Garage Sale Season

Around here there are two Garage Sale seasons - one in the spring and another in the fall. The summer is too hot and the winter is too unpredictable for Garage Sales. This post is all about watching for small bags of handmade quilt blocks when you are Garage Sale hopping. At one, when I still lived up North, I found a baggy of hand embroidered squares of fabric that just begged to be made into a quilt. The bag cost me $5.00 but I think they would have taken a lot less. I spent another $20.00 at Joann's on fabric and the whole thing, including quilting, took one snowy winter Sunday to complete. Here is the quilt:

and here is a close-up of some of the squares.

and here is a view of the sorta one inch wide binding. Nice mitered corners but what happened when I joined the ends?

I love this quilt. I can't believe that I just sat down and started sewing without a clue how to finish it. The binding, by any current standard, is way too big and the quilting is way too loose. It's nostalgic looking but I think any kid would love all the baby animals some anonymous woman hand embroidered. Paul has been the keeper of this quilt since I finished it many years ago. He told me he was afraid I would give it away but that he wanted it for his kids so he has been lugging around since then. I borrowed it for this post and I am under strict instructions to give it back to him when I am done.

So, watch out for the little baggies that hide out at garage sales. I have a complete set of hand sewn dresden plate squares and a bunch of other blocks from other grarage sales. I have almost enough for a complete king sized quilt. I just need a few more bits and pieces and I can get down to putting it together. Maybe I'll find just the right pieces this garage sale season. Wish me luck!