Happy Thanksgiving

If you have followed my blog for awhile, you know my two loves are thrifting and quilting. 

Not sure of the author of this, but it is worth a repost.  

There are 5 stages of the thrift store sickness

DENIAL that you'd ever buy something so stupid.

ANGER that you didn't buy it.

BARGAINING about going back to the store to buy it like you should have when you saw it.

DEPRESSION that somebody bought it by the time you got home.

ACCEPTANCE that you're just going to buy it next time and you're not going to be able to explain buying any of this stuff to 'normal' people. Your kids will give all your treasured finds away when you're dead anyway.

Then, we'll buy it.

I am having the best time with a FB group that centers on thrift. A recent question posted was "Who else finds the craziest outfit possible and wears it around as they shop?" 

My response: Now you are just encouraging bad behavior and I'm in!

Another responded: My husband had an awful outfit he would wear to Christmas shop and go to Christmas parties in. It was so bad I hid the outfit from him. He thought he misplaced it. I caved and gave it back to him when I saw how upset he was. It was a red, green and yellow polyester plaid pants and a red turtleneck with a Christmas vest and buttons. Oh, I forgot the Christmas socks and that the pants were too short on him. He said "better to see his socks."

And another: you can find them on the People of Walmart pages...

Winner of Internet for the Day: My daughter and I used to play a game of finding the most outrageous item. Usually it was a woman’s dress. We’d show the other (but not wear) and decide who won. Almost always someone would pick it up to buy once we stepped away. We also had conversations in the book area using book titles.

I found the colorway for my daughter's quilt and ordered a half yard each of the Spice it Up collection. I am going to add in some cream colored fabric to the County Classics - Patches block from BHG 101 Full-sized Quilt Blocks and Borders. 

Before I start her quilt, I need to finish mine. I will be quilting the monster of a bed quilt that I created for the Art with Fabric blog hop. 


To see a truly beautiful tablescape, visit this blog frommycarolinahome.com, also a fellow quilter, her post is worth a read and see. 

On to Countdown to Christmas, all of my posts are queued up and I am populating them now with all kinds of fun kitschy stuff. Look for that event beginning on December 1st. 

Blue green block and thrift shop switcheroos

Using a packet of satin purchased thrift and choosing the block Patchwork Crazy from a Better Homes and Gardens publication Grandma's Best Full-Size Quilt Blocks (pieces of the past for today's quilter). November's prompt for the 2018 Monthly Color Challenge is blue/green. Having been drawn to these shiny fabrics, this is now my newest, favoriteist project.  

Blue/Green block and
Mural at Porch Restaurant
Sacramento, California

Update to this post - with a 3 day weekend but the environment full of smoke from the California fires, it was stay in and quilt. 

Party in the front

Business in the back

This piece is destined for my cubicle wall at work. The backing is a piece I have kept for awhile, waiting for the perfect project. I also had the binding precut from the last quilt I did matchstick style. 

Got to mention a mistake I made, when ironing it I had the setting too high and burned one of the satin pieces. With much cursing and seam ripping, I replaced it. It was one of those moments when you ask yourself, "should I continue with this project or go on to something else?" Glad I persevered.

Updating to link up with gloriously-scrappy 
myquiltinfatuation for Needle and Thread Thursday 
patternsbyjen.blogspot.com for the 2018 Monthly Color Challenge
crazymomquilts for Finish it Up Friday and what I understand to be her final blog hop linkup. 

In my last post, I mentioned that I was finally sending my vintage fan quilt to a longarmer - not.  I found a longarmer in my area and sent her this image of the flimsy and she rejected the work. Her concern was that the quilt top would come apart when she loaded it onto her machine and that there would be puckers, etc. Rather than disagree with her, I thanked her for her time. Looks like I will be the one to quilt it. 

One of my favorite groups on Facebook is Weird Second Hand Finds That Need to be Shared.

A question was asked along the lines of, "Have you ever seen something in someone else's cart and had thrift shop envy? What did you do?"

One person replied, "Have I ever put something in someone's cart? Raises hand. A red garter at the Goodwill outlet. Shhhhh."

To that comment, another replied, "My husband and I have been playing 'shopping for others' for 20 years. lmao"

"I have a good friend who I love to go shopping with. Not sure the feeling is mutual especially after the time she turned her back and I dumped several boxes of Trojans in her cart. I should add that we are both in our 70s."

Numerous responders to the question say they will follow other shoppers around, hoping they will put back something they had placed in their cart.  

There are also those who "unshop," take an inventory of what they have placed in the cart and cull out what they really don't want. 

Sometimes shoppers will mention to the person in line that they fancy an item and the person will give it to them to be able to purchase it. 

One thrift shopper summed it up, "So, the common thread here I'm seeing is that we are all to different degrees stalkers, creepers, lurkers, distracters. We practice mind control and summon for help from the thrift gods, we hover and use the guilt tactic for the thrill of the thrift store treasure."

Segueing to the weather in Northern California. It will be another  weekend of indoors activities. There is smoke from fires in Butte (in the north state) and Ventura (in the south) counties. We are hoping and praying for rain. 

Caught me painting with fabric again

Composition in fabric

I was so glad Alida tweloquilting.blogspot.com decided to host the Art with Fabric blog hop again. She describes it as:
Every quilted project is a unique piece of art, full of love, creativity and inspiration.

Have you ever thought about how "traditional" art could be reinterpreted in a quilted piece?
(by "traditional" I mean anything that a non-quilter will label as art, like paintings, drawings, sculptures, architecture from all countries and all time periods).

To explore the endless possibilities of art-inspired quilted pieces I decided to organize another edition of this Blog Hop!

This edition has a special theme...

My favorite color is...
This theme will feature each artist's favorite color, or just the color they are favoring at the moment!

My technique is to choose a 1950s abstract artist to loosely base my piecework. This piece focused on the 1954 Composition oil on canvas by Greta Freist. 

First, I intended it to be a wall hanging but it became unwieldy, so I converted it to a bed-sized quilt. Update to post as of the middle of November, I have the quilt pinned in the sandwich and the initial quilting lines marked. I hope to finish this quilt by year's end. 


I have ordered the Kona black for the binding. That is my color of choice for this piece. I will update the post when it is finished. 

Please visit the others highlighting their work on this day:

Monday, November 5th, 2018

• Heather: http://www.heatherquilts.blogspot.com/
• Moira: https://quiltedsnail.blogspot.com/
• Marian: http://www.seamstobesew.com 

Here are collages of images of the last two Art with Fabric blog hops I have participated in. The May hop prompted a submission to the California State Fair which earned an honorable mention. Mine is the first image, second row, far left. 
https://thriftshopcommando.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-encounter-abstract-in-fabric.html

October hops creation was the George quilt given to a friend. My image is top row, second to the right of the text.

https://thriftshopcommando.blogspot.com/2017/10/art-with-fabric-blog-hop-and-george.html

The remainder of this post focuses on my thrift ship finds. Since I am getting better at identifying whether to buy a second hand sewing machine, this Signature Ward's brand joined my family. It is a pale mint green. The top lever was frozen in place so I gave it some oil and grease. 

$18 thrift shop find

That same jaunt through thrift meant fabric,

Sally stand-in models the knitting dove sweater (which had just been rolled onto the thrift shop floor) and a Harry Potter t-shirt.

Don't forget to join me next month for my Countdown to Christmas. 

Magnificent Magnolias

Craft kit love

A fun morning thrifting produced some new to me clothes, a magnolias needlepoint kit (retail $34, thrift $5), and Tattoo Johnny designs. When I got the t-shirt, I thought, "that will be cute with the coral red jeans," but when I saw the graphic of guns and the phrase "cowgirl hardware," it went back to the Great Thrift Shop Beyond. The topic of guns is a touchy subject in America.  

My latest jewelry obsession on my "must have" list is a coral squash blossom necklace. 

I've got my post queued up for the Art with Fabric blog hop beginning November 5th. I've started setting up the shells to my Countdown to Christmas posts. Christmas merch is starting to appear in greater amounts at thrift. 

In the meantime, you can visit one of the blogs I highlight on my sidebar, textileranger.com that lists a group of improv quilters and their latest creations.