Today I went to the quaint little Virginia town of Hillsville. Set near the Blue Ridge mountains of Va this little town has rolling green hills and farms close to the towns center. It is also the home of the largest Flea Market ever!!!!
Every Labor Day weekend from Friday to Monday the entire town becomes a flea market selling anything and everything you could think of from those frilly stretchy shirts to bamboo plants to antique furniture and glassware to guns and knives to an R2D2 drink holder.
This is just half of the VFW's fairgounds lower area taken from the upper area. Yes there is an upper level too. Fields, front yards, back yards, parking lots, and shopping centers are filled with booths including yummy fair type food booths!
Its amazing how when you chat up people and ask them how their doing they will give you a deal. So, here is my haul!
These are two vintage table cloths to use in my kitchen. And a couple of old Pyrex dishes and another little dish. I'm going to use them for pin cushions I am making for my booth at Flaunt!
This darling embroidered towel is new! I took a chance on a quilt from a couple of church ladies who also were selling new quilts and these towels. I may have bought a few Christmas presents from them too!
This darling Sun Bonnet Sue was wrapped around a piece of cardboard. I bought her out of a frame I didn't want frame for only a $1! She goes into my collection. I have a great collection of vintage quilt blocks some of which I have framed.
This one great vendor up on the VFW hill(BTW vendors have the same stalls every year so you can find them) had lots of sewing notions including old wooden mill bobbins. I found these great snaps and buttons to cover all for $1 or less. And the old jar of buttons he gave me for $4!
I have wanted one of these Chinese umbrellas and kept seeing them all over the FM. I found this one for $5 and it will be gracing a room soon.
This old quilt I bought for $15, talked it down from 1/2 price of $25. I bought it for the large pieces of fabric making up the pinwheels and as it's tied it will be easy to take it apart to salvage. It was awful heavy and I realized when I looked through the one hole...
That there was another quilt inside! I think I see Alamance plaids?! I cant wait to treasure hunt! I may do it tomorrow!
These vintage beauties were only a few dollars. There were about 15-20 altogether and I picked out the ones with the fabric I love. Don'tcha love the red and white daises? I may sew them together and frame them. I did that with some other vintage blocks when I redid my bathroom and I love the look. I know I have an old frame around here some where.
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| "Yummy fly!" said the frog. |
I try to save my $$ through the year to do things like Hillsville each year. I especially wanted to get another of Brian Mace's garden sculptures for the back yard. I bought a praying mantis last year that is in the front. He gave me a huge discount because I was a repeat customer. I sure had frogs on the brain this year.
I stopped at the giant fabric outlet at the Fancy Gap exit on 77 just down from Hillsville. I wanted to get some of their $0.15 zippers. And go to a clean bathroom. That's 9 zippers including 4 hidden ones for $1.47! They also have TONS of fabric. Check out their website.
Well I am sunburned despite the hat and spf30. My entire body aches from walking for 5+ hours. Luckily I had a rolling bag or I would have never made it back to the car. Did I mention walking back is all up hill-Hillsville remember. So somehow my car turned onto the Blue Ridge Parkway instead of going back down I77. I ended up at the Blue Ridge Music Center on the VA/NC border where the sign said 'Music Today'.
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| iphone self portrait |
This is me sitting on a rocking chair looking at the mountain views, feeling the breeze and listening to some mountain music. Listen a spell.
keep dreaming...Colleen
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| This is the green bucket which overflowed with pieces for my bow tie leaders and enders. The middle stack is the 90+ finished blocks( I kept losing count). On my feaherweight are the block pieces in sets I still need to piece. |
6 comments:
What a find, can't wait to see what you find inside. I never thought of that, a lot of people made quilts in the 50's, using old quilts inside, will have to look harder next time;)
Debbie
Looks like a fun day and great finds. Try pinning your blocks into groups of 10 - easier to count the groups when you get lots of them.
I am jealous! What a great day you had and what terrific finds!!! I rarely find 'quilty' stuff!! I have a quilt that my mom recovered, that was made by my grandmother. It is very heavy and my mom covered it with two brown floral sheets. You have given me an idea... do I dare see what's underneath??? hmmmmm!
Wow what great quilts you found! That is crazy what was inside the one! Enjoy your day!
I just wrote myself a note to check out the flea market next year and bookmarked the place. Thanks for the info.!
Wow you had a great day. You probably think that an aching body and sore feet are a small price to pay for all the treasures you found. I love the photo that looks like a "tent city" - that would be so much fun to explore. Thanks for the virtual visit to Hillsville market.
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