Thrift SCORE!

This weekend I did something I haven't done for quite some time.  I shopped ALL DAY.

My sister visited for the weekend and we (along with my long suffering wife) made a day of shopping including hitting up the thrifts.  I haven't been on a good thrift run in so long. 

Want to see what I scored?

100% wool sweater slated for felting.  I found a few cashmere and other natural fiber ones but they were a bit pricey considering I didn't have a project planned for them.  I was glad I passed on them so I could get this one (for only $3.99) instead.  No, I don't have a project planned for it but it was inexpensive enough that I don't mind having it as a stash item.  AND as a bonus, the buttons are really nice (and it has a spare one sewn in at the bottom--this must have been a higher end sweater when it was new).

Sizzix punches (only 95 cents for three!) and two packs of floss bobbins (again, only 95 cents for the pair).

I've been curious about the Sizzix things (read about them somewhere) but then learned they don't make them anymore (except on ebay where I'm sure you'd end up paying way too much) so I let the curiosity fade.  Until I spied these at the Red White and Blue (fabulous thrift, by the way).  No, I don't have the sizzix mallet and mat but I do have a heavy rubber mallet and a cutting mat (or a stack of cardboard/paper) so I'm thinking I can find a way to get my dollar's worth back from these.  Even if it's just something I play with once and don't enjoy, I'm not out much.  And the floss bobbins?  Yeah, I have some plastic ones but I don't like them because it's too hard to label them.  These cardboard ones I can write on and it won't smear off, so I'm very happy.

Now, to the fabric.

All that in one bag for $7.95.  I was very happy with how many really cool pieces there were.  Not too many duds at all.





Check out the tag I found on three of the pieces.  It's from G.C. Murphy Co.  The tag was folded over card stock PINNED (in a kind of staple way) to the fabric.  So it looks like I scored some truly vintage fabric.

I'm not really a big Christmas pattern fan, but these ones I do enjoy.  I think they are all the roughly the same age (with the exception of the light colored one that has the cartoony santas and reindeer on it) since they look like they are from the same fabric stock and design collection (they match that well).

I even used a bit of one of these in my first foray into patchwork.  I'm working on a small drawstring bag and so I snipped up a bit of the pink with blue flower (first picture, the fabric right above the pepsi print).  It works well with the random patches I already had cut up.  But I'll have more on that when I finish the bag and post it.  Suffice to say, so far so good in my first attempt at patchwork (we'll see if that holds true when I fire up the iron--I got a new one this weekend, one that doesn't leak water!--only $9.99--I figured why spend more when I don't have to).

Speaking of good deals, I was initiated into the Joanne fabrics coupon club this weekend.  I used five of the coupons they have on the back page of their flier.  I've never used that many Joanne's coupons before.  I got a quilting ruler for half price (so I bought the largest one, of course and it ended up being only $8), a 5 lb box of poly-fil for half price (only $12), and a pattern for the skirt I want to make (it was on sale for only 99 cents--and the notions I bought for it were all half price with the coupons).  I even got a roll of craft paper (to draft up the pattern for the giant squid) for half price.

All in all it was a good weekend.  Now. . .I have one more post to make. . .something about a giveaway?