Garage/Tag Sales
 

Have you ever been to a quilting guild's or group's "garage" or tag sale? How did you do? Did you come home with armloads of patterns, fabric and other fun things? Or, just see lots that you had not much interest in?

The past couple local quilt shows I have gone to had vendors set up to sell old patterns, templates, fabric, magazines, etc. It was fun to look but nothing I needed or wanted.

I belong to an only 3 year old MQG. Last fall we had an in meeting 'sale', we filled the hall with tables and each person with something to sell had it with an envelope with their name and the price. One envelope per item. A few items were free.

Each buyer put cash in the envelope, turned it into a central cash desk and took the product. It was an honour system.

There was a huge variety of things ranging from fabric, to books to orphan blocks, tools, notions, thread, kits and much more. Definitely something for everyone.

I bought batiks, I paid $5.00 per metre for fabric that locally could cost between $15 and $22 per metre. I was happy with the price and product.

Each seller priced their own items, but more were priced to sell.

I was not selling.

My Guild has an annual garage sale--we always have magazines bundled for amazing, cheap prices; lots of fabric-both quilting and a table of other fabrics, there's always notions and patterns, embellishments, and quilt books. Last year I bought an oak quilt hanger (the kind that you clamp the quilt between the boards) that I know was originally much more than the $5 I paid for it--in the original package,never been used! One year I got a plastic bag like king size sheets come in that was stuffed with FQ for I Spy quilts--for $2.50! So there can be great buys--but there's also going to be that stuff that ends up being donated to the local thrift shop too.

My sewing room IS a tag sale! Nope, don't need anymore shtuff!

sandy

I am on a "buy only what I need" now. I seldom by patterns anymore since there are so many free ones on the internet.

The Truckee Meadows Quilter's guild "Country Store" set up along with the venders is my favorite area to shop while at the quilt show. There are always wonderful quilts, fabrics, patterns, quilting hoops and frames, sewing machines, feet and attachments, threads, rulers, patterns and stacks of free magazines and books or at greatly reduced prices. Each member has a number that corresponds to them on the tag and the price of the item. It is recorded by the lady who checks you out and that lady gets her sale proceeds at the end of the show. Many of the ladies travel during the year and bring back things that ordinarily would not be available in this part of the country. So very fun to browse and buy there.

My Guild has one every year in August or September. There is lots to look at, something to buy. I sold items for my church lady crafter group. Books, fabric and notions. Magazines don't sell, since we give them away on the free table every meeting. It was worth doing. As long as items are marked in dollars, it works. No one wants to deal with change.

I go to a sale held by a local guild each year, and there are tables and tables of fabric, mostly smaller pieces. I love riffling through, although I usually only end up walking away with a few small pieces that I love.

I'm like Willferg. There's often one or two things I like, but mostly I look but don't buy. I don't ever buy fabric for two reasons.
1. I have loads of allergies & sometimes can't even stand just to have it in the car with me on the ride home or touching it long enough to put it in the washer.
2. Usually by me the fabrics are already bagged up so I can't actually see what I'm buying. Most often, they are lots of JAF/HL clearance fabrics from 10 years ago. I'm not any more enamored with them than the seller was when she decided to get rid of them. Yes, that means that every so often I miss out on a really amazing deal, but it's just not worth it to me to buy 9 bags of junk fabric in the hopes that bag number 10 will be some incredible find.

If anything, I usually buy the same kinds of stuff I'd buy at HL/JAF at guild/rummage sales: tools, notions, & organizers.