like until it's finished.  For control freaks like me it has been a good thing, relinquishing control of something, trusting another to the outcome of a project.

I did my first mystery with her last year, it was a blast and the completed quilt is on my bed.  Well, the almost completed quilt is on my bed, the binding is not done but that connects with the story here.

In preparation for her mystery I decided to clean my sewing room and by clean I mean actually put stuff away, not just move piles of stuff around. (Which I have been known to do.)

It took me seven hard working hours to clean my room.  I don't think it has been this clean since I first moved my stuff upstairs.  This first picture is where I sew.  I think I have a pretty sweet set up, my fabric behind me, my TV and DVD player and my Singer machine.  I use the system of wrapping my fabric around magazine boards for 1/2 yards and more, the baskets hold smaller amounts and are sorted by color.  I have tried other methods of fabric storage but this works for me and really didn't take that long to do.

In front of my sewing table is my ironing board which I made from 2 carts that I bought at Sam's club and then put a piece of board on top, hubby helped fasten the board to the cart and then batting on top and then the silver iron fabric that you can get at JoAnn.  

 

The last picture is how I keep my rulers organized.  In this room there is this little odd wall, what happens when you have rounded corners in your house, anyway, I use the Command hooks and positioned them to accommodate the various sizes.  I was worried about scratching the wall up but I am careful when I remove and put them back.

The boxes stacked on the left hold all my crazy quilting laces, threads and trims.

So that's a little peek into my sewing world and I hope you enjoyed it.  If you see something that inspires you and you want to use it, feel free!

And the good thing about spending 7 hours cleaning is I found the following:  binding for the quilt that is on my bed, a pattern for a table runner that I had started but could not finish because I lost the pattern,  another fabric that I am going to use to bind the quilt that is on my mid-arm machine, and a TON of batiks that I honestly don't remember getting, it's like finding buried treasure.

  

If I don't talk to you all before the mystery starts I will be posting my progress here and on the Bonnie Hunter yahoo group.  Try the mystery, I highly recommend it!

New Beginnings...

Hello My Lovlies!

Well it's been a couple of jam packed months but I am back.  I attended my second Crazy Quilting International Retreat and it was a blast!  Words cannot express the wonderfulness of these women.  I will have to devote another post to that because I am bursting at the seams to show off my new creation.  Last year I went to Goodwill with my BFFs, Cathy and Bev and saw this:

One of two sad little shoes that had seen much better days and were well past their glory.  I felt sorry for those shoes so I took them home.  They sat with me for an extremely long time, but the heel of the shoes intrigued me.  I took the shoes apart and decided to crazy quilt them.  Seemed easy enough right?   First,  I made a template of the top and cut out pieces of white fabric to use as my base for my cq and then it sat for another long time.  Fast forward to our visit in Texas, where I found a black and gold scorpio cameo.  That came home with me as that is my sign.  So put it all together and you get this:

I am so happy with my little shoe now!  I did so many things I have never done before, beaded a rivoli, soutache, a little ribbon flower and used ice resin.

I have already found another unusual pair of shoes, and have taken them apart and will be making a Halloween shoe next.  I have already collected stuff so hopefully it will be done around this Halloween, not Halloween 2014.

See you next time and be sure to do something you LOVE today.

Susan

Terrier Town...A Little Late...

Hi There!

     Well I said I would be back with some progress on My Terrier Town BOM so here's another month for you:

     The middle dog shows up much better in person than she does in the picture.  I made it light to represent my son's dog.  She is about 5 years old and God could not have made a less intelligent dog, but that's part of her charm and we could not love her more.  We have thought that if she were a person she would probably have severe ADD.  She cannot even grasp the game of fetch.  We tried so much to teach her and she will happily run next to my dog and watch, but try to teach her alone and you end up will a bunch of toys at the end of the hall after she has run down to them and then comes happily back to you without them.  We have seen her run into doors and walls while she is watching something else.

     Enough gushing about our pets!  So, I have another block all fused and ready for applique so shortly there will be another block to show you.

     On another note my daughter got a job at JoAnn's and she could not be happier.  This may be dangerous for me however, but first I will need to see how big her employee discount is!  But honestly, I am very proud of her and I know this job is a good fit.

Make sure you do something that you love today!

It's Attack of the Killer Tomatoes!

Hi My Lovelies!

I know it's been a little bit of time but we went to the great state of Texas to see if it was a place we could retire to and to visit some of hubby's relatives.  Although we thought Texas was great, I think the extended hot weather would bother my mom too much.  So the search continues.

What I am so excited about is something very silly to a lot of you.  Let me back up a little, my dad was a fantastic gardener, grew lots of veggies, especially tomatoes.  That gene did not pass on to me.  I have tried and can do ok, but, nothing to write home about.  So I tried a new brand, called German Girl (I figured since I was German the plant would feel a sense of family).  Two tomatoes so far, over a month later, but they are some great tomatoes!  Look at the size of this baby...

I will say that the tomatoes sat and sat and once I left the state and my son took over they turned red!  I still maintain that I did most of the work and that it was just dumb luck that they "happen" to ripen when I was not home.

My next post will be to share my Terrier Town progress.... I am keeping up so far!

Until then make sure you do something you love!

Susan

A Quilt in Honor of Dad...

Hello All!

     Well no more progress has been made on my terrier quilt but I did want to share with you my quilt that I completed with my dad's shirts.  My dad passed away several years ago and I miss him a lot still.

Every winter he wore these long sleeve flannel shirts and they all had to have a front pocket for his cigar and matches.

     So since the shirts were made of cotton flannel, 50/50 and 100% polyester some of the fabric stretched so I picked an easy design.  Large 4-patches were just the ticket.  I matched those with blue cotton flannel.  The back was totally pieced with his shirts.  My daughter, who had a special connection with my dad, has already claimed it as her own.  I have enough to make one more quilt and I know my dad would be happy...

     The lovely model posing is my son's dog, Ket.

Until next time, make sure you do something you enjoy!

Susan B