A Quick Get-Away...

Quote for the Day:

"Normal is not something to aspire to, it's something to get away from."

~Jodie Foster

Andy & I had to go to Ikea to pick up the new storage cabinets for my new sewing room.  Unfortunately, the closest Ikea is 2 hours away...in Pittsburgh, PA...so we thought we'd make a "trip" of it and enjoy ourselves!  
We left on Friday morning and returned Saturday afternoon.  We spent our time in Pittsburgh doing what we love to do...we went "thrifting"!   There's a site, http://www.thethriftshopper.com/, where you can go and put in the name of the town or the zip code, and it will give you a list of thrift stores in the area, complete with ratings from viewers!  :)   From there, I entered the addresses of thrift stores into Google maps and put them in an order that made best use of time and gas.  :) :)

We had a BALL!!!  I think we probably visited about 8 thrift stores and got some really cool bargains.  However, the prize for the day were these finds:

• Not ONE, but TWO, homemade, hand-quilted quilts in very good condition!
• And THREE SETS of hand embroidered and crochet-edged pillowcases in MINT condition!

Both of the quilts are full-size.  

Here's the first quilt...made fairly recently...I'm going to guess about 2005 from the fabrics, etc.  The stitches are nice and straight, very even and fairly small, done in a contrasting, dark thread.  And the price???  A whopping $20.00!!!  :)

The second quilt is probably a little older...probably from the 1980-1990's, from the fabrics and colors...pastel calicoes!  :)  It is also hand-quilted, but the stitches aren't quite as perfect as in the first quilt.  However, it is still quite good and I love the colors!!  Very Spring-like and I can't wait for Spring to get here!   There are a couple of places where the binding is coming loose and will need to be tacked back down, but that is no problem.   The price on this one was an astounding $13.00!!!  (Note the unusual border...scallops alternating with points!)

And now for the pillowcases...that were $5.00 per set.  They are in PRISTINE condition and look like they have been starched and ironed and languishing away in someones hope chest...never used.  

I collect vintage embroidered linens (dresser scarves and pillowcases) and I ACTUALLY USE them!  I don't use the pillowcases that come with sheet sets.  Instead I use the vintage ones that I pick up at thrift stores, yard sales, and auctions.  And truth be told...$5/set is the most I've ever paid for embroidered pillowcases.  I can usually get them for $1-$2 for an individual pillowcase, and only occasionally find a "set".   However, because these were in such perfect condition, I figured I'd "splurge" and pay a dollar or two extra for the set!  :)

I also picked up about 4-5 embroidered dresser scarves, but I didn't take a picture of those.  I really hit the mother lode of vintage embroidered linens this weekend!  :)

After our thrifting, we headed to Ikea and picked up the bookcases/shelving units that I need for fabric storage in the new sewing room.  This was the first time we'd been to Ikea, and I'm glad I did our "shopping" online and had already picked out what I wanted.  Otherwise, I'd still be wandering around that store.  That place is overwhelming!  

All in all, we had a GREAT get-away, just Andy & me.  (Ginger stayed with some friends so she had her own kind of vacation!)  

Loretta