Finished For Friday: Black, White and Red All Over Quilt

I am linking in with Lit and Laundry for a Finished for Friday post. I wanted to share my finished project with you this week as it involved a quilt I made for my niece for graduation.

My niece graduated from my old High School in May of this year. I knew I wanted to make her a quilt, but I wanted to first find out where she was going off to college and try to incorporate her new school colors with her High School colors.

It just so happens that her college colors were the same as her high school colors, red, black and white. So that made it really easy. This quilt has over 30 different fabrics in it. The reds alone were over 20, most were all from the local quilt shop, one was a vintage fabric. I think they all worked so well together.

The blacks were about 11 different fabrics. The new school mascot is a Bulldog, and I was lucky enough to find fabric with tiny dog prints in the fabric. I really like how it turned out.

The back was a small stripe with all the colors in the front and I added a pieced strip to the center of the quilt.

Here is a close up of the fabric.... and the stippling quilting.

I never realized how hard it is to photograph red fabric, I had to really move this around in the light for the colors to come out close to being correct.

The small outer border is the same fabric I used in my daughters graduation quilt from college. I really liked that print and was glad I had enough left over to add to this quilt.

I had her name and year she graduated monogrammed  in the corner of the quilt border in red.

Here is the quilt label. I used one of her graduation photos to add to the label. For the binding, I used a very small black dotted print. I like how it turned out.

Here it is all wrapped up and ready to go. I met my niece for lunch to present her with this gift. I could have given her a gift of money, but wanted to give her something more personal that would far outlast money. I hope one day she will look back on this and have fond memories of this time in her life and her Aunt who made this for her.

Here is my niece, Kinzie with her quilt. She is such a cutie!! I told her that this will be the happiest time in her life, to make the most of it. It only comes once in a lifetime. I am not sure she really understands what that means, but one day she will look back and know exactly what I meant by those words. Good Luck Kinzie as you start this new journey...work hard, play hard and enjoy this time in your life! I love you sweet girl!!!

Vintage Thingie Thursday : Vintage Quilt and a New Attitude....found at Goodwill!

Welcome everyone to Vintage Thingies Thursday. If you have a love for vintage things, well....you have come to the right place. We have a "dog-gone" good time each and every week!!!
If you are new to this party, please take the time to read and follow the instructions for participating in Vintage Thingies Thursday, click HERE. I try and keep things fairly simple, so please make sure you follow the instructions. Please only ONE link per week. Lastly, if you link in, LINK back to my blog, so everyone can see all of the vintage goodies being showed that day. If you don't link back here, they won't know who to visit......thanks so much.

This is the second half of my post from Tuesday, if you somehow missed it, click HERE to catch up and know what all this rambling is about......

This past week, my daughter was home and we stopped by a couple of Goodwill stores on half price day.  We were at one store that I hardly ever go to anymore, and we had several things in our hands to pay for. Mostly, home decor items that could be reworked into something wonderful, nothing that was  in the form of a vintage treasure.

In fact, we were finished shopping and were in line waiting to check out. It just so happens that I glanced at a little older lady who was in the next line waiting to pay as well. In her hands was a Sunbonnet Sue Quilt. I could not believe her stroke of luck.

I was stunned because I have never seen a quilt at Goodwill before and more importantly, I could not figure out how I could have possibly missed spotting this.....I guessed it was another example of being at the store a little too late.

Unknowing to me,  I guess the little older lady noticed I was looking at the quilt......looking a little too close from across the isle. I nudged my daughter to look at that.....she asked What? So I pointed out the quilt the lady had in her hands. Again, the lady noticed the two of us staring at the quilt a little too much.

Suddenly, the little older lady asked me if I would like to see the quilt.....rather dumbfounded, I said, oh, yes, I'd love to see it.
 All the while, I thought it was going to be pure torture to actually have a close up look and see it walk away with the little older lady.

