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Come Along: We’re Thrift Store Shopping


Last week Kalissa and I went to the thrift store…I found lots of goodies. Some I just browsed…others I bought. I need some help from you all to identify something so please read through to the end.

First up I have a couple of things I just snapped pictures of…

The pattern on the left I made several of…I sold them at craft shows. On the right is a pattern from Country Stitches. For those of you who are cross-stitchers, that was Brenda Gervais’s company. She previously designed doll patterns. I made many of them.

Country Threads was making dolls too. This happened to be their sheep pattern. It made me smile to see this.

Another thing I left at the store and just snapped a picture of is this quilt…It would be a great scrap-buster quilt. I might have to make one.

I look for all things sewing so of course I had to look at this old Singer.

I did actually buy a few things. It wasn’t all looking. I got this picnic basket for $4.

I bought it to clean up this area in my house. This is by my loveseat in the living room where I cross stitch. I have a basket there but there is no lid and it’s messy looking. This will be much better.

I bought some miscellaneous stuff…all sewing or stitching related. Most items were 50 cents each.

I bought two screwdrivers. I can never find one. I’m keeping one in the junk drawer and one upstairs. I have a couple in the garage but they are never where I put them.

I found this little sewing box. When I initially saw the piece it was together like in the picture of the left. The white part lifted off of it. I couldn’t imagine that it was designed like that. Hmm. It was cute and I thought I might buy it. I like the drawer that opened. Plus I like to collect old sewing items.

It’s actually plastic. In the pictures, it looks like wood. It’s very 70s-ish

It was only 50 cents.

I bought a bunch of small linens. I have a cross stitch retreat coming up and I’ve been thinking of making pincushions from these linens. I got these at a decent price. I figured I could cut them and have enough to make a bunch of pincushions. Hmm. If I don’t do it, I’ll pass them to Kayla for her Etsy shop.

I bought all of these between two thrift stores and Goodwill. At Goodwill, I got this bag of old handkerchiefs for $5. My daughter Kayla has an Etsy Shop and she sells vintage things. I couldn’t believe my luck to find these for her.

I was curious and I just LOVE looking at old handkerchiefs. I started ironing them. It was so nostalgic for me. As a little girl, my first job was ironing the handkerchiefs. I loved looking at them then and loved looking at them now.

I was 108 handkerchiefs in when reality hit me and I wondered WHAT ARE YOU DOING? YOU HAVE WORK TO DO!!!

Seriously. I just love the colors and uniqueness of handkerchiefs. PRETTY, PRETTY.

Here is another $5 goodie bag from Goodwill. I had it in my hand once…then I put it down and then I picked it back up again. I did it with the hope that you can help me think of what to make with all of these 4 1/2″ circles. What do you think the lady was going to make? Half of the bag was filled with green circles. I am thinking they were all cut from recycled shirts. Does anyone know what to make with them? They are a little too big for yoyos.

There are SO MANY of them…I’d really like to know what the plan was. I figured if nothing else, I’d cut them down into squares. Just the fabric was worth that…but if I could think of something to do with the actual circles, that would be amazing. Shoot me some ideas, please.

The last thing I bought at Goodwill is going to be a teaser picture. This item needs its very own blog post. So here’s the teaser picture.

You’ll have to come back tomorrow for the rest of the story….it’s an interesting one for sure!!

22 thoughts on “Come Along: We’re Thrift Store Shopping”

  1. When I saw the circles, I thought of a mini faux cathedral window quilt. Looking at your finds while thrift shopping, makes me wish there were thrift shops around here that had half your finds. Thanks for sharing.

  2. Hi, I made a circle quilt like that the circles are sewn together in sets of two. Then turned inside out and lightly stuffed with batting. When you have enough completed you lay them them so the curve overlaps leaving and sew them where the curve arcs are. Sew a straight line then do the next set. Then over lapping the two sets sew them down and build out from there. The biggest advantage is when they’re all together they’re done no binding no extra quilting. I wish I knew how to show you by pictures but my phone and I still aren’t well acquainted. I can make a set and take pictures to send to you if you want.

    1. I have a quilt like that. Some of it was done already. It was off the free table at the guild. It turned out very cute.

  3. You can make very fast hexagons by folding the circles a certain way. In fact, a wrote a couple of books about it – Quick and Easy Hexies and MORE Quick and Easy Hexies. I’ll try to email you some instructions tomorrow….

  4. The first thing I thought of to use the circles was Country Threads pattern- Bullseye. You would have to cut some smaller circles also so maybe it wouldn’t be the best idea. That quilt is on my bicket list to make. I can’t wait to see what you come up with!

  5. I use to own quilt shop, there was a pattern booklet in the 90’s that did a drunkard’s path quilt with the circles with the turned under seam allowance. You sewed the circle on top of a larger square piece, then cut into 4 pieces. You then had four drunkard’s path blocks. Quick and easy way.

  6. I am so jealous of the handkerchiefs. I was just telling one of my friends that I had been on eBay looking for old handkerchiefs. What a buy you got.

  7. 108 hankies! WOW! The ones you showed were gorgeous. Love them all. No wonder you got distracted! Great find! Your thrifting posts are so fun to read.

  8. When I saw the circles, my first thought before reading was breast pads. I used circles from scrap fabric sandwiched with a flannel inner layer to make stacks of breast pads for new mothers. Just serged around the edges.

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