Valerean

I did find a few more skeins of baby boucle yarn in my stash last week, so I packed them up with some other skeins I didn't want and headed over to our local church thrift. I want to do a blog post on rehabbing hat boxes, so while I was there I picked up two that need some TLC, as well as a length of interesting green fabric. March's tote for my calendar project is going to be in green. I also thrifted some cards I needed. I'm starting to look for cards at thrift stores because they often sell brand new for pennies. In total I spent $5.60 on my little haul, which made me very happy.

The green patchwork quilt I won from my last round of wannabuts bids just arrived. Let's take a look. It's a lovely quilt, pieced and quilted on a domestic machine. I love the gold quilting thread the maker used. The backing is a dark tonal green that matches the binding. It's a pretty quilt, and once I wash it I'll keep it to snuggle up with on the sofa in my home office.

The vibrant quilt I thrifted as a wannabut for $9.99 just arrived, and it's even prettier in person. The log cabin pattern is a favorite of mine. Someone really had an eye for tropical color combinations, and using predominantly orange and blue novelty prints in such bold shades was brilliant. I also adore the black print sashing because it acts as the perfect foil (and I usually dislike dark colors.) It's definitely not a new quilt; the center of the backing shows moderate fading. Someone might have draped it over something that sat in the sun, like a table or a pet cage. I like the quirkiness of the backing fabric, too. Really interesting, and possibly east Asian in origin. The quilt was long-arm quilted with a simple loop pattern, and expertly bound by machine. It resonates with positive energy and love of color, and it's too pretty to cut up as I originally planned. I don't mind; I'm delighted to add it to my collection.

Last week while thrifting in Lady Lake I was able to pick up this brand new roll of knit fabric for $3.18. That's $1.59 per yard, which is quite a bargain. I'm going to use it to clone a tunic I love that is sadly falling to pieces. I removed all the cobbled patchwork from my February tote, and tried one more time to accomplish what I envisioned with blind stitching. That worked a little better, but I still didn't care for how it looked with my less than impressive stitching, so I tore out that attempt, too. It happens, even to a non-perfectionist like me. My third attempt using the classic crazy quilting stitch and flip method worked so much better than the first two I'm sticking with that. I also found some striped floral pieces in the scraps, which are probably pieces from some vintage napkins or a tablecloth. If I can cobble these together and use them for the lining I think I will.

Here's something you might not know about my novel series tricks: I get photographs made of body models (people that I think look like my main characters) and keep them in my series notebook to look at while describing them. These are also good memory jogs when I'm writing as to what that particular character looks like. Before my arthritis got severe I used to sketch and paint them. I don't know any other writer who does this. The Iris throw is coming along nicely, but I'm also doing a mini side project. I do not like boucle yarns, as they're fuzzy and crinkly and the stitch definition when I crochet them is absolute crap. So of course as the most contrary person on the face of the planet I'm currently experimenting with three boucle yarns (two in colors I really dislike) to get over myself and see if I can make them into something useful and attractive. Last night I deconstructed an ivory canvas bag for my Feburary tote, and now I'm lining...

When I'm thrifting online I often see quilts that most folks probably should not bid on. Take this vintage crazy quilt: it looks authentic, and likely dates back to the early 20th century What I see: it appears to be made out wool and homespun fabrics that (like the materials in most authentic crazy quilts) are deteriorating, and it's probably never been laundered. Dirty wool and homespun tends to reek. You can't launder something like this; it will fall to pieces and/or shrink. Finally, while the construction is interesting it's not very well done, and the embroidery isn't special enough to merit saving the quilt. Here's a more modern patchwork quilt that appears folded up in all the photos. This is either to hide damage or staining, or perhaps because it measures 94" X 106" (according to the listing.) Whatever the reason, never thrift a quilt unless you can see all of it front and back. Here's a quilting project that ...