As soon as I got over to where the lady stood waiting in line, she held the quilt out and said, "It is all hand quilted....and nicely done too." Oh, I had to agree, it was a real beauty. The quilt was really yellowed from being stored and aged. The lady quickly pointed that out, and I just said, yes it was....never even telling her  how easy it would be to clean it up like new. Shameful.

I was completely taken with the fabrics in the Sunbonnet Sue's....vintage fabrics that were just stunning. I told her she had a great quilt there and how wonderful to have found it and how beautiful it was. I was polite enough to thank her for letting me see it up close.

As I turned to walk back to where my daughter waited, she did something that totally caused my heart to clinch in my chest. I thought surely, I had not heard her correctly.  I must have misunderstood. Completely.

She asked me if I would like to have the quilt. I turned and I am sure looked rather stunned and asked her did she not want it?? She just smiled and said if I wanted it, I could have it....she said she did not need it and she could tell I really was taken with the quilt. She said she did not have the time to try and clean it up and it might not survive the washing.....shamefully, I did not offer her instructions on cleaning it..... I asked her once again, if she was sure and she exclaimed she was. Told me to enjoy it. I hugged her, told her it would have a wonderful home and thank you so much.

Rather quickly, I retreated to the line my daughter was in to pay before she changed her mind. There was a lady in front of us that heard the exchange between myself and the little older lady and she rather loudly exclaimed, if I did not want the quilt, she did....I held on to it a little tighter and gave it to the checker to pay. Remember, it was half price day, and the quilt was $4.99...so half price was $2.49......unbelievable.

My daughter was just as stunned as I was. She said she could not believe that lady just gave me the quilt after she saw us staring at it. She asked me had I ever given anyone anything that was in my buggy like that before.....and that is when it happened.....the guilt of my past actions overcame the joy of this quilt.

I suddenly remembered all the times I got so angry at people for this very thing I did today, staring at someones great find. And I admitted to my daughter no way would I have ever done this in the past. She just looked at me and said did I feel bad?? Feel bad?? I guess I sorta did to a certain degree.....I was thrilled with my quilt, and thrilled that the lady saw fit to give it up, but also, felt pretty shameful for my inappropriate behavior in the past.

I brought this little treasure home, and soaked and washed it in my vintage linen solution and it is white and good as new. There are only two little Sue's that have some fabric damage, but not much. The hand quilting is amazing and the colors stunning. I am in love with the border of this quilt. But aside from all its loveliness, it is also a reminder to play it forward in the future. And I will.....because with my track record at thrift stores, I am sure the situation will present itself. This time, I vow to not let it get my hackles up when someone eyes my buggy with treasures in it. I will try to be as sweet as this little lady was to me.

 But if I am being honest here, I hope the situation does not present itself when I have a buggy full of things I just LOVE....but you know, I have a feeling that is when it will and that is where the lesson and blessing will be.

I wanted to say I so enjoyed reading all the comments from Tuesday's post. You guys really made me feel a little better about my reacting to rude people in general. None the less, there has been a lesson in all of this for myself....and I need to stop reacting and start to act a little more compassionately. Have a great Vintage Thingie Thursday and I hope you enjoyed my vintage quilt today....the story is almost as good as the quilt.

Take Me Back Tuesday: Behaving Badly Confession

It is no secret if you read my blog on a regular basis that I have for many years had a love for being thrifty and thrifty shopping. Now, along with that wonderful hobby of mine, many a story often follows from the outings.

It is a running joke between my husband and my son that he fully expects to get a call one day that I have had a free ride to the local jail due to inappropriate behavior on my part in the stores. My behavior at times may very well have been inappropriate but in my honest opinion....it was warranted.

NOTE: You may not want to read any further if you are afraid of being crushed at the fact that I am not always as sweet as I seem.... ahem.....I am going to show you my not so nice at times side today, but if you have the faith to check back tomorrow, you will see there was a reason for the confession of bad behavior today.

