I visited the Columbine Quilt Guild potluck & stash sale this week, thanks to a sweet invite from a friend. Wowzers! It was old school sewing circle to the max. Dozens of adorable ladies, most at least twice my age, with so much knowledge (and stash!) to share.
When I first walked in, bearing gifts of freshly baked berry cobbler and a pocket full of cash, the gap felt pretty huge…after all, I’m oogling over the new Joel Dewberry on my iPhone while they’re stocking up on Civil War reproductions & teddy bear fat quarters….I’m working on a stripey modern little number in Sugar Pop, and they’re showing off their latest king-size Irish chain. We’re wooooorlds apart, and yet they felt like sisters, or at least mothers, with the same common loves- fabric, and making beautiful things with it.
It’s so easy to get caught up in our modern world of blog/Flickr/Twitter/FB mania, and forget about the generations of quilters before us, who sat around in circles, chatting, sharing, contributing, and blazing the way for us, and our funky little creative spirits. And even though I will never, ever make a pineapple quilt in pastels, and they will never join an online bee or use a layer cake, I appreciate them…and I hope they appreciate me as well. It takes all kinds. Yes, it surely does!
Anyway, not to get all preachy & deep on you there, but hey, it moved me! And you know what else moved me? All this rad stuff I bought for mere coinage!
These were for sure the catch of the evening- a set of 38 authentic vintage 1930s stars, and get this, HAND PIECED. It’s literally blowing my mind that they were tucked in a paper bag for 50 years…somehow found their way to an antique shop where they were purchased in 1992 for $15 (I have the receipt). 20 more years of nothing, and now I purchase them at a guild mtg for….$5!!!! Seriously, I’m beside myself. I’ll applique them to some classic cream cotton to make an uber fresh quilt for my living room. Riiiiidiculously awesome!
Next up? A full set of vintage iron-on fabric transfers in the most darling designs humanly fathomable. Lambs, kitties, bunnies…so cute I can’t stand it. Oh yeah, they were FREE. Some lady couldn’t get rid of her unwanted stuff fast enough. I couldn’t get them into my bag fast enough.
The Encyclopedia of Stitches, also for zero dollars? YES, PLEASE! I want to rock some embroidery this summer…maybe combo it with some of those darling fabric transfers. Tea towels? Wall art? Hmmmmm.
Holy vintage patterns! You think these are cool? I got an entire box of them. Seriously, my husband practically kicked me out of the house when I carried them in. Making that little yellow tank immediately!
Moral of this story? GO to your local traditional old-school quilt guild sale…make a cobbler, put your iPhone away, and bring a box!
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