$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!

A Box Of Old Lace

My husband and I are already climbing the walls with cabin fever.  Spring fever actually.  This has not been a terribly cold or snowy Winter but every year, by mid-February, we need to get out!  So, we went a flea market yesterday.  It's an indoor flea market and not one of our favorites but it was something fun to do. 

I never find much at this flea market but this time, I hit the jackpot!  Look at this box of old crocheted and tatted lace:

There are a few pieces of manufactured lace in here but most of it is handmade.

I washed it yesterday when I got home and now it's ready for pressing. 

I don't know why, but I just can't leave a box of lace like this sitting around a dirty old flea market.  I already have more than I will ever use but this is just such a treasure to me.

If you're lucky enough to find some beautiful vintage and antique lace in a flea market, garage sale or thrift store, here are the directions for washing old lace.

In this article, I recommend a product called Orvus.  I do not know if it's still available or not.  I don't have any here and have actually been using Dawn dish washing detergent.  My thoughts on that are, if it's safe to use on precious wild life, caught in oil spills, then it's safe for textiles. 

Little Pieces Of Cake!

I mentioned the other day that I finished up my crazy quilt hanging pillows with the little baskets:

These are so pretty, aren't they?  To me, they look like little pieces of cake!

And here is mom's latest hanging pillow with pink roses:

I picked up the vintage hankie for her at the Flea Market last weekend.  I'm looking forward to seeing what she does with the other hankies I found!

All of these little pillows are in the boutique now!

We're having us another gorgeous day today!  I left the bedroom windows open last night and woke up to the sound of the Robin's singing.  That has to be one of my favorite sounds!  I could listen to Robins singing all day, every day!

Today is a "stay at home" day.  Scott is going to Swap Meet.  It's a car thing.  I'm going to stay home and putz.  Do some laundry, straighten some more things up.  Seems like a perpetual thing for me but I think I like doing that!  And I definitely want some time on my deck.  Can't wait till I can plant some flowers out there!

Have a great day everyone!

Little Basket Crazy Quilts

Been doing some stitching on my little basket crazy quilt blocks.  Here's the blue one:

And I stitched on the yellow one for awhile yesterday:

The Flea Market and Antique Show in Grayslake Illinois is today.  I'll stitch on this for a little while before we go up there to walk around.  Maybe I'll find a goody or two.

Treasures from the Flea Market in Grayslake Illinois

I had a lovely morning with my husband today.  We went to the Antique and Collectable Flea Market in Grayslake, Illinois.  One of my favorite Flea Markets in northern Illinois!  A perfect "something to do" the 2nd weekend of every month.  Especially in the cold months because it's all inside!

I found some nice treasure there today!  First, a couple of vintage rhinestone brooches.  Well, one is a brooch and the other little bee pin:

Next, I found some pretty vintage buttons in pink, green and purple:

Some of my prize flea market and antique shop finds are vintage handkerchiefs.  I found quite a few today.  First some Christmas ones:

And then some everyday hankies with pretty flowers:

Something I've been collecting for many years are little vintage cat figurines. Are you surprised?  LOL!!! I have quite a few but they have to have a certain look to them.  They don't have be really old but they have to have that old look.  I found this little one today:

 Last but not least, the piece de resistance.  I found this gorgeous old hat box:

And you'll never guess what it was filled with!!!!!

And can you believe, I only paid $15.00 for the box and all the old lace?  Talk about a Crazy Quilter's dream day!!!!

Sunday Flea Market Treasures

Despite being hotter than Billy Blue Blazes on Sunday, I just can't pass up a Flea Market!  I hadn't really planned on going anywhere this past weekend.  I wanted to hang out at home and get some stuff done around here, but when my sister sent me a text message saying that there was a Flea Market at the McHenry County Fair grounds in Woodstock, Illinois (a hop, skip & a jump from where we are), I just couldn't skip it!