Without fail on several occasions, there seems to always be someone who follows me in these thrift stores as I shop and just seems to wait for me to put whatever treasure I have in my buggy back on the shelf. Always. Once, I had a milk glass punch bowl and cups in my buggy and for the longest time, I did not notice a lady who stalked me throughout the whole store. Finally, she asked me if I was going to purchase the set or what??? I looked at her and said yes I was and asked her what exactly she meant by the or what??? She informed me I had wasted a good part of the last hour of her time because she was waiting in the store for me to put the punch bowl set back on the shelf because she wanted it. Seriously, the "or what" made me so mad that day....I was at fault for taking up her time....this has happened so many times, that I really did not let this work me up too much that day...but there have been many times before.....

Once about 6 years ago, I was at half price day at Goodwill....and I was going through the racks of t-shirts to find some I could sell on ebay, which at that time was a pretty profitable business for me. I had a buggy full of stuff this one day, and the store was packed. I kid you not, there was a lady behind me and every time I put a shirt in my buggy and turned back to the rack, she took the shirts out of my buggy and put them in hers. When I caught her, I called her out on it rather quickly....and proceeded to take my shirts out of her buggy.... which you can imagine caused a small ruckus. About the time this was going on, one of the managers came rushing towards us like the store was on fire. He started waving his hands in the air saying, "Ladies...please..Ladies...there are plenty of things here for everyone...please....please....." I guess the poor guy thought there was going to be a knock down drag out right there on the store floor over some used t-shirts and he was a nervous wreck....that only fueled my anger that we had upset him....no that the lady who upset me, upset him....get the picture???? The sad thing was, I did not know her story, maybe she needed the clothes, maybe she just liked what I chose, maybe I should not have been so upset with her. But upset I was.......the nerve of that lady was all I could say to myself.

I could tell you stories all day that are very similar to these. It happens all the time, someone will grab what ever I have in my buggy and question me about it or just seem to almost want to take it from me right then and there. I know that should not upset me, but I don't really like it when this happens and it is all the time. Maybe if this happened only once in a while I would not get my hackles up so, but like I said, it is more that just once in a while that this occurs.

I like to shop in peace, I like the thrill of the find and I like it uninterrupted. Likewise, I have always given other shoppers the same respect. I have lots of times walked into a store and knew right away I was just a few minutes too late....someone had some really grand treasures already in their buggy and I missed out. My heart would sink a little for the fact I missed a great item, but that was it. Likewise, I would never think to ask them if they were going to put them back on the shelf because quiet frankly, my thinking is they would have never picked them up in the first place if they did not want them. So, I just forget it and go on. I don't stalk. I don't stare. I don't try to take what is in their buggy. I am not saying that I might consider doing any of these things, but I know how that type of thing drives me crazy so out of respect for fellow shoppers, I do not do it.

These are a couple of extreme happenings in a long line of crazy occurrences though out the years. On a lighter note, there have been some very wonderful conversations started up over an item at a thrift store or Goodwill with someone who just wants to talk, not take. Those conversations are usually very informative on an item, or a conversation will often be about a memory of something similar that was special. And although conversations like these have always been enjoyed, I can sadly admit today, before my friends here on my blog,  I have never once even considered giving up what was in my buggy. Not once. Shameful, I know.

This Take Me Back Tuesday, is really a two part post. The follow up will be up tomorrow. I am sure you are wondering why I would share this not so nice side of myself today. Actually, I am thinking it not a good idea to hit publish after all. I mean, it is crazy to tell your friends you have been so selfish at times that it caused a scene in a store that upset the workers. That when you had every opportunity to do a random act of kindness, you chose not to do it. That deep down you have felt guilty over your actions but push that guilt aside. I have been all of these things and more. It took a single moment in time this last week to bring all of the nasty attitudes to the surface once again and the lesson was so simple, it was shameful. And in case you are wondering, it did not involve that phone call to my husband.

