How many of you precious quilters, search out Yard Sales? What have you found to help in your addiction of Quilting?

My whole house is yard sale! My greatest find was my sewing room. Well, it is a travel trailer that I use exclusively for a sewing room. I store things in all the cabinets and in the bathroom, pulled out the beds for my tablesand a chest and trunk. My son works at a grocery store, so I got some old display shelves from him for my fabric. I know this wouldn't work for everyone, but we live way out in the country on a little acreage, so it is parked under a tree, with a great view, will have my own TV and phone when I get finished, and I don't have to pay taxes on it.
I've also found several sewing machines that I use, my latest being an industrial walking foot machine for really cheap. And way too much fabric, scraps from quilters, and lots of quilt magazines. I love yard sales!!! :lol:

Hi to all,
My favorite yard sale quilting item is a large size pressing board, and I made a bag for it and a like size cutting mat that I use to carry both and rulers to quilting group. Both of those items stay in AZ when we go home in the spring.Ionep

Norah

You go Girl. Your sewing room sounds heavenly, Aren't you the lucky one. To me it sounds perfect. Yard sales where around before thrift stores, in fact I kinda think that thrift stores got so popular because of yard sales. I Love yard sales to.

Thanks, Becky. Go is my favorite word! The best thing about yard sales, is that when you know your neighbors, you know where to go early the get the best quilting deals. But there are always surprises. Once I bought a little shed with a fuel oil tank in it for $25. It looked like an outhouse in the back of a pickup when we were hauling it home. Boy, did we get some looks. I got some great quilt squares there, too. :wink:

Norah

We would have a ball if we lived close to each other. I think if your shed looked like an out-house going down the road, I would of set it in my yard, carved out a half moon, painted flowers on the side, and set it in my yard as a country out-house, Hey Yard art is really a thing these days.

Norah,

A travel trailer? Love it!!!!!!!!!!! I was hoping this year I could get a room done for a sewing room. I have a spare room but I have these visitors that come every fall and stay until spring. And they are not human. We call them Lady Bug but in truth they are a Japnese Beetle. And altho the rest of the house has problems with them too. This room is unundated with them. I thought we had them licked this year. But alas to no avail. The only option you have is to close the door on the room until spring and then go in and clean up when they leave. I run in their and try vacumning them up everyonce in a while but it is hopeless to use as a sewing room. Oh well woe is me. lol.

I envy you. My luck they would probably envade it too. lol

I love lady bugs, but I don't love them that much. I saw them bunched up like that once and thought it was awesome. We don't get that out here. But we do get wasps like that if there is the least little opening. I'll take the lady bugs.
Where are you, Becky? I'll have to tell you about my chicken church sometime.

Norah

I'm in the peachy state,GA, I live in Hiram Ga. About 35-40 miles outside of Atl. NW.I'm orginally from Indiana, Spent my youth in Anderson, Ind, Very country when I was a kid, Spent my teenage yrs in Torrance Calif. Have been in Ga for 29-30 yrs. So this is what I call home. I've got the accent and the slang, so I'm one of those dam yankees that came fur-a -visit and never left. My husband is a true blood southern. He tells me I'm just plain country, so do my friends. Personally I think I'm a mutt.

BECKY

My husband went yard saleing this summer and he came back with four (4) boxes of fabric for me, it seems the lady was getting to old to see so she was selling her stuff so she could move in with her son. Well you bet I had him take me back there and sure enough there was more to buy. The best part was there were three old quilt tops in one of the boxes. so we got a total of six boxes all for $30. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. :D :lol: I didn't like lawn sales up to this summer. But now I will go with him when ever he wants me to. :wink:

I hink the best bargain I found for sewing was over 3 yards of a lovely large rayon check fabric. I simply hemmed it and turned it into a tablecloth for spring. It was $1!