During our visit to Goodwill in Oxford I found a bundle of five skeins of yarn for $4.18. While I didn't need any yarn, I grabbed it right away because I recognized some discontinued yarn that is very hard to find now. For less than five bucks I scored three skeins of sashay yarn (four if you want to count the Sundance as the same), which retails for very big bucks these days as Red Heart has stopped production on it. These yarns are actually wide ribbons of mesh that you can crochet on one side to make a ruffled project. I looked up current prices for all the skeins; the Just Yarn tweed is $1.25, of course, and the Sundance Frill for the Cure pink skein runs about $9.50 per skein. But the Sashay yarns are $12.99, $14.60, and $16.70 to buy from eBay and Amazon. Total retail on the whole bundle would be $55.04. Needless to say it was a super nice thrift. :) I'm planning to experiment with this yarn and see if I can bypass the usual ruffled scarf project it was us...

The second lot of yarn I thrifted online last month arrived; let's see if it's as nice as I thought. Oh, yes. Ten skeins of clean, odorless yarn with labels, all but one are worsted weight. They are in mint condition and as beautiful as anything I could go and buy retail. The lot included three skeins of Starlette worsted in denim. Multiples are always great because of course they make larger projects. This Caron Colorama O'Go is the only bulky weight skein. I've always wanted to try one of these since they came out. I got two Premier Sweet Roll tri-color skeins, a yarn I also haven't tried yet. The colors of most of these yarns go well together, so aside from the O'Go I could make a decent-size throw out of them. Now for the numbers. This is what this yarn would have cost me if I purchased it new at the store: Lion Brand Pound of Love (Thistle) -- $15.00 Starlette (Denim) -- $4.99 each Deborah Norville Everyday Soft (Cold Mountain) ...

I made a scrap variegated yarn basket that stretched from December 31st to January 1st, but for my first official crochet project for the new year I'd like to use some yarn from this lot I thrifted back in November. I have seven brand new skeins of Mandala Ombre in Serene, one of my favorite yarns, that were in the lot. They retail for $8.77; by thrifting I was able to get them for about $1.50 each. I'm going to use them to make a throw for a dear friend, since I used the same yarn to make a pair of slippers for her. I think this free printable pattern from Mary Maxim is perfect, especially as it was designed for this brand of yarn. I've also made two other throws using this pattern and it works up fast and beautiful.

The first yarn lot arrived last week, let's see what sort of mess I'll be sorting out. Not as much of a mess as I thought from the auction site pics. This was someone's stash of scraps with 25 brand-new or barely-used skeins of worsted, fingering weight, ribbon and cotton thread thrown in. These orange bulky weight skeins are from a discontinued line of organic merino cotton blend yarn, and run anywhere from $8 to $25 retail. Four give me enough to make a nice size project. I found very few mentions of Elann sock weight yarn online, but no one had a price, and the manuacturer's web site is unreachable, so my guess is that they're also discontinued. Based on the fiber quality and beautiful texture I'd price these at $20.00 per skein retail. Here's the messy bits. They're mostly scraps that need rewinding, and that's good physical therapy for my fingers. Although six of them are worth a lot more, I'm going to put a resa...

The yarn lot I bid on at the last minute just arrived, and I got an exotic vibe just opening the box. Someone was a collector of fun fibers for sure -- and I love the medieval-looking copper basket. Here are the eighteen skeins came with the basket, and most are unused and still have labels. The majority are wool but some are synthetics and a few are very exotic. The basket itself isn't ancient, of course, but just made to look like it is (the green patina is actually paint.) It's still charming, and I will definitely put it to good use. As I suspected, the yarn is very rare and pricey. I looked up info on what had labels, and nearly everything was discontinued and now being sold for exorbitant prices. These two skeins alone are worth $21.50. This skein of Tahki Chinchilla imported from France is a mohair blend that I've never before seen -- about $10.00 a ball. I added up prices on everything that was tagged or had labels, and added $5.00 pe...

This little cobbled together utility quilt that came in the trio lot is actually really sweet; the original maker may not have known how to piece but still put a lot of work in it. I'm going to use it as a mat for under my home office computer chair, so I laundered it and it held together beautifully. There are a few seams that have popped or torn that needed to be sewn down. What was used for batting migrated and bunched in one corner, so I decided to remove that. The batting was cobbled together, too, and included part of an old flannel blanket. This is what made up the bunch in the corner. I repaired the seams that needed it, and the quilt went to join my other utility quilts in the closet.