Yes, I really enjoy my treasure hunting....but at the same time, I know I would have enjoyed offering a random act of kindness to many of these individuals who only saw my not so nice side. Shameful. Next...you will see just how shameful it has been compared to a random act of kindness from a stranger with a much kinder heart than mine......I hope you come back for the rest of the story. If you followed this to the end, well, thank you for stopping by for this Take Me Back Tuesday. You may have noticed that there are no pictures, because frankly, I could not even think of any to go with this post......and that is a first for me.

Finished For Friday: Repurposed Wall Art - Cheap!

I am linking in with Lit and Laundry for a Finished for Friday post. I actually have a small project I completed this week and thought I'd link in today and show what I have been up to.

This past week, I decided to pop into our local Goodwill to see what they might have. I was actually looking for a bar stool, but instead of finding that, I found a little package of two prints from Ikea and they cost me .65 cents. They were new, never opened. I found them on the Ikea website for $4.00 for the set, of course when I went back to link them to this post, I could not find them.


Now, I needed frames. At a different Goodwill, I found two children prints and they were very similar to this one, and they were perfectly square frames....just what I needed. That day, it was half price day at Goodwill, so I paid $2.55 for BOTH of the framed prints. Ikea had the perfect frames for this project, but the price was over my budget. Click Here to see what I was wanting in a frame for these prints.

These are my finished for Friday prints. And may I add, a very thrifty project at that. The prints had white mattes originally. I took left over flat black spray paint from another project and painted the mattes black. Once re-framed, no one would ever know they were once another color.

Prints: .65 cents - brand new
Frames: $2.55 - for both frames
Black spray paint: free

Total for 2 framed prints measuring 26 X 26 : $3.21

The greatest money saving tip when you are looking to update or change a look inside your home is look at other peoples cast-offs, and see if you can figure out a way to re-purpose them into something to fits your needs. All it takes is a little creativity and a little time and you can make something fantastic for very little money. I love how these turned out and I know they will look wonderful in my daughters apartment. Have a great weekend.....and don't be afraid to step into your local Goodwill or thrift store....I swear, there are treasures there waiting to be discovered.

Vintage Thingie Thursday : Vintage Dachshunds

Welcome everyone to Vintage Thingies Thursday. If you have a love for vintage things, well....you have come to the right place. We have a "dog-gone" good time each and every week!!!
If you are new to this party, please take the time to read and follow the instructions for participating in Vintage Thingies Thursday, click HERE. I try and keep things fairly simple, so please make sure you follow the instructions. Please only ONE link per week. Lastly, if you link in, LINK back to my blog, so everyone can see all of the vintage goodies being showed that day. If you don't link back here, they won't know who to visit......thanks so much.

As usual, time found me running through my house wondering what to show you this week. I simply forgot it was Wednesday.....go figure! I do feel some what better this week, things are still mighty stressful around our house, but hey...we are breathing and living and what greater blessing can there be.

Now, I am sure you will be mighty surprised when I tell you I have a few vintage "dachshund" treasures....ahem.....no? well......lets pretend you were surprised. Okay?

This little sweetie reminds me of Bailey......the baby. She is the same coloring as this little salt shaker.....I found this one day at a thrift store, and there was only one. No matter.....it is loved beyond measure.

My daughter and I found a antique thrift store today and we had no idea it was even there. That in and of itself is a big deal at my house, I thought we knew where all the treasure shops were. Anyway, we spotted this little guy. There are markings on the bottom and back that say "Japan"
He may be a bit strange....but he fits in at our house rather well. I like him.

This beauty was an estate sale find a few months ago. This is made out of some type of stone and when I spotted this little dog, I snatched it up rather quickly!

Now, these are cracker trays. I have showed you the orange-ish one before, I think...but today, my daughter purchased the little green one for herself at the new found treasure store. So cute.

This is a planter, and I like this a lot, it holds my empty bobbin spools when they come out of my sewing machine.

This is one of my favorites. This is a vintage pin cushion. I think I paid $1.00 for it because it is supposed to have a ring of flowers around its neck, but only one remain today. Again, that did not matter to me, still cute to a dachshund lover!!