Another find - not associated with quilting - was an applebox full of yarn: teal, fuscia, brown, black, and some white. There was also a few skeins of sweater yarn. I used everything but the sweater yarn to crochet a REALLY long (7 foot) stripey sofa blanket last winter. My husband loves it. Our calico has figured out that if she sits on it, she can have all 7 feet to herself and not have to share with the people. :-o

Quilting-wise, I found some really great notions, velvets, lace, and obscure patterns at an estate sale. I got 5 yards of lace for $3, 6 yards of plush velvet (the really high quality rayon kind) for $5 and a box of assorted notions like binding, hem tape, uphosltery needles, etc. for $1. My husband couldn't believe it when I walked in saying I wasn't going to buy anything and I blew a $10 bill. :)

Norah, Your sewing room sounds awesome. I have a very small sewing room but hopefully will be able to switch it to a larger room soon.

I love garage sales, I bought 4 sewing mac hines, lots of patterns, and sewing notions. At the thrift store I got a sewing machine and some good quilt books amd mags. At the church sale I got old blankets to put in quilts. alady from a missionary church give me old holey jeans for quilts. wow it is a lot when I write it down. fun finding bargins.

Hi everyone . The best garage sale item I've gotten is a 48"x72" homemade cutting table. It has drawers on each end & is a folding table. It is wonderful & I got it for $25!!! I've had it since Aug. & I've gotten my moneys worth out of it already. It's perfect. I also found some sewing notions for $1 the same day at a different stop. I don't usually go to sales but they had a subdivision sale that Sat. & I had a ball. This is the first time I've been on this quilting board. I had just started using the live chat. So hello to all, I've enjoyed reading all of your listings.

Peggy, your comment that you have a spare berom with guests that stay until spring had me wince. That is just too long!! Then you said the quests were not human and I had to agree that anyone who stayed that long was monstrous. Then you said they were a bug and I had to laugh - it took me that long to realize you weren't talking about mooching house guests. It made me laugh.

I don't think that any of us can beat your travel trailer sewing room. That sounds great.

Garage sales, church rummage sales, and thrift stores are where I have obtained most of my large stash of fabric. When word got out that I make quilts, friends started bringing me sacks and boxes of their scraps. One young woman must have given me her whole stash. While helping her pack up her stuff to move to her new husband's home, the woman's mother saw a stack of fabric that the younger woman had bought for crafts that were never even begun. The mother said, " Either take that stuff with you, or give it away. You are not leaving it here!" Well, she elected to give it away, and I was the lucky recipient.

My husband's not so sure about the "lucky" part. He took a look at the stacks of boxes of fabric in my sewing room and said, "Enough already." Now I only go to the garage sales within walking distance, That way, I get my daily exercise and can only buy what I can carry home.

There has to be some way to if not get rid of the bugs totally to at least tame them a bit. Maybe you could teach them some tricks :-o . Have you done any research on organic bug repellants I've found Wikipedia very useful in many different areas and about.com seems quite usefull as well! I lived for a time in the migration path of moths and I know what you mean. I think I'd rather have had lady bugs myself. Moths leave a mess on the walls.!yuk

Lady bugs leave messes, too. and to add to the mess, the things STINK! They absolutely smell awful. If you smash one or something! It is awful.
They get in the tiniest spaces, and if one gets in, a thousand or two get in. They get under the siding on houses and "hide". THey seem to just be able to squeeze right through solid walls. They turn up in even the most sealed-in places!
They are truly an awful pest. I would take the stinkers over the wasps. I'd probably take the moths over the stinkers, though. If you suck the stinkers up in a vacuum, it makes the whole house smell like lady bugs from the vacuum blowing!
We don't have them too bad, here. My Mom gets them worse!

really I had no Idea that lady bugs were such stinkers. I'm going to do a little research and see if someone has a secret lady bug repellant. :?:

Hi Becky i lived in FT Wayne Ind. for 6 yrs.i was bonn in MT. Bayou Miss.raised in Oklahoma City, Okla.and husb was relocated to FT Wayne and i love it there so now we're back in Okla. City.

Annette

This subject has been very interesting reading. And I do want to add my best find.

In summer of 2000 I went to a flea market and found a bag of fabrics. I asked the vendor if I could take it out of the bag to sort it. Needless to say that was not a good idea. He told me to take the whole thing for $5. It was a black garbage bag and stuffed so tight I staggered to my car and dropped it on the ground so I could get my keys out of my pocket to open the trunk. I washed and ironed for several days and and found nearly all was suitable for quilting. I quit counting when I had measured 50 yards of fabric. That was when I first decided to make quilts, and have been doing quilts ever since.

