Thrift store find! Wow
#1
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Metter, GA
Posts: 53
Thrift store find! Wow
So I took my mom to the doctor about an hour and a half from home to the city. We got to town early and she owns an antique store so we have to thrift shop while in the city. We stopped at a shop and I was looking around for quilting books and sewing stuff of course. I found a Project Linus lap quilt and paid $2. I have washed twice and will donate again.
I found a big cookie tin with old thread and began digging around in it. I was stunned to find a walking foot, still in the plastic. My new machine is a Babylock Melody. The walking foot looks just like the one that came with my new machine. Mom said grab the whole tin and find out what they want. They offered me $5. After getting it home and carefully going thru it, it contained a darning foot, a button hole foot, a zipper foot, a pipping foot and what I think is an adjustable foot of some kind. There was also a plastic thimble, needles, pin cushions etc. Most of the thread cannot be used.
I brought them home and they are identical to the feet for my machine, only a little older. I cannot believe it. My walking foot was not operating properly and I was looking at buying another, it was $50. I am just so stunned by this glorious find! The good Lord knew exactly what I needed!
I found a big cookie tin with old thread and began digging around in it. I was stunned to find a walking foot, still in the plastic. My new machine is a Babylock Melody. The walking foot looks just like the one that came with my new machine. Mom said grab the whole tin and find out what they want. They offered me $5. After getting it home and carefully going thru it, it contained a darning foot, a button hole foot, a zipper foot, a pipping foot and what I think is an adjustable foot of some kind. There was also a plastic thimble, needles, pin cushions etc. Most of the thread cannot be used.
I brought them home and they are identical to the feet for my machine, only a little older. I cannot believe it. My walking foot was not operating properly and I was looking at buying another, it was $50. I am just so stunned by this glorious find! The good Lord knew exactly what I needed!
#7
Member
Join Date: Aug 2013
Posts: 38
Congratulations on your awesome find! That's why I love estate sales - those occasional treasures make it worth going through dreck. I've been in the thrift shops a couple times and never found anything interesting.
My best quilting find EVER was at an estate sale. Last hour, last day of a 4-day sale. The place was mostly cleaned out, and the estate sale people were starting to move the leftovers into one room to haul off to wherever they take unsold stuff.
I stumbled onto a stack of quilting books in an upstairs bedroom. Then another stack. And another. I started going through everything when the estate sale manager came in and told me she needed to get things out of the house and to just take everything - there wasn't time to go through it all. I told her I wasn't sure I wanted to pay for a bunch of stuff I might not want. She said she'd sell me everything for $40. We boxed up all the books and magazines. Unfortunately, if a fabric stash had been part of the estate sale, there was no sign of it at this point.
Included in the lot was over 80 quilting books and over 150 vintage quilting magazines and newsletters. It was an instant quilting library for $40. I sold the books that were duplicates of what I already had and made more than my $40 investment. It was a windfall of epic proportions!
My best quilting find EVER was at an estate sale. Last hour, last day of a 4-day sale. The place was mostly cleaned out, and the estate sale people were starting to move the leftovers into one room to haul off to wherever they take unsold stuff.
I stumbled onto a stack of quilting books in an upstairs bedroom. Then another stack. And another. I started going through everything when the estate sale manager came in and told me she needed to get things out of the house and to just take everything - there wasn't time to go through it all. I told her I wasn't sure I wanted to pay for a bunch of stuff I might not want. She said she'd sell me everything for $40. We boxed up all the books and magazines. Unfortunately, if a fabric stash had been part of the estate sale, there was no sign of it at this point.
Included in the lot was over 80 quilting books and over 150 vintage quilting magazines and newsletters. It was an instant quilting library for $40. I sold the books that were duplicates of what I already had and made more than my $40 investment. It was a windfall of epic proportions!
#9
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Metter, GA
Posts: 53
I love those epic windfalls! I have purchased fabric at estate sales and they were happy to give me a good bargain. I buy pillows for the forms and recover them as gifts. Pillow forms are expensive and I buy used pillows for 50 cents, but only those I know come from clean sources. Some of the fabric is out there and dated but some of it is very useful, worth the price for sure.
#10
Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2013
Posts: 888
As long as you keep hanging out here, The Land of Thrift Store Enablers, you will never be able to contently pass by a thrift store.
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