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!!!!

Happy 4th Of July!

Happy 4th of July everyone!  It looks like our temps are going to be a little more tolerable today.  It was a hot weekend but that didn't stop us from heading out to a small flea market yesterday.  The walking feels good and the thrill of the hunt is pure stimulation for my crazy ADD brain!  LOL!!!

I didn't find a lot of treasure yesterday but that's ok.  What I did find are 2 little vintage cookbooks to add to my collection:

The Watkins booklet is copyrighted 1934 and the Carnation booklet is copyrighted 1946.  There are some nice recipes in these little cookbooks and I'm thrilled to have these in my collection.  I only paid $4.00 for the 2 of them!

Be sure to download the PDF file for my 1925 Bakers Chocolate Cookbook!

I also picked up a couple of cards of vintage buttons:

The white buttons are glass with touches of gold on them.  The little pink cameo buttons and the purple rhinestone buttons are plastic.  These were kind of unique so I thought they would be fun for my crazyquilting.

Have a safe and Happy 4th of July everyone!

Flea Market Treasures and Some Finishes

Scott and I picked mom up this morning and headed out to the Flea Market in Grayslake, Illinois.  The Flea Market & Antique show in Grayslake is the 2nd Sunday of every month and it's indoors so we didn't have to worry about the cold March air this morning!

There were a lot of new vendors this month and it was a bit larger than last time.  I found some nice little treasures for my crazy quilting.  First, were some pretty trims:

Next, I found a pretty doily with a cross stitched rose motif in the center:

Some vintage buttons:

 

 And some pink vintage velvet leaves:

Definitely some nice do-dads today!

When we got home, I sewed up my custom order Crazy Quilt Cat Doll:

And I did the finishing on my Crazy Quilt I Phone Pouches:

I did spend a little time sitting out in my backyard which felt so good!  Bubba started a fire in our firepit so I just sat for a few minutes.

So that was my day everyone!  Bubba is making dinner now.  Scrambled eggs with ham and pancakes.  Don't you just love breakfast for dinner!

Crazy Quilt Spider Webs

I completed Button Block #34 yesterday:



When I do my spider webs, I do what I call "mock couching". My spider webs are all free-hand. I work the long spokes of the web first, starting in the center. Then, when doing the short spokes of the web, I come up on one side of a long spoke and down with my needle on the opposite side of the next long spoke. This will hold the long spokes in place without couching them all down individually. Saves a lot of time! Click on the image to go to my Flickr site where you can see the large version. You should be able to see the stitches.

Remember, that most spider webs are not perfect! The more imperfect they are, the more realistic they look!

For the spider, I sew down a big bead, running my thread through the bead twice. I then do the same with the small bead. Then, I run the thread through both beads which again, holds them in place and keeps them in alignment with each other. Finally, I do the legs last.

For the buttons on this block, I used a mixture of new and vintage glass buttons, antique metal buttons and a few modern plastic buttons. Mixing them up adds visual interest so don't be afraid to play! Again, clustered buttons are more interesting to look than just one here or there. You can also layer buttons. Look for the square button and notice that I sewed an antique metal button on top of it. That gives the cluster some dimension. And for buttons with holes in them, I always fill those holes with seed beads. That adds a bit more sparkle as well as giving them a nice finished look.

Finally for today, here are pages #6 & 7 of my Needlecrafts Embroidery & Fancywork Catalog from the 1930's:





Enjoy!

April Take It Further Challenge - Day 3

As you can see, I found a butterfly that works on this block:



And I didn't even have to go beyond my own stash! I bought this pin at the last Flea Market we went to and completely forgot about it because I intended to use it on a purse. It's so perfect for this block, so I decided to just use it.

I expect to finish this one up later today. It needs a spider web, a little more beading and a few little "fill-in" do-dads.

This will be my next button block:



I'm not sure if I'll get to starting on this today or not but if not, it's ready for tomorrow.

A few years back for Christmas, a friend of mine sent me this card of beautiful vintage Lacy Glass Buttons:



I could never bring myself to use these, although that was his intention. I pulled them out yesterday and they're so beautiful, it seems ashame to keep them wrapped up in quilt batting and sitting in the drawer. They aren't doing me or anyone else any good being hidden away. So, I've decided to use them on my Button Quilt. One of those red/gold buttons should work quite nicely on this cream colored block.

Buttons

Well, my Flea Market finds yesterday were quite minimal! The market was huge but I just didn't find anything all that exciting. In fact, I only spent $5.00!

I found some pretty little vintage buttons and some little appliqués, all from the same dealer:



Usually, I find some nice lace and other odds & ends but not this time. Very disappointing! And I haven't seen a vintage iron-on transfer in months! Actually, I haven't seen any since last Summer! What's up with that? Now, it's not like I don't have any. Actually, I have a huge rubbermaid container filled with vintage transfers. I can barely lift it to get it off the shelf but it's one of my obsessions! I love them and I won't apologize for it!

Back to the buttons, it occurred to me that my plastic button collection would be more accessible if I separated them by color. At the moment, I store them in this huge 5 pound antique coffee jar:



They look really great in the jar but I when I want to use some, I have to dump them all out into a big cake pan just so I can find what I want! So what to do? I have a bunch of old blue mason jars that I could use. Yes, I love old stuff! Methinks I'll contemplate this a bit more!

For today, I'll be sewing up the Dragonfly Cellphone pouch. I'll also do the foundation piecing for my custom order, a Red Hat Lady cellphone pouch.

I worked on Maxine's quilt for a few hours yesterday. I have 3 more patches to replace the stitching on and then I can start embellishing it. Yes, I found 2 more deteriorated patches the other day so I replaced them. I'll have another update on that project for you soon.

Finishes

It took me most of the day yesterday, but I completed the finishing on 3 projects!

First is my Little Brown Bird purse:



Isn't this just too pretty? And it was so much easier to sew the tabs in and then put the handles on once the purse was complete!

Next is my Button Flower Cellphone Pouch:



I was going to do a cool fringing technique that I saw in a magazine but it was too much for this pouch so I added simple beaded fringe to the bottom and then some braided gimp.

Last but not least, my Peacock Cellphone Pouch:



I am so pleased with this! You may remember that I wasn't sure about how to finish it. If you're into making hearts, this might be a good finishing option for you. Trim your heart leaving a 1/4 inch seam allowance. Sew on some lace and a backing fabric. Turn right side out. Make a separate pouch following the tutorial that I gave you last week. Then hand-sew the heart to the pouch, add a snap and a chain. It was that simple. I have to make more of these!!!

I'm in the process of listing these in my Etsy shop where I will leave them for 30 days. After a month, if they're still there, I'll move them to my showcase at the Brick & Mortar store. In fact, if anyone is interested in any of my previous items, I'll be moving some of them this Friday. Just wanted to mention that.

Ok, I'm off to finish listing these things and then I have to work for a bit. See ya tomorrow!