That was probably my once in a lifetime good fortune find.

Hi Becky i am a garage sale Queen and a thrift store princessthe best garage sale i ever went to was a friend and i had been garage sales all day and we was so tired we went to her house and empty the trunk of my car i saw a sign right down the street from her house and oh my God i had $15.00 left there was 2 ladies sitting on a sofa looking very tired they said look around my eyes fell right on thier bookshelves one of the ladies said my mother use to quilt and do crafts and she just died i said how much do you want for all those books she $300.00 i said i only have $15.00 she said you know what my mother will be proud to know that someone would buy these books and take care of themand make beautifuf things these books are well known quilt artists it was like God save these books until i arrive. Love all of you out there.
Annette

Annette and June. I am so jealous. :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Watch your newspapers! After our thread about yard sales, I decided to check my daily news. Lo and behold there was an Estate Sale...all sorts of sewing stuff. so I got myself over there.
I drove into a new area for me, and found the address with the aid of MapQuest. Oh My Goodness! What woman had saved everything she ever bought. I kid you not, she had a basement full. Her kids had used all kinds of table, shelves, dressers, boxes...you name it and it was loaded. I said to myself "I sure hope I don't leave this kind of mess for my kids to get rid of." I had hoped to get some zippers, but I was too late. The whole box sold for $5. I found a half dozen buckles for a friend, for $1. She makes quilted purses. I helped lighten their load. What a mess!!

Ok, the sign said "one bag of fabric $3." Well, since I am greedy, and hearing they were giving all that was left to a Thrift store, I decided I would get my share. I dug through the bags they offered and found one that looked a tad bigger than the others. I neatly foleded and rolled all that I selected, and crammed the bag FULL! I had about 15 different fabrics, some with several yards. But, I do know, I got a good buy for $3.

BE SURE TO CHECK OUT ESTATE SALES. This was the best I have been to in a long time. Believe me, I will be going to MORE!!!!

What is the old saying "She who dies with the most fabric, WINS!!"
I don't intend to win...I just intend to make more quilts.

HAPPY HUNTING TO ALL OF YOU.

June

Wow, June, I want to live where you do. That's some good estate and yard sales. Unfortunately, we don't have many in my area but I do go when I read about one. I hit my thrift stores and do a lot lot of buying of fabric for little bits of cash. I'm waiting to find another sewing machine, serger or the like. I'm persistent so I'll hang in and keep looking.

Yard sales are fun!!
Sharon

Norah, I'm so jealous of your sewing room! To be in a good view spot, have it peacefully quiet, and big enough for me to do what I want??? Oh, gosh, heaven!!

Sharon

Miranda.... Here in Wisconsin we have what is now known to be an Asian Aphid Beetle that resemble ladybugs but are not TRUE ladybugs! They differ in pattern and color and omg do they EVER stink!!! A true ladybug supposedly does NOT bite where these asian beetles DO!! and hard!!! Somebody told me "they do not bite they pinch" and I responded with "well whatever the heck it is that they do it hurts!!!" And another thing these asian beetles do that I've never seen a ladybug do is stain things when they are squashed .... I have little orange spots all over my walls and ceiling!!

I guess somebody thought it would be a good idea to introduce these things to kill aphids....well, now we are overrun by the beetles and even birds won't eat them because of their stench!

I've learned to take a piece of tape after them now instead of the flyswatter!! Or if you drop them into a HOT cup of water they also die instantly!! So I run a styrofoam cup of water around my house and flick them into it! Or a piece of duct tape to collect them!

OH and I should add to Becky's original question!! LOL I LOVE garage sales for fabric buying!!! I go to many and get lots!!!

Along with yard sales, thrift stores, estate sales, I go to auctions. You can get some really neat things. I've bought fabric, machines, quilting supplies(rulers, cutters, etc) very, very reasonable. Of course, it depends on if someone else also wants what you want. The last machine I bought is an old Singer in a table, one of these days, I clean it up and refinish the table, but I got it for $2.50. I also bought a Husky for $15.00.

