A Much-Needed Break, or Heading to the Flea Market!

As I mentioned previously, I'm at a bit of a standstill with my cleaning, organizing, and purging project in my sewing studio.  I have grouped and organized things in baskets, but now I don't have anywhere to put the baskets so they are currently living all over my horizontal surfaces.

My father is getting started with my electrical project and I just broke down and ordered my storage cube units -- I need somewhere for my baskets to live.  Keep your fingers crossed that the electricity goe sin soon so I can get back to my project.

 So recently, I took a break from all of my cleaning and organizing and took a little trip to Lisa's General Store (which used to be called Lisa's Indoor Flea Market) located in Greenville, PA.

Over the years, I've found some awesome deals -- my most recent one being my sewing stand.

It had a broken and repaired foot, but I didn't mind because I have always wanted one of these stands (usually called a Martha Washington sewing stand).  Go HERE to read my post about this stand.

One of my best finds was a 1900's vintage indigo and white Double Irish Chain quilt with some very nice hand-quilting designs.  It was just sitting there, waiting for me.

Anyway, though, if you are following my Reclaiming My Studio series, you will be pleased to know that I didn't buy a thing at Lisa's.  REALLY!  Not one single thing.

Instead, I just window-shopped.  I did see lots of sewing and quilting related items, though, and thought I'd capture them on my phone so I could share them with you.


I saw a few sewing tables.  The first one was similar to mine, but it had 4 turned legs and three drawers.  And it had a light wood finish.

 

This sewing table is a real beauty!  I just love the dark wood.  It's earlier than mine and the one above (which are more Depression-era pieces).  This Empire style piece probably dates to the early 1900's or so.

  

Of course there were some vintage quilts and quilt tops, but nothing that really tempted me.  Now had they been a stack of quilt blocks, that would have been an entirely different story.

I thought the booth owner was very clever to drape this simple little quilt on the vintage buggy.  Wouldn't that look great in your home or sewing room?  I would of course fill the buggy with more quilts or maybe vintage pin cushions.....  Anyone have an 18" doll to display in the buggy?

One of my favorite things to look for are sewing boxes and baskets.  There are so many different ones, I'm always interested to see them.  This basket had a very nice embroidered inset in the top of the lid.  Pretty, sin't it?  I wonder if it came that way or if a previous owner decided to beautify her humble sewing basket.

These little rectangular boxes are very common -- you've probably seen them before if you don't have one of your own.

Isn't this a lovely old sewing basket?  The booth owner made it look very inviting with the addition of the spools of old thread.

And here is a fin patchwork teddy bear.  He's not old, but he is really cute.  I don't think the patchwork came from a quilt, but rather I think the pieces were sewn together for the bear.

 Well, I hope you enjoyed window shopping with me.  Maybe you'll head out on your own flea market or antique shop adventure....

Something I Always Wanted...

This past week end, I was very excited to go to one of my favorite fun places -- Lisa's General Store (previously Lisa's Indoor Flea Market) located in Greenville, PA.  Over the years, I have found lots of different treasures, particularly quilt-related treasures -- antique and vintage quilt blocks, fabric, a blue and white double Irish Chain quilt from circa 1920 for an unbelievable price (I won't tell you because you would be so jealous!), vintage sewing boxes, etc.  Of course, there's always non-quilting stuff like books, clothing, food, and just about everything you could imagine and some things  you probably couldn't imagine.

Anyway, on Sunday, I finally found something that I have wanted for a long time and was able to bring it home!  YAY!

  

A vintage Martha Washington Sewing Cabinet!

It's not perfect and needs some TLC, but it is charming and very functional.  The two front drawers give lots of space for notions and thread -- there are even floating trays in the drawers for small stuff.  On each side on the top there is a hinged lid! When lifted up they reveal a good-sized cubby for stashing projects, materials, or snacks -- maybe chocolate.....

Of course, I did some looking online to see if I could find anything out about this particular type of stand, and was happy to find lots of photos and information.  

1). Apparently, Martha Washington did have a work table, but it looked nothing like this.  Using Martha Washington's name was an advertising ploy.

2). This type of sewing table was based on Federal style tables and became popular during the Depression years as an inexpensive piece of factory-made furniture.  You could buy one in the Sears and Roebuck catalog!

That being said, I discovered that my stand is somewhat unusual, which makes me think it was of a higher quality.  It only has 2 drawers where most of the ones I saw had 3 drawers.  It has really nice detailed metal drawer pulls instead of knobs.  AND it is on a pedestal instead of wooden legs -- and the feet of the pedestal have metal tips with disks underneath to protect the floor.

Of course, my table wouldn't be worth much to anyone but me because it has a broken foot that was 

glued.

Here are some other quilty things I found at Lisa's.  Please enjoy......