Weekly update: garage sale -- success! and challenge -- success!

"I've got to hold a garage sale," I began telling myself earlier this year.   May was rainy and chilly.  Two June weekends were convention/conference.  July got away from me.  Our church has a big rummage sale at the end of August. I surveyed what I could contribute and decided I could have a sale of my own and give the leftovers to that sale -- and that the ideal weekend was NOW.  (August 9/10).

Artifacts that I'm not selling

It took a good part of the week to prepare.  I borrowed tables from two friends.  Some of the card tables were pretty rickety but they held up.  I had signs left over from the 2016 sale -- Friday/Saturday 8-3 -- so I held this sale on the same schedule.

  The big storage tubs with giveaway stuff, stored under basement stairs, were hauled up.  I had leftovers from another organization's sale ("I'll pay $20 and make it all disappear," I told that chairman). Then I went through cupboards and drawers in the rest of the house. 

I'm pretty aware of the household inventory, but there were surprises.   These buttons from long-ago library conferences went back into the archives cupboard in the basement bathroom.








Most of what I had on offer I bought at other people's sales.   I know how to buy on Etsy and Ebay but I haven't undertaken selling.







I put the box of flimsies out -- $35 per unquilted top.  I put price tags on finished quilts just in case someone was in the market. (No one was, but I got a lot of compliments.)






I don't wear aprons. I don't display aprons. I just own them. But now I don't!  I'm sorry I didn't take a picture of the clothesline I rigged up between two ladders. The aprons on the line were very eye-catching.

The weather was beautiful.  Traffic was slow but steady.  Customers included friends and acquaintances.   (I still get "You used to work at the library, didn't you?") 

Two women (sisters-in-law and housemates) live a couple of blocks away. We hadn't met them but after a half-hour's lively conversation they are new friends.   One of them spent over $200 (including 36 aprons and three flimsies).

Friday's proceeds:  $95.   Saturday's proceeds:  $328. 

 I returned the borrowed tables.   I'm still re-sorting:  putting things back (like the unsold quilts), putting things aside for a future sale (too good to give away), and packing the rest to take to the church (most of it).

 Author Susan Allen Toth referred to "a spasm of dispossession" when she cleared out her house.  I think that's why I am now finding things that I could have put into this sale. They can be seeds for the next time!

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I got the challenge quilt all put together! There is one section with applique.  I didn't like the way the appliques looked so I unstitched them, repositioned them, and then sewed them with a zigzag.  BIG MISTAKE.  When I sewed the applique panel onto the rest of the piece the misalignment was obvious.  To me, at least. I had **just enough** background fabric to make a new panel.  Whew!

Now it is under the needle. I can't show you any more than this.  The challenge reveal is at the guild's September 4 meeting.

Monday link ups:
 Design Wall Monday
Oh Scrap!
Moving It Forwad