Thrifty craftiness

Image from The Graphics Fairy

Like many of us, I enjoy visiting thrift stores.  When in Nevada, I always like to visit some of the local ones because they have great prices and the things I find are often quite different from my finds here in New England.  On this visit to Elko, my daughter and I took a few hours together to visit several of their local thrift stores.

Most of the buys she found involved children's clothes, books, games, and other kids' items.  Interestingly, most of mine involved crafting in some way or other.  I had taught Emily a couple of simple crochet stitches while we were out there, so when I found a bundle of crochet hooks in one store, it seemed meant to be.  In another store, I found a barely started plastic canvas kit with a horse design, so picked that up for one of the boys.

But I also found some fun things for myself.  This pretty pillowcase, adorned with hand-crocheted lace trim, was either 25¢ or 50¢, I forget which.

Pillowcase is folded in the photo.  It doesn't do justice to the beautiful lace.

 I noticed later that it must have had a hole or a small tear in the seam, because it has been carefully and beautifully darned in one tiny spot.  It was a toss-up whether I would decorate with this pillowcase or simply use it, but after washing and ironing it I noticed it was made from the tubular pillow case material that used to be so prevalent with home sewers.  This typically produced skinnier pillowcases that don't work so well with today's pillows.  It's so beautiful, though, that I will display it in some way.

In the same store, I found these pretty embroidered handkerchiefs.

I apologize for the wrinkles ... think these must be linen.  They were very hard to iron.

I think they aren't really all that old, but the embroidery reminds me of those gorgeously embroidered baby clothes that used to be imported from the Philippines and were almost too pretty to use.  I will use the handkerchiefs in some project eventually.  I paid only $1 for the two of them; I found them in the same bin as the crochet hooks.

And I saved the really fun buy for last -- a bag of sunbonnet girl quilt squares, hand-appliqued and embroidered.

I took the top square out of the bag to get a better picture.  The pattern was even included!

Just a few of the vintage fabrics contained within the bag.

When I picked up the bag (it was $3), my original interest was in the vintage fabrics it contained.  But I will definitely sew the completed squares together and use them for something, possibly a table runner.  I couldn't spread out all the squares (there are at least 20) to take a photo, because as I was looking them over after buying them, my daughter noticed a good bit of pet hair sandwiched in between some of the unfinished ones.   I don't want to get that all over my house.  I'm going to keep the squares contained in the bag and sew them together quite quickly, then wash them before proceeding.  I will throw the unfinished ones (complete with pet hair) away, and wash the print fabrics before storing them.  I'm hesitant to wash the squares before sewing, because they look as if they are made from flour sacks and seem rather fragile.  It will be a fun project to work on, though.

On another day, we also visited Jo-Ann Fabrics so Emily could help me spend part of a gift card I'd won in a giveaway.  She had fun buying beads, yarn, and a wonderful crochet book for kids.  And while we were in Ely, we happened upon a needlework shop that was going out of business and everything was 50% off.  There, I bought mostly yarn.  So there was lots of thrifty craftiness going on this vacation, for sure!