Sunday, August 16, 2009

"Twilight" blocks


The BlockSwappers YahooGroup is doing a "Twilight" swap, named for the series by Stephenie Meyer http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/
The book covers are black, gray, white, and red, so that's the color scheme for the swap. 12" blocks of the maker's choice. My blocks are "Mill Star" and "54-40 Askew." It is a regular "54-40 or Fight" block but I found out after I'd cut all the pieces that I cut them for a 9" block. I added the borders and cut them on an angle, and hence the new name.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Christmas Ribbons

Finally -- a finished flimsy! This is "Christmas Ribbons." It's a traditional block called Oklahoma Twister which was included in a book of "quilt blocks for 50 states." I thought that the twisty HSTs looked like ribbons, and so a quilt design was born. The borders are copied from an Oklahoma Twister quilt in a Webshots album. It's 74 x 86. It will be professionally quilted. The Friends of the Library will raffle it this fall.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Garage sale results

Garage sale, day one (Friday): $649.40.
Garage sale, day two (Saturday): $347.65.
Total for the two days: $997.05.
Less expenses (classified ads and balloons): $90.
Net: $907.05
(When I made the bank deposit I learned that I had seriously undercounted the revenue--by $201! So I have updated my previous post to show the correct amounts.)

7 boxes delivered to Salvation Army thus far.
3 boxes filled for church rummage sale thus far.
More to clean up and decide: keep, donate, pitch.
With luck we can park the cars in the garage tonight!

P.S. Four Fiesta luncheon plates and the 2-pint jug sold. ($10 per plate and a bargain $30 for the jug.) I also sold (for $150) the HandiQuilter that I bought in 2005 from a woman who'd never taken it out of the box--I got as far as opening the box, but put it all away again--perhaps yesterday's purchaser will actually set it up!

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Garage Sale at the sign of the red, buff, and green balloons


(Note that one of them is a gold star!)
It's been 7 years since I had a garage sale. Since then I moved to a larger house, which only meant more space to squirrel away stuff. Then DH and I combined households: a lot of this has GOT to go.
Preparing for a garage sale is physically and
emotionally exhausting. "I remember when I got this....This would be useful someday....Hmm, $1 or .50?....Why did I keep this? I never did like it."
My ad led with what I thought would be a big draw: vintage Fiestaware, Longaberger baskets, and a Heywood-Wakefield table. The Longaberger baskets sold right away (an old gray one for $5 and 10-year-old bread basket for $15....and if you think I gave them away, you should have been here to snap up the bargains). Yet the Fiesta wasn't touched. (11 luncheon plates, 4 salad plates, a milk pitcher, if you're interested.)
The first day was quite successful! $549.40. The largest purchase was by a woman who bought two finished quilts ($100 and $75) and six unfinished tops ($100). By selling flimsies I no longer have an obligation to finish them!
Stay tuned for the results of today's sale. ($1.25 so far: 7:59 a.m.)