Ok I am soooooooooooooooooooooo jealous. I love yard saling and find a lot of good stuff but never that good. :-)

I am definitely jealous. Anytime I have went to yardsales. I have not found anything worth anything. I would LOVE to find great deals like that. Heck, I would love to find a good yard sale..haha

I think you really have to like Garage sales to invest all that time . In the summer I go every saturday morning. I like the neighborhood sales. Close together and less driving. It's nice if you can get friends or family to go with you. For every ten sales you go to you find one that is special to you. I enjoy myself talking to people I probably would not meet otherwise.
It's really fun when you get that one special bargin. I can't wait till they start here, to cold till about May. but I am ready to get out and get going. :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

Ruth, I see you are really into yard sales. Before I had so much trouble with the knees, that was my Saturday entertainment. My husband was always at Habitat for Humanity on Saturday so I wanted something to do that day. We have some really good Flea Marets around here, so I would go to those every Saturday. I would ask the vendors if they had fabris, and some would say they will bring it next week.

I especially like Street Sales, where many residents on one street put out their stuff. Here in Cincinnati, flea market vendors scour garage sales (and also go through your curbside trash) )for items, as do the people who operate out of antique malls. Getting rid of things here is no problem. And making money on things is FUN!!!

I will be checking today's paper for sales coming this week-end. Hope everyone finds something really great!

June

Hopefully the big one they've put in in Gassaway will be awesome. It opens this month.
The one at the parking lot in Sutton is open, but got rained out last Saturday. It is usually the same people every Saturday with the same stuff from last year and the year before and....
:roll:

I want to have a yardsale. I had one last year and made $94. I had a lot of baby items that went!

I went to a thrift store yesterday. I found brand new Hawaiian shirts for $2.50 ea. These are not the really bright colors. Like the bright greens and fuschias a lot of them are made from but, muted blues, mellow yellows and black silhouette's of palm trees. which will go with some other stuff I have. I also got a brown corduroy, pinafore type dress, with a long skirt (the color of tree trunks) and a couple other brightly colored shirts for .25 cents ea. one tree green. I gotta go check the want ads. There might be a yard sale near me! I'm a yard sale junkie anyway. :lol:

I know, it opens next Saturday. I thought about calling to see how much a table would cost for the weekend. I wanted to make some more candles and try to sew a few more purses and maybe a couple of wall hangings before then. Who knows if it will happen. LOL

My husband and I live for garage sales. I went to a rummage sale and found some beautiful sheets in pristine condition along with ruffled pillowcases for 4.00 (queensize) I went home and made a duvet for the guest bedroom and stuffed our old comforter into it. I finished it off with some big antique buttons and created a new look for summer. I am still looking for more sheets, but haven't found any more as enticing as those. We also leave a card with people to call us when they are finished with their sale to donate what's left to our church for our rummage sale. We pick up the stuff and deliever it to the church. Kinda neat that people will do this for our church. We always mail a letter of thanks to them for their donation.

I posted pics of my duvet on the picture posting. They're kinda of small, but you can see the pretty colors of the sheet.

There is a difference between a garage sale and a Flea Market even tho in actuality it's just people selling used stuff. Flea Markets are in general a lot bigger with more stuff. That's fun. Yard Sale of course are much smaller. At's kinda hard to say which are the best bet. I think yard sales are much more frequent. I kinda like seeing people at home. Esp if they are in or close to my neighborhood. I guess it just preference. And availability. I don't know of any ongoing flea markets around here but have been in area where they have a number of them happening almost in perpetuity. Like Las Vegas. If they still have em:?: I kinda feel that yard sales usually have the best deals. But that an opinion that can change based on the current deal/bargain. :lol:

I get a lot of fabric and rotary rulers at yard sales-- one time a woman was getting rid of three UFO's-- all baby quilts. Another time I went to an estate sale and got an old stand-up, three-level sewing basket. That was a great day! I think you can get the best fabric deals at yard sales, rummage sales, and estate sales!