Here is a goodwill find, and I am not so sure it is really vintage, but none the less, it sits on my desk and holds important notes to myself that I don't want to lose. Working dachshunds are really the best kind to have.

Finally, the most unusual little dachshund of all....this is a vintage liquor decanter. I love this one too because it looks just like my Sophie-girl. I don't use this of course, but I sure enjoy looking at this little dog. Hope you enjoyed all my vintage dachshund dogs today. I really don't set out to find these on my outings, they just sorta find me. Somehow, I think they know they will have a forever home with me and my three living dachshund girls.

And....I'd like to give you the heads up on next weeks post. Today was half-off day at Goodwill....and well, the most highly unusual thing happened while my daughter and I were there. I'm saving that for next week......you won't want to miss it.....things like this don't happen often at all.

Have a great weekend everyone!!! It is super hot here, so I am wishing for a lot of inside activities....but I don't think that will happen. We have to move my daughter this weekend back home, and well, we know that is not a inside activity! Take care~

Take Me Back Tuesday: High School Home Economics Class Revisited and a Recipe

Cooking has always been a big part of my life. From an early age, I was always baking something in the kitchen. Some of my favorites were recipes that I normally might not have tried.....I remember my mom being at work, and I'd take out a cookbook and hunt for something that we had all the ingredients for in the cabinets. Sometimes, that lead me to recipes that I might not normally look at....my favorite was always pound cake, and then of course any kind of cookies. I will say this, I used to make the very best pound cake you would ever taste...it was simply amazing. Not too long ago, I found the very recipe I used all of those years ago for pound cake, and made it. I hope it was the change in ingredients through the years and not my cooking skills, because it was just a mess.....and I have not tried again. I know sometimes I have issues with memory...I just hope the cooking skills don't go out the window with the memory cells too.....

It was not until I took home economics class in high school that my range of cooking changed from baking to actually cooking a meal. I still remember that home economics cooking class with our high school teacher Mrs. Summers. I think there were 4 cooking stations complete with ovens and sinks, and we worked in groups learning the basics of cooking a meal. I really loved this class......it was fun and besides that...we got to eat.....in class....yep...don't get any better than that.

Sunday, I did a lot of cooking, most for the week ahead and some to share with my friend's family while she recovers from surgery. I pulled out several of my recipes looking for something different. Now, I have kept lots of recipes over the years, many I have forgotten about. However, Sunday I discovered a piece of paper that had a recipe on it from long ago....it was from home economics class in high school.....and it just so happens to be the very first thing we ever made. Seriously, sometimes things pop up and manifest themselves from a long ago forgotten memory and it just makes you wonder.....or at least it does me.

I have not thought about this recipe in YEARS. I can still remember coming home from school and instructing my mom to buy all the ingredients, I was going to cook dinner. And cook dinner I did. Now, as a young girl, I thought this was a wonderful meal simply because I made it myself.

In a far corner of my mind, after I thought about this on Sunday, I am sure my mom did not think it was too grand, but she was just gracious enough not to say anything. And my poor little brother did not even have a choice...he just had to eat it. Now, I am not saying this is bad....it really was not, but if I sat this on the table to my family today....I think they would look at me like I was a alien....really.

The only other recipe I remember from home-economics class was a Mexican casserole, which I loved. Right after my husband and I first was married, I made it, and well, he GRACIOUSLY ate it but asked not to have it again....and it was really wonderful...to me, not my husband. So all of what I learned and first cooked in high school with my friends, were a thing of the past, long forgotten. After all, if my husband was not going to eat it, I did not need to make it.

The common denominator in this memory, was not so much the recipe being discovered after years of safe keeping inside a cookbook which I barely open these days. It was while I was searching for a recipe to make for my sweet friend, "whom by the way, was in my home economics class all of those many years ago," that this long forgotten recipe was discovered again.

