My main thrift stores are doing some changes. The one where I used to get the majority of my recycled men’s shirts quit having bag sales. UGH. They used to have bag sales all the time. Now shirts are $2.50 and pants $4.00. Bags used to cost $2.50!! Oh my. Well that means that I won’t be going there as much. The main thing I ever went there for was shirts. Oh well.
The other one where I get most of the fabric at has raised their prices. It’s always been a bit of a crap shoot. Sometime a bag of things would be $2 and then $4 depending who was pricing things as they were donated. Well now…I got this bag and it was $5. That’s becoming the norm. I know this sounds bad as that’s still not a lot. I’ve been spoiled too long and I wanted the spoiling to continue.
Well I was thrifting the other day and came across this gallon sized bag of what I believed to be quilt blocks. They looked like mostly batiks. My mind immediately flew to the scrap bag I bought this summer at a garage sale. I made two baby quilts with those scraps and had fun doing it. hmm. The bag was $5. That’s more than I usually pay. hmmm.
I flipped the bag over and yep, it looked to be quilt blocks. I started to wonder if someone started making a quilt and then ran out of steam. Well this could be a charity quilt if that was true.
I was in a hurry so took the bag, went to the counter and headed home. I had a busy couple days and more or less forgot about the bag until I was cleaning off the dining room table where the bag had landed. I opened it up to find this….
aw….there are only a few batik blocks. There’s lots of other fun things though. Check out the basket block.
Crumb blocks….
The batik blocks they are all different sized. As I look closer I can see that they are different.
I’m not sure what I’m going to do with these….I’m sure something will come to me but at this point I don’t know what. I have in the past made a few “doll quilts” and sent them on to the Mississippi Valley Quilters. I might do that again. We’ll see.
Getting this bag reminded me of my mom buying clothes for me as a kid. Montgomery Wards used to have an overstock catalog. It was in black and white. It would list the sizes available but no color was listed. So if an outfit originally came in three different colors, we didn’t get to pick the color. We could only order the size. I got a lot of clothes this way. My mom used to call it “no-can-pick-em” clothes. I remember ordering via the mail and then being so excited to go to the catalog store and get the package. There was such an anticipation. I couldn’t wait to go. I remember inquiring all the time if we’d be going to town anytime soon. I wanted the package. The anticipation of opening it without knowing what was inside was so fun.
I loved ordering clothes from the catalog back then when my body didn’t have curves and things just fit. Alas….now I have curves where curves aren’t suppose to be and 2 day prime shipping from Amazon and at times, I forget what I ordered…That was so true when I did my Christmas shopping this year. In a way, the fast speedy shipping has taken away some of the anticipation and in turn some of the fun…but I sure do like ordering printer ink and getting it quickly. There’s good and bad to everything I guess.
So will I take a risk on another scrap bag at the thrift store…YOU BET!! I was also the kid who begged and begged for my mom to buy me the surprise bags at stores too. I love a surprise!! I think that’s why I love getting the package in the mail that get sent to me…I know. There’s still a bit of a kid in me.
You are experiencing what happened around here about four years ago when thrift stores doubled and then tripled their prices on mens shirts. I have been grumpy ever since and basically quit going over a year ago. $7 shirts are a good deal around here, instead of the $2 bags of mens shirts we used to find. Life….
You should make a kitchen sink quilt. I’m sure you have other orphan blocks laying around.
Those are still good prices around here. Our thrift shops all support charities, so I try to buy only what I truly want, but feel good about where my money goes. Different markets in different areas.
I’ve been mildly jealous of people thrift store shirt finds. $2-5 apiece is the normal price around here and has been since I started looking for shirts. And very few cotton ones to boot. (sad face)
I keep looking, though, and picking one or two up on ‘senior day’ when I can get a discount. It’s easier to process them when I only get a few at a time, so there’s an upside LOL.
They would make a great Jen Kingwell style “everything” quilt–what a fun find!
Those are some lovely blocks and I look forward to seeing what you make.
Here’s what I thought of when I saw the batik blocks: use the basket block as a center (applique some flowers coming out of it) and use the other blocks in a medallion style setting around the basket. Just a thought . . . can’t wait to see what you come up with. You girls are so creative.
Sorry your fave shops are hiking up prices. That’s a bummer. You should check out the Goodwill store in Oelwein when they have their “Everything’s a Dollar” days. They usually have one in August and maybe other times as well. That’s where I got tons of shirts, even shopping late in the day. Happy Shopping!!!