Retail Therapy and another bag of scraps.

Debbie and I enjoyed our day out on Tuesday. We both had a very short shopping list, she wanted yarn for a baby knit and I needed a new blade for my big roller.  We drove to Geraldine, just 15 minutes away and visited the Pin Tin. Where we both found what we needed and I also found this pretty batik fat quarter sitting alone on the sale table.

There were lots of other fabrics there too, but it was the only batik, so I had to buy it and bring it home and store it with more of it's kind. LOL

After a very lovely lunch, we came back in to Timaru and decided to have a look at our local Op shop.

This spotty piece of fabric has been there for a couple of weeks now, I have managed to leave it behind three times, but on Tuesday it finally jumped off the hanger and came home with me.

I'm not sure how big it is, I didn't measure yet, but I'm reasonably sure it is a wide backing fabric.

I also found some bags of doilies and grabbed a couple.

I sorted through them and kept the ones I think I may use.

The others went back in to one of the bags and will be returned to the store, some one else may have a use for them. Don't hold your breath on this project, the main fabric collection has been sitting for....10 years? They came to me in a bag of curtain samples. LOL

Next I found a pile of Euro cushion covers.  These are not shop bought covers, but beautifully made and finished by a clever person.

Very nice too, I have no use for Euro cushion covers, so I'll turn them back in to yardage and stash them away until I use them for something.

While we were in the store, there were some children playing at the toy shelf and they had left something turned on. The noise was pretty annoying, so once they had left I went over to see if I could find it and turn it off. Easy peasy, it was the little train with all the flashing lights.

Look what was sat right beside the little train.

Some people collect old singers or Elnas. I have a small collection of the toys.

Even the modern ones.

They only wanted five dollars for it. My whole bill was only $22.

Once I got home and had a closer look at her I realised that there is nowhere for thread.

Huh??

A quick look about on the internet and I came upon this video about these machines.

Turns out it works a bit like felting and only really works with felt like fabrics.

That's ok. I didn't really want to sew with it any way. She can sit pretty on the shelf and one day maybe I'll want to try sewing some felt together. 

Yes I checked, she works. There were batteries inside and when I moved the switch to on and pressed the big blue button, a light came on and she whirred away. I removed the batteries before I sat her up there on the shelf. 

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And......

I have been given another bag of scraps!

One of my colleagues who is a dress maker asked if I would like her off cuts, I said yes please, just to be polite. Oh my goodness look at what she gave me. There was easily half of one of those paper supermarket bags, full of lovely scraps. Some pieces are tiny and some are quite large. The majority of them are definitely useful in a scrap quilt.

And hiding amid all of her off cuts, were what I estimate to be about two charm packs worth of squares.

They look like French General to me.

My colleague said she had made a cot quilt for a grand daughter and had used some of the lighter pieces for that. 

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I really do need to make a start on another scrap quilt.