A Happy Hillsville day and the Giveaway

Check out my Giveaway here, it ends September 7 at 5pm.  Good news is there are now 100 comments!  You know what that means?  I'm going to add two prizes to the  giveaway!  More to come!

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.



"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'. 



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

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.



projects

Im having a love affair with my new Baby Lock Sofia and its embroidery function.  I need to take the new owners class so I can expand on my meager knowledge.  I blogged here about two mug rugs I made with it.

The last two days I worked on this set.  Two placemats with napkins, a set of 4 coasters, and a dish towel all monogramed.  I made them for my Mom and Dad's 43rd anniversary to use in their rolling vacation home fifth wheel.  I used 5 prints from a line of fabric I found at Joann's.  They fabrics are all aquas, light greens, browns, and whites and  has a bit of an Amish feel.  Notice the clever applique on the towel done in a lacey frame.  Ok so I bent a needle when tryng to embroider Dad's name and put a hole in the towel.  Aren't most beautiful things the products of happy accidents?  Necessity is the mother of invention or innovation.

Keep dreaming...Colleen



A slightly blurry picture of a baby quilt I am working on.

One of two Im making where the center block was made by my late Grandma. 

I am using up some of my 90s stash for these quilts



Quilt Treasures

One of the best things about setting up my craft/quilt studio this summer has been the rediscovery of the treasures I have collected over the last 20 years.  One afternoon I opened THE trunk. 

The trunk is one of those dark blue with brass fittings college trunks.  And yes I did take it to college where I live on 9th floor of Morrison Dorm at UNC.  I don't think college students buy trunks anymore, I haven't seen any in the stores for years. Now the trunk had been opened a few times over the past few years or so, but mostly to stuff ( in a gentle way) things in.  I decided to sort them one afternoon.  I found the first quilt blocks I ever made (ugh! not showing you those).  There were also some great UFO quilt tops waiting to be finished. 

This cat head wall hanging was an exploration of black, white and gray fabrics.  I always wanted to finish this for my sister - maybe I still will. 

The blocks with the fancy Hoffman turquoise metallic print was from a Q-xchg swap (I found a lot of blocks from exchanges-it was a great way to learn!)  We were all given a selection of coordinating fabrics and had to make a 12 inch block.  I would love to set these on point to make a wall hanging. 

This third one was my first real attempt at a watercolor quilt.  I wanted to make it as a baby quilt for someone at work.  I was still in my disorganized/health recovery phase of my life so I never finished it.  I love buying charm square packs on ebay in different sizes and color themes.  This uses 4 inch squares.  I have a coordinating deep red tone on tone fabric for a border and a pretty large blue  flannel for the back.  I love how in watercolor quilts you can actually use the back side of fabric to get a lighter color shade yet still have the effect of the print.

 

Inside this treasure trunk was a treasure of vintage quilt blocks and tops.  I love old fabrics!  It is so much fun to tramp through flea markets and antique stores and uncovering these gems.  I decided to pick my favorites and use them to decorate my new studio.

I loved the candy colors of the 1940's and the traditional pieced patterns.  I also love the other dark colors and patterns of the turn of the century patterns.  Here are some closer views.

I found these wonderful 12 x 12 green metal frames at AC Moore's on sale.  I backed them with muslin.  I wish they had some larger square frames as I have some lovely pieced stars that are quite large and would look lovely hung.  I wonder what other ways I could hang them?  Well sewing calls!

Keep Dreaming...Colleen