A Goodwill Gamble Part 1

The best way to purchase vintage textiles is in person, of course, but aside from thrift stores it's hard to find a brick and mortar dealing in such fabric, at least in my area. That's why I often shop online at Etsy, eBay and other sites.

The biggest problem I've found with buying vintage fabric online it's sometimes hard to tell exactly what you're going to get. Sellers often stage their lots so they look attractive, and hide obvious defects that might put off buyers. There are ways to analyze the available pictures, however, and let them give you an idea of the true worth of what you might get.

For example, I recently bid in a Goodwill.com auction for this big lot of miscellaneous fabric. The title of the lot was "16lb Lot of Fabric/Material, Precut Pieces & Projects, Quilting, Fleece, Variety" which suggests it could be a quilter's stash. The photos from the auction listing also gave me plenty of clues, too. In this one, which shows the entire lot, you can see a variety of prints and solids. In the back of the photo is a red and black piece that looks like patchwork to me.

There's definitely a pile of precut rectangles in this pic, which don't make sense for anything but a quilt. The white and purple polka dot piece at the back looks like at least two or three yards of fabric, which would serve nicely as a lap quilt backing.

The pink camo piece at the top is fleece, which quilters use as backing and to make rag quilts. Next to it is some light green minky, an expensive plush fabric that quilters use as backing for baby quilts these days. Also, look at all the selvages. It's easy to pick out a JoAnns fabric (the cat print) and lots of quilter cottons.

It's difficult to tell the condition of fabrics online, but I see only minimal fraying and no staining. Quilters tend to take good care of their stashes, so I'm confident it will all be in usable shape. I won it for the minimum $10.00 plus shipping (I was not going to increase my bid, either, so I got lucky that no one else wanted it.) When it arrives we'll see if I was right.

Image Credit: all of the above images came from the auction listing at ShopGoodWill.com.

Comments

Stuff

After finding this Caron one pound skein of lovely peach yarn in my thrifted lot I raided my stash for two cakes of Mandala in Pegasus, which matches it perfectly. For practice and hand therapy I'm going to make another Worth Street Afghan with this free pattern , but this time I'll use the yarn that was recommended for it plus the one pound skein. I'm not quite ready to do the vintage/recycled linen quilt I had planned (still a bit too nervous about the idea), so I'm going to use some color therapy and make a quilt from these thrifted green fat quarters. I considered doing another Yellow Brick road patchwork pattern, but I might go with a split rail fence like this one.

Fasten Your Seatbelt

Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds is an epic, dazzling film that hurls you into the Korean version of the afterlife while showcasing some of the most impressive special effects I've ever seen in any movie. The story begins with the death of firefighter Kim Ja-Hong (Cha Tae-hyun) who jumps out of a burning building with a child in his arms. The kid lives, but he dies at the scene. Two strangers inform him that he has passed away right on schedule, and toss him into a vortex that takes him to the world of the afterlife, where he meets his three guardians: Gang-rim (Ha Jung-woo), Haewonmak (Ju Ji-hoon) and Lee Deok-choon (Kim Hyang-gi). At the gates of the afterlife Ja-Hong learns that he is considered a paragon (an exemplary person who lived a noble and self-sacrificing life) and is eligible to be reincarnated -- but there's a catch. First he has 49 days to make it through seven hells in which he will be judged on his sins. His three guardians will help and defend...

The Mercantile

If you don't mind walking 33K square feet in retail space, The Mercantile may be the vintage/arts store you'd enjoy visiting if you're ever in Orlando. I certainly did. Because it was busy I didn't take any photos in the store, but it's absolutely amazing and chock full of antiques and artisan creations, most of which were pretty reasonably priced. For $21.00 I invested in a picture of sailboats for the guest bathroom I'm redoing, and a fairy mystery jar of cool stuff. The jaw was hand-painted and decorated, and utterly charming. I think I wanted the jar more than the contents. As you can see the contents were both generous and pretty cool, too. I finally have some vintage gloves to use for my art quilter bingo challenge!

Rayen

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