Thrifty Thursday 5

It is 11.30pm New Year's Eve, but here I am, sneaking in my Thrifty Thursday post. Priorities!!!

I didn't get to any Thrift Stores this week. Something to do with things called Christmas....New Year's....kids home from school...the usual! But I do have plenty of recent thrifty finds I haven't shared with you yet! So just a quickie, here is a bag of buttons I got for $1 at a new to me thrift store.
I was driving past the local Senior Centre a few weeks back and on the sidewalk was a sign saying Thrift Store Open Now. You have never seen a minivan do such a tight u-turn! And it was well worth it to get all of those lovely old buttons.

Something else I want to show youn (not thrifted) is our new organizing bucket.
A friend/mother from our school makes them and I had her make me one for the kids for Christmas. It has been the BEST thing to happen to our home! No more kids running around saying, "But I can't find a pencil...", or, "Moooooom, Where are the scissors?! Yes you mothers out there have heard it all before from your kids! This bucket has single handedly made our home a little more peaceful. Amazing stuff!

Well it's time to turn on the TV and wait for the ball to drop. But first we have to explain to the kids (who are begging to go to sleep!) what the ball actually is! This is the first year they have stayed up for the big event. They even planned their own little picnic on the living room floor on my millenium quilt I made 10 years ago - I didn't even tell them to use that one, they chose it themselves!Happy New Year to you all and thank you for taking time to hang out here now and then and for all your kind comments this last year:) Big hugs to you all!

A Finish!

I stayed up until 3 this morning to get it done, but done it is, and I am so glad I got it done before the end of the year. This quilt has dragged on way too long. I started quilting it at 10 last night, finished that at 12, then it took me 3 hours to bind it. I have never timed myself before, and found it interesting that it takes me longer to bind a quilt than to quilt it. I would have thought the opposite was true. All I have to say now is - ehhh - I'm not quilting again until next year!

Thrifty Thursday 4

Once again it's been a fruitful thrifting week! I picked up more milk glass (are you sick of seeing it yet?!),
this lovely little village for a dollar a piece....
and matching milk glass lamps.
One for my daughter's room, and one for the living room. It was only $5 for the pair. I needed a little cabinet to put the lamp on in the living room, and found the perfect one for $4 at the thrift store.
I wasn't in love with the decorative painting on it and planned to paint over it, but it's growing on me so we shall see.

We are about to go out for lunch, then it's back home to get the Christmas cooking done!

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone!

Applique done

I have finished up the applique on my green and brown quilt, and like I said last week, I had hoped to have it all quilted and done, but the holiday season caught up on me and it will have to wait until after Christmas. But I am itching to get it finished now and up on the wall!

It is folded up in my handy dandy plastic container that I got in UT last year. These containers are wonderful for projects - you can see what is in them at a glance. I'll be back tomorrow for "Thrifty Thursday" but for now, it's back to wrapping presents!

Frame Finished

The frame is done, the tea-towel is in it, and it is up on the wall! After a setback last night (my darling hubby decided that a 24 x 36 inch piece of glass on a wall that kids bang against all day isn't such a good idea, and I reluctantly agreed) I had to find a new solution. Turns out that we had an old poster frame with a perspex sheet instead of glass that was exactly the same size so I just swapped them out. It has a few scratches on it, so I will eventually get another one, but there are tons of poster frames in the thrift stores for cheap cheap cheap so I'm not too worried. I love, and I mean LOVE it! The red was a good choice. I couldn't decide between hot pink, green, or red, but I think the red is perfect.

I know that the tea-towel isn't perfectly straight in the frame, but it's as good as it's going to get.The tea-towel was horribly shaped and I washed it and blocked it to dry as straight as I could, but that thing is just shaped funny. But hey, I figure it just adds to the quirkyness of it!

I also did another, smaller frame, for a little print of a painting done by an artist in Salt Lake City. I picked it up from the artist at the downtown Farmer's market when we lived there. I have a thing for all things pear, so I just had to have it. The green is much better than the brown, don't you think?! OK so I know the green is not everyone's taste, but it's mine!These were very cheap fixes. $8 for the large frame and $3 for the red can of spray paint. I already had the small frame, so it was $3 for the green paint, plus the can is almost full.

I think I have the spray paint fever now. I am looking at everything around me wondering hmmmm how would that look spray painted?!!

Thrifty Thursday 3

I am linking this post to Shanty2Chic's I made it without my hubby day!


The Thrifting Gods smiled upon me this week. I got a boatload of milk glass, plus a picture frame. But not just any picture frame. I needed a HUGE frame - about 30" x 36". Plus I wanted it to be quite substantial - not like those skinny edge poster frames.

9 years ago while still pregnant with my daughter, a lady from my hometown, Temple View, (Aunty Hana Smith for those of you reading that know her), in New Zealand came to visit Salt Lake City where I was living with my hubby. My Mum had given her a little package to give to me, so we met up with her and received said package. But that wasn't all. Aunty Hana also handed me the most fabulous tea-towel from New Zealand.
It has the recipe for our national dessert, Pavlova on it, and I have dreamed, for 9 years, of framing it and hanging it in my kitchen. That tea-towel has been through 5 moves and cross country with me, and in the back of my mind I kept thinking, hmmm I really should do something with it. So after the perfect solution didn't just fall into my lap, (ie the right size frame falling out of the sky and into my kitchen) I finally decided this week to do something about it!

First I looked in stores for a frame. But because I needed a large one, they were way out of my price range. I just didn't want to pay 50, 60, 70 dollars and more for a frame with a picture in it that I wasn't going to use anyway! Plus I knew I wanted to paint the frame a nice bright color, so I knew the thrift store was the way to go.

I went to all our local thrift stores, but there just wasn't anything big enough. Except for the ugly poster frames, and that was just not happening!

Finally, at the last store, I found a frame!
But it was $16, and I still really didn't want to pay that much. Yes I know it was a lot cheaper than the new ones in the regular stores, but hey, I am cheap. But then, I saw that they were having a sale - anything with a yellow sticker was 50% off and guess what color sticker the frame had?!

So I came home with my $8 frame, dismantled it, and set to work painting it. First was a white undercoat (I'm doing another smaller frame at the same time)And then came the candy apple red on the big frame and the apple green on the smaller one.
I'll let the paint dry really well over night and tomorrow put it all together and post more pics. I am SO excited to finally have this underway!

Finished project is at my next post....

The wall

The little gallery of quilts in my hallway is increasing!

Yummy new fabrics

About a month ago while shopping in the mall, the perfume store had their perpetual buy one, get one for $10 sale on. My hubby asked if I wanted some. Of course I did - why would he even have to ask?! But then the thought came to me....hmmmm if he was willing to spend $50 on some perfume for me, would he just let me spend the money on fabric instead?! He kindly said yes, so I gave up the perfume for the fabric. Or so I thought. 2 weeks later he came home from a date at the mall with our son...with the perfume! I still hadn't got the fabric, and he said I could still order some if I wanted. He is the best:)

I made two orders, one from Hancocks of Paducah when they had their 20% off sale, and one at Marie-Madeline Studio with their 40% off sale!

Hancocks had the new Kaffes and brand new Sandi Henderson fabrics I've been wanting....
Marie Madeline's had some Anna Maria Horner fabrics I've been wanting for a year but just hadn't ordered. At 40% off it was a bargain!
Didn't they wrap it so nicely? It's the little things that make you a repeat customer. Now see this green one with pink roses?
I think it may officially be my favorite fabric ever. To me, it feels vintage yet modern. I wish I had bought more than 1 yard! My hubby on the other hand had this to say... "It looks like an old grandma's dress. Why didn't you just go to the thrift store and buy an ugly old dress instead?" The nerve!!

I was most impressed with Marie Madeline's customer service. They are running a giveaway at the moment for a free quilt if you do certain things. One of the ways to earn entries is to spend money at their store. You just had to let them know that you had done so, and wanted the entries. I had completely forgotten about that when I placed my order. They emailed me, and asked if I wanted the 25 entries I had earned as a customer, as they didn't want to force them on anyone that didn't want them! Are they crazy?! Of course I wanted them!! There is still one day left to enter if you want to win one of these two quilts from them. All you need to do for 1 entry is leave them a comment on their blog, so go ahead - worsen my odds!

I have spent most of today needleturning the applique on the quilt you all voted on. I see a completed quilt coming this next week! I am so excited!

Thrifty Thursday

I'm back with my second installment of Thrifty Thursday!

I have a little routine on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I take my youngest to his speech therapy class then on the way home we stop at one or two thrift stores...just in case there is something I can't live without. Today was no exception and I did find some goodies.

First up I got three pieces of milk glass. I love milk glass and have a small collection which slowly grows with my thrift store finds. You find it very reasonably priced in thrift stores. Today I got 3 pieces...
The heart bowl was $2.99 which I think may be the most I've paid for a piece, but it was just so lovely, how could I say no?! The vase in the middle was 99 cents and the vase on the end was 50 cents! Can you say bargain?!

Next up I got these 2 hoops for 25 cents a piece. I love the look I've seen on some blogs where they just put a favorite piece of fabric in them and hang them on the wall as art, so that is exactly what I plan to do. I'm thinking that I might even paint them, just so they will 'pop' more.

And lastly I bought this sweet pillowcase for $2.


I fell in love with the pretty embroidery and knowing how long something like that would take to make myself, it was well worth the money. Plus when I held it to my nose to smell it, it was like it had just come from my mother's linen closet. That well-worn but clean smell. It took me straight back to my parent's home, and good memories.

I have been busy on some projects plus bought some new fabric, so stay tuned for my next post to see what I've been up to!

Houses

I have a new little quilt hanging on my hallway wall. And after 4 days, not one person in my family has noticed! I finally pointed it out to my hubby and he seemed to like it well enough. But the kids? They must pass by it 30 times a day, and nothing! I suppose it is up a little higher than their line of sight...we shall see how long it takes them:) You can see that it looks like it's a decent size here......but when you step away, you see how small it actually is...I made the 3 wonky-house blocks last year, with no idea what I was going to do with them. I think I had intended to make several one-house mini quilts, but the other night I just sewed them up all together, adding bits of grass and sky to make them fit, and I love it!
My intention is to make a hallway of quilts - lots of mini-quilts all over the hallway walls. I got the idea from a blogging friend, Chavah, who is a working artist in New Zealand - she just did the same thing in her hallway, except with her paintings.
You should go read her blog post about it, and you can see the before as well as the after. So inspirational! You know we could all do this with our quilts!

Thrifty Thursday

Yes folks, I am jumping on the alliteration bandwagon with Thrifty Thursdays! And when I say Thrifty I'm talking about Thrift stores. I go at least weekly and get great bargains, so I thought I could share some of them with you, especially when they are quilting/sewing/crafting related!

This week was my youngest's 5th birthday and when asked what he wanted to do, he said, "Go to the library and then the thrift store to buy all the toys"! Really! So we did. My favorite local thrift store is called the Grey Nun's and is a hidden gem. It is in a tiny old house, and each room is a different category - children's clothes, shoes, household etc. I never come away empty handed - I love it!

So back to the birthday, while my little boy was choosing what toys he wanted, I looked in the craft drawers and hit the mother load of zippers!

This bag was $1.50...
and then I grapped 15 of these for 10 cents a piece...
So I pretty much got all of those for the price of one new zipper.

Then I saw this...
...and it was only $2 but couldn't decide if I really wanted it or not - I mean, what would I do with all that? How many thousands of feet are on that roll?! But it was only $2 - how could I leave it there? So now it is home with me, but what on earth do I do with it? I'm sure there are only so many clothes I can make my daughter with the same trim!

Quilt Show purchases

2 Saturdays ago, my buddy Brenda and I went to the Nashua Quilter's Gathering. Click here to read her account of the day :)

Some people go to see the quilts on display, but oh no, not I! I go for the vendors!! The actual quilt show is an added bonus:)

I was quite restrained and spent less than $40. Don't ask Brenda what she spent - all I know is that while I was in the bathroom, she snuck off to the ATM. Shhhh I didn't tell you that.... BUT I will tell you that she went home with socks that didn't match!

Of course, I had to buy some fabric...The green buttons called my name like they were mythical sirens in the sea. I was helpless against their call and they were immediately bought and tucked in my bag:)Oh, you want to see some photos of actual quilts from the show? OK fine...here are a few of my favorites...