Friday, August 14, 2009

Estate sale fabric... what luck!

My brother Robert has a used bookstore in Orlando, Leedy’s Books, so he’s on the email list of a company that runs estate sales. Actually, in this case the homeowners were just moving to the beach and wanted somebody else to deal with disposing of their extra belongings. They listed a lot of sewing-related items so I checked it out. There were bolts and bolts of fabric, but I really didn’t need 5+ yards of those particular fabrics. Fortunately there was a smallish plastic bin stuffed full of smaller cuts for $20.

Once home, I spent about an hour shuffling the various pieces around to find good combinations. It was amazing how much fabric was in there... most of it was large-scale prints that I wouldn’t normally buy plus some chenille and minkee fabric, but check these out... 

Guitars and polka dots:
Pink and black fashionable ladies with a touch of green:
Three colors of Paris with purple dots:
Red guitars and blue and green dots:
This one isn't really a set, but I like all these fabrics, especially the paisleys.
This is what is leftover in the box. I’ll either use them for quilt backs or donate them. Although the green fluffy stuff has already been claimed by our kitty to cover her luxurious new foam pad.
Such a deal! I suspect the top four groups will come in handy for the holiday gift-giving season... if I can stop sleeping and get some production sewing time in.

By the way, in honor of finally getting new computer after delaying for literally years, AND upgrading to the wonderful world of CS4, I made a new signature for the blog. How do you like it? Maybe it could change colors with the seasons. : )



8 comments:

Barbara Sindlinger said...

That's quite a find. You got some great fabrics. congrats.

Beena said...

Hi, Loreen!
Looks like you struck gold!!!! Wonderful finds at bargain right prices. I hope you have fun with your new finds and with the CS4.

Diane J. Evans said...

I'm really tickled by the new signature, Loreen! How did you do it?

Diane

Dolores said...

Great fabric finds and wonderful new siggy. Changing it up with the seasons sounds like fun. Or change it when the mood strikes.

Unknown said...

Hi Diane,
I drew the lines in Adobe Illustrator. It has a feature that smoothes out irregularities which can be adjusted to as little or as much as you desire. It takes out the little bobbles and other glitches. Then I pasted it into Photoshop where it's easy to paint it in whatever wild way, then flatten it and save it as a JPEG.

BJ Lantz said...

What a score, Loreen! I'm jealous!

Unknown said...

I am so jealous--all those great Michael Miller and Amy Butler fabrics!!! Lovely.

Unknown said...

Update: Found a home for the extra fabric. A soldier in Iraq had a short-term project called Iraqi Bundles of Love, IBOL for short. He has arranged to distribute about a zillion boxes (as it has turned out) of fabric all over Iraq. More info here:
http://ibol.wordpress.com/tag/ibol/