All in all, it was a little disappointing.  Not many dealers for the $5.00 admission fee and of the dealers that were there, they all thought they had gold!  I'm a Flea Market Queen so I know my prices! 

I did manage to find a few treasures though and all for only $10.00!

A couple of pretty hankies, a gorgeous piece of crocheted lace and some fun trim with sequins!  Not bad!  But I really do need to stop buying it and start using it!  My stash runneth over!  'Course, that won't stop me!

Beads For Crazyquilting

I've been looking around over at Kay's Pizazz Beads site and there are some really beautiful things there for Crazyquilting:

I love using crystals on my Crazyquilts because I love the sparkle!!  And I love anything vintage!  I like to stock up on supplies over the Summer so I have plenty of things in my stash for my Fall & Winter stitching!  Ok, so I stock up like a Chipmunk but hey, one can never have too may Crazyquilt supplies!  These are gorgeous! 

Going to head up to the Wilmot Flea Market this morning.  It's going to be a hot one today so I want to get up there early.  Grayslake Flea Market is today too but because of the heat, I think Wilmot is a better choice.  If I find anything cool to stitch with, I'll post again later!

Flea Market Schedules

I don't know why I never thought to post this!  Here is the Northern Illinois - Southern Wisconsin Flea Market Schedule for 2011:

Grayslake, Illinois - Lake County Fairgrounds - Admission $6.00
June 11 & 12
July 9 & 10
August 13 & 14
September 10 & 11
October 8 & 9
November 12 & 13
December 10 & 11

Elkhorn, Wisconsin - Walworth County Fairgrounds - Admission $5.00
May 15
June 26
August 14
September 25

McHenry, Illinois - Outdoor Theater - Admission $3.00
May 29
June 12 & 26
July 10 & 31
August 14 & 28
September 11 & 25
October 16 & 30

Wilmot, Wisconsin - Wilmot, Mountain Ski Resort - Admission $1.00
Open every Sunday through October 30th, 2011
7:00 A.M. - 3:00 P.M.

Sunday Treasures from the Flea Market

Sunday was such a beautiful day here in Northern Illinois!  Sunny and warm. The perfect day for a flea market!

Scott and I picked mom up and drove out to Grayslake Fair Grounds in Lake County for the monthly Flea Market & Antique Show.  Wow!  The theme for this show was "vintage" which is right up my alley!

Mom & I found all sorts of neat little goodies!  These are the "treasures" that I found:

These old hats are covered with vintage millinery flowers!  I love to pick them up and take the flowers off for my crazy quilts and other crafts.  I sat here last night while watching Dancing With The Stars and took them apart.  The cranberry colored hat was commercially made but the pink one and the lavender one were handmade.  You can tell the difference with how the flowers are attached.  With commercial hats, the flowers are glued on.  With handmade hats, the flowers are hand sewn on.  The lavender hat took quite awhile to take apart.  But it was so worth it as all of the little flowers are velvet!

My next treasures are these beautiful vintage lace collars:

 

I don't see pink vintage collars too often.  I only paid $2.00 for each of these!  I love old lace and will cut these up for my crazy quilts.

I also found a couple of beautiful vintage hankies with gorgeous lace on them:

It a little challenging to get a decent photo of these but the lace is gorgeous!  I like these because the lace is on all 4 corners so I get a lot for my money.  I paid only $2 each for these!

My next treasures are some lace pieces:

 

Again, it was a little hard to get a good photo of these but the laces are gorgeous!  And a little goes a long way with crazy quilting!

Finally, I found a couple pieces of pretty vintage jewelry:

To use the rose earrings, I will cut the clips off the back with wire cutters and then glue a pre-threaded button to the back with E6000 Jewelry Glue. Then they can easily be sewn onto my project.

So those are my treasures from this past weekend!  I love Flea Market season!  I love the thrill of the hunt!

Be sure to see my article on How To Take Apart An Old Hat!  You can find them at flea markets and antique shops for just a few dollars and you'll get loads of vintage millinery flowers off them!