Along with the recipe, wonderful memories came flooding back....memories of learning to cook and eating in class, learning to sew.....(baby blue and pastel pink over-alls) I kid you not....things that we did together long ago....when we were inseparable from each other in high school. I spent the greater part of the afternoon, remembering all of these things while I did the cooking......all those memories behind a recipe on a slip of paper....forgotten inside a cookbook and now discovered and remembered.

And yes, I am sharing this recipe with you today.....I had to search online for a photo...because I certainly did not have one to share, after all it has been about 26 years since I last made this, much less even thought about it.


Hamburger Cups

1 lb. ground beef
1/2 onion
1/2 c. BBQ sauce
1/2 tsp. salt
1 T. brown sugar
1 can refrigerator biscuits
grated cheese

Brown the ground beef and drain the fat. Add the chopped onion and stir till onion is cooked. Stir in BBQ sauce, salt and brown sugar.

Roll the individual biscuits or flatten them so that the fill fit into the bottom and sides of muffin tins. Spoon the ground meat mixture into the biscuit “crust”.

Bake at 400 for 10 – 12 minutes.
Top with grated cheese and place back in oven til cheese melts.

Thanks for stopping by on this Take Me Back Tuesday.....it certainly took me back with fond memories this week to a very dear time in my life. Now, if you try this recipe...be sure to stop back by and tell me what you think.

Vintage Thingie Thursday : Vintage Bear Books - Re-run

Welcome everyone to Vintage Thingies Thursday. If you are new to this party, please take the time to read and follow the instructions for participating in Vintage Thingies Thursday, click HERE. I try and keep things fairly simple, so please make sure you follow the instructions. Please only ONE link per week. Lastly, if you link in, LINK back to my blog, so everyone can see all of the vintage goodies being showed that day. If you don't link back here, they won't know who to visit......thanks so much.

****This post is a re-run post from way back when I first started posting for Vintage Thingies Thursday when The Apron Queen was the hostess, in 2008. I have sort of lost my mojo this week with so many things going on and the worry of a very ill family member. My heart just was not into creating a new post this week....so I cheated. I will try and visit everyone if time allows. Hope to be back in full swing next week. Thanks for understanding and allowing a break this week.


Re-run post from summer 2008

This week, I have some vintage books. Not just books...but Vintage BEAR books. To remind you, I have mentioned here on VTT about collecting black bears. I also have a fondness for bear books as well. Imagine That! Take a look at some of the great books I have found.


I found this book at a garage sale a few years ago, in fact, I almost passed it up. It was missing the dust jacket, but the word forest and the cute bear paws got my attention and I opened the book. My heart was skipping beats when I discovered it was a book about bears in Yellowstone National Park. The Author Essie Forrester O'Brien spent summer vacations in Yellowstone. It seems while O'Brien's husband and son were off fishing, she contacted officials, rangers, employees, cooks and old-timers in the area. She collected first-hand information on the lives and habits of the Park's wild animals. The stories in "Clowns of the Forest" are based on this material.





The stories, together with the pictures, portray the life of the bears in the park. This was published in 1948. This is a wonderful book, I loved it from cover to cover. It takes you back to a time when Yellowstone was a different park than it is today. Really good and entertaining reading.


This cute little book is titled Bear Stores Retold from St. Nicholas Magazine. Published by The Century Co. 1904. This charming little book has bear stories with black and white pictures of bears. The pictures are animated for the most part, but it adds a certain charm to the book.












This adorable little book is titled A Black Bear's Story by Emil E. Liers. I purchased this book on-line. It was a children's library book. The back of the book still has the library card sleeve. It is stamped:
North Saaplon School, 10475 McDonald Park Road, Sidney, B.C.
The book is in great condition and has wonderful stories of a black bear family.







This book is loaded with wonderful bear drawings to accompany the story lines. I really love this book, the outside is very colorful and it is a wonderful addition to my shelf of bear books.

Look at the mama bear sweet talking her cub out of