$30.00 At The Flea Market

I'm always amazed at how much cool stuff I can find at a Flea Market for a small amount of money.  I spent $30.00 today at the Flea Market in Wilmot Wisconsin and this is what I got for my money:

A  nice variety of beads!

Some jewelry pieces that I can take apart for the beads.

More pieces that I can take apart for the beads and I thought I could use that little Partridge In A Pear Tree brooch on a Christmas door hanger!

Finally, a little vintage kitty for my collection.  I don't buy too much in the way of collectibles anymore.  I have plenty of pretty little collectible things but I do have an affinity for sweet little vintage cat figurines.  They have to have pretty little faces.  One of these days, I'll take you on a tour of my little cat collection.  I just find them at flea markets and antique shops.  I guess there's nothing wrong with being a crazy cat lady!

Anyway, that's my Flea Market treasure for today!

Challenging Seam Treatments

In working on my current project, I ran into a seam treatment that just didn't show up well.  As I've mentioned once or twice before (LOL!) I use waste canvas to stitch the majority of my crazy quilt seams. 

Judging by the thread color that I used, I thought it would show up just fine but it wasn't until I pulled the waste canvas out that I could see that it didn't.

I do not like to pull threads out.  I remember doing that so many times with counted cross stitch.  Instead, I like to use beads and sequins to make the seam pop or at least show up better.

I went with electric blue beads for the points on the little fan stitches.  That helped.  Then I added larger aqua beads to the base of the fan stitches.  Finally, I added some light blue sequins.

As you can see, this did make a difference.  The electric blue seed beads elongated the fans.  The aqua beads and the sequins are eye catching so they draw attention to the seam even though the actual stitching still tends to blend into the print.

I honestly thought this shaded thread color would have shown up just fine but it didn't.

Using brighter colored beads for a dark background or darker colors for a light background will help to bring attention to a seam that doesn't pop.

It's just a matter of choosing the right colors.  You have to experiment.  And it's not a perfect fix but if you dislike ripping as much as I do, this is a good alternative.

This Weeks Treasures

Thank you everyone, for your sweet comments on my Pink Saturday post.  I am really enjoying being part of this fun and very pink blog experience!  I've already met some incredibly sweet and gifted bloggers who also adore the color pink. 

I did a bit of shopping this week.  A trip to Hobby Lobby on Wednesday resulted in some nice additions to my bead stash (like it needed additions!):



A few things were on sale and few were on clearance!!

I also picked up some large hole paillettes:



I plan to crochet some edges for my crazy quilt purses using my funky fuzzy yarn and these pretty sequins!

This morning, Scott and I headed up to Elkorn, Wisconsin for the Holy Grail of Flea Markets.  We got rained on but that certainly didn't stop me from finding a few goodies for my stitching!

First, a vintage machine embroidered handkerchief with strawberries on it.  In all years and years of junkin' I've done, I have never seen one of these with strawberries!!!  I also found a pretty little vintage shoe clip.  I love the Jadite colored flowers:



My vintage embroidery transfer patterns have been rather scarce this season!  Luckily, I found 2 today to add to my collection:



While dodging the rain in one of the buildings, I found this bagful of pretty trims.  Nothing terribly special but I use braided gimp for a variety of projects and the gold trims are suitable for so many things:



My final Flea Market find for today is a nice little collection of vintage millinery flowers:



By the time we were done, the rain had stopped, the sun came out and it was becoming quite juicy outside!  I was glad to get back to our truck and the comfort of being in air conditioning!

In other news, I'm suddenly missing crazy quilting.  CQ is all I've been able to think about so I plan to run my treadle machine this week and sew up a few blocks to stitch on.  I'm wanting to do some new purses.  In the meantime, I had this one sewn up and plan to stitch on it now:



This one will have a peacock theme.  Please come back to watch my progress as I stitch on it!