Aquisitions.

Yesterday I attended the annual Altrusa craft sale.  It's always a good sale with lots of bargains to be had. I was lucky and found one or two items to keep me busy.

You know I'm not afraid to adopt abandoned projects. And for $3 I wasn't leaving this one behind.

Someone had started to cross stitch a bumblebee.

About a third of it had been stitched.

Everything was in the bag, pattern, thread, even some needles.

I'll share more about him soon.

As the label says, this cute wee basket was $5.

The contents were a bonus. It was the basket I was after.

But old wooden reels and tape measures are welcome.

There were some pins and tatting shuttles in there also.

I emptied everything out and put the basket to use already. LOL

The next bundle was also $5. Another adoption.

Someone had kitted and started this cute little wall hanger.

It's difficult to see in this image, but in between those stars there are cute wee Christmas trees.

Most of the trees seem to be made already and more have been cut out ready to sew.

There is plenty of fabric to make the stars, some of that is also cut ready to go.

And look at the lovely tin that was tucked in there.

I've never heard of the Silver Crane company. They have a very high opinion of their tins. LOL

It is pretty and I'm sure I'll find a use for it. It came with pre cut Christmas trees inside.

I'll tell you more about this one when I decide to finish it.

A bag of mixed embroidery threads came home with me.

These two might get used somewhere along the way.

These are the bundles I was really after. They will be used.

I really don't need another Christmas Wall hanger, but at $2 I couldn't leave this Birdhouse pattern behind.

I could tell there was fabric inside the bag and was delighted to find preprinted fabric, a big piece of red for the borders and backing and even a skein of red thread to stitch the design.

This was the original price.

What a bargain I got at $2.

A dollar for a by Annie bag pattern.

A complete Christmas ornament kit.

Two dollars.

A bag of pretty lace trims. I have a use for the cream pieces, not so sure about the black.

Another two dollars.

And finally a pair of linen serviettes with a pretty rose design.

For twenty cents.

If you were totting up as you were reading you'll know that all of that came to the grand total of $23.20.

What a bargain. I was a very happy shopper.

I could have purchased a lot more, believe me I was very tempted. As I mentioned at the top of the post, it is always a great sale and very well supported. There were a lot of folks there, buying fabric, yarn, linens, haberdashery of all kinds, patterns and craft books.  There was also a jigsaw table, all puzzles were $5 each according to the sign.  I didn't even look, I have plenty of puzzles to keep me going for now. I'm off to stitch a bumblebee.

The Great New Zealand Quilt Show.

 Yesterday myself and some other ladies from our local club hopped into a mini bus and headed to Christchurch for the day. The Great New Zealand Quilt Show is normally held on the North island, making it an expensive overnight trip for any one from the South wishing to attend. So it was great to have it local. We had a good day, the sun was shining and the trip up really didn't feel like two hours.

The show is curated and judged, so not every piece that was entered was on display. Two of our club members were lucky and has pieces selected.  At times it was difficult to get good images as I just couldn't get far enough away to capture the whole thing. That or folks walked in front of me at the wrong moment. I didn't even try to get images of everything, just those that caught my eye and of course the information cards next to them. Because of the way I saved them to my laptop the info card shows first then the quilt. But you can live with that right? The images should all be clicky for a closer look. Enough from me, you want to see quilts.

This polar bear was needle felted and was 3D.

The Ocean series was from a European quilters exhibition. They were stunning, my photos don't show their full beauty.

There were very few EPP quilts this year. Loved this one.

If you read the info card you will know that the blocks here were hand pieced while she was travelling. I couldn't get far enough away to capture the entire quilt, it was huge.

That's all the quilty photos I got. There were more quilts there of course. A total of 125 local pieces were on display and I think around 20 from Europe. 

There were about 20 vendors tucked around the walls of the hangar. (The exhibition was held at the Air Force Museum. So there were planes and helicopters too!)

I visited a few of the vendors but was very restrained.  First I found myself a new clover thimble, the kind I like with an open back to allow for a longer nail and it also helps to stop my finger from sweating when I wear it for a long time. At the same kiosk I found some felt and chenille needles.

Next month at club we are having a door stop/pincushion sew along using wool felt. 

At another kiosk I found some more smaller felt pieces and some milliners needles. Finally at another kiosk I got two pairs of embroidery scissors and two more thimbles. In a very pretty titanium, but still with that open back. I have a tendency to leave thimbles in work boxes, and when you have several work boxes it can mean a lot of hunting for a very small object. LOL

It was a good day out, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Some like myself were very restrained in the spending department, others.... not so much. But what happens on road trips, stays on road trips right?