Craft class

Saturday I took a class at the MSU recycling center of how to recycle wine bottles.  The class taught us how to cut the bottom's off of bottles, add mosaic tile and use them as shades on votives.  Though expensive the class included a bottle cutter, mosaic nippers,  safety glasses, nippers, the copper hanging aparatus and 2 wine bottles. 

I took stained glass classes through MSU Evening college 30 years ago, but was living in an apartment to couldn't really do it much.  There were about 14 of us in class.  This is a picture of the class sample.

I'll put up a picture of mine when I finish the mosaic.

The new recycling center on campus is really a neat place.  Near the bathrooms was a sign showing how they use collected rain water for the toilets to conserve water, and there was this display in the lobby area.

Estate Sale Find

I gave my nephew and his wife a queen size quilt for Christmas.  In the photo they sent me of it on their bed I noticed that they didn't really have any bed size tables.  So I started taking notice at the estate sales I went to.  I found an excellent candidate.  A really good piece of old furniture that just needed a face lift.  I forgot to take a before picture.  Here she is...

Problem is they live in the Chicago area, and when they were home for Easter the vehicle they came in was too small to take it home.  Guess I will have to plan a trip to Illinois.

Spring Slowly arrives

Just a little post today...

Advice from a Garden

Cultivate lasting friendships
Sow seeds of kindness
Listen to sage advice
Don't let the little things bug you
Be outstanding in your field
Take thyme for yourself
No vining!

Estate Sale Finds

Part of my weekly habit is checking Estatesales.net for local estate sales.  I'm kind of addicted to looking at the homes and seeing what treasures people had.  Some sales are very organized and some are just a wreck.  I have my favorite vendors whose sales I never miss like Richard Bloomquist, and others that I have totally sworn off.

If the sales are really close, I will often go on my lunch hour on a Friday.  Just to scope things out and see if it's worth getting up early on Saturday to come back for half-price day.

Last week on Friday I ran to 2 sales.  One had a quilt pictured in their ad so that always interests me.  And it was obvious from other pictures that she was a quilter.  So I went.  There were a couple of well worn pink and white quilts there.   I wasn't sure I could resell them at the price they were marked so I decided that I might come back on Saturday. 

Luckly they were still there.  So I decided what to heck.  Get them.  I was disappointed that the bigger multi color broken star which that had been pictured in the ad was gone.  But as I was looking down at a table of glassware something caught my eye. Looking up, there were 2 great quilts hung over the drapery rod in the living room.  I had completely missed them and so had other quilters who were there.  While looking, one of the guys running the sale asked if I was interested.  I said not at even half the price he had marked on them.  So he gave me his bottom price and after some thinking I decided why not.  A quick run to the credit union and I walked away with 4 quilts.

The pink and white will be for sale in my booth at the Capitol City Quilt Guild Quilt Show, May 4 & 5.  As well as the broken star quilt.  My brother and I will be sharing a booth selling sewing and quilting related items, some antique, some just collectable.  [NOTE: as I edit this I realize that maybe the print quilt was a practice before making the multi color quilt because the are the same pattern only one is solid pink fabrics and the other is multi.]

The wagon wheel quilt I think will be a good research project for me.  It has hundreds of names embroidered on it in the same hand and fine embroidery.  Since I am a genealogist it will be interesting to research.

Busy Times

Things have really been hopping lately. Late last month I took mom to the CCQG quilt retreat here in Lansing as a Christmas gift.  She had been to one of our small group retreat at Hankerd Inn, but that is usually 12 or less people.  The CCQG retreat was 69 ladies at the Quality Suites Hotel.  The set up was great and the hotel staff were very accommodating. We were set up in the atrium and the three floors that opened onto the atrium gave us a great place to put quilts as there were finished.  All the hotel guests appreciated and enjoyed the impromptu quilt show as well. We decided that we would spend the weekend working on one project, the wedding quilt for my youngest niece.  And we got it done and not a moment too soon as she just got engaged on a trip to Paris.  Great job Jason!

Have been picking up more items for my booth at the CCQG quilt show in May.  I am going to have mostly antique sewing related items.  I will have a couple antique quilts and a few modern quilts for sale.  Will also have items I have been picking up at estate sales, like a large batch of old iron embroidery transfers.  These really remind me of the transfers my mom used to teach me embroidery when I was a girl scout.

I will also be thinning out my collection of sewing related items, mostly pincushions.  Will also have a couple of sewing machines for sale.

Spend some time a a friend's home last night going through bins of sewing related items that she has collected and then decided to thin her collections.  I think I picked up some good things.

Now I am working on coming up with a way to hang a bunch of quilts.  Think I have come up with an idea using pvc pipe.  Will have to experiment one of these weekends.

Have a good weekend.  Spring is just around the corner!

This and that

Here at the school I and the other faculty secretary often get thank yous.  We each had received orchids a couple of years ago.  And we had kept them alive but they had never rebloomed.  So I started to give them a little more attention and bought some orchid food.  And I got them to rebloom. Yeah!!

I waswatching Bonnie Hunter's last quilt cam someone asked about the little "doily" that she had under the spool of thread on her machine.  She showed some that she has received to use instead of the red felt disc under your thread on your spool pin.  A light bulb suddenly sent off.  At an estate sale last summer I bought a whole bag full of old tatting. I figures I could use it for crafts, but I didn't want to see it just thrown away, so I snatched it up.  Last night I look through it again and realized there there were a lot of little tatted pieces what would work perfectly at spool pin doilies.  Great, another item for my booth at the Capitol City Quilt Guild Quilt show, May 4 and 5.

Worst task this weekend is going to be taking apart the plumbing on my tub to clean out the drain. Tub still has water in it from yesterday so no choice but to take it apart to get at the clog.  Oh, the joys of home ownership.



Have a great weekend.  One month closer to spring!!

Estate Sale Finds

For me estate sales are almost addictive.  Seeing the treasures that people have.  What I find interesting compared to other people.  I have been taking some of the girls from work who haven't every really been to estate sales before.  I find myself explaining a lot: why I chose particular items, either for myself or to resell or what certain items are.  I am splitting my finds between my fleamarket stash and one I have started of items I will have in my booth at the CCQG quilt show in May.  Here are a few of the items:

This little guy may stay with me.  Love that blue & white

 

 

Got this cute 1 cup tea pot yesterday.

 

I think this is a match holder.

At Christmas Wendy got a small christmas tree made on a styrofoam cone.  She thought it would look better on a pedastal so I made this one from a candle holder and small plate for her.

In following quilter Bonnie Hunter and my friend, Carol, I have become hooked on recycling men's 100% cotton shirts.  I have found at Goodwill they are $3.69 each, where as at Volunteers of American they are $1.99 and up. And it only recently occurred to me to look at estate sales for them.  I usually don't look at clothing. I have been "de-boning" them as Bonnie shows on her webpage.  These are a few of the candidates I picked up this week.

I plan of making up bags of fronts and sleeves of maybe 5 shirts for my booth at the quilt show.  Will also be selling the buttons that come off the shirts.  I am keeping the backs for quilt backs and have been using the cuffs and collar pieces to make strippy blocks to use in a quilt.  I recently also found a wonderful old travel iron that is small and heavy which will also be at the quilt show in addition to a couple of sewing machines that I have picked up.  Still need to prep them to be sure that they are ready to go.

As I sit here listening to the sleet beat on the windows I wonder what travel to work tomorrow will be like.  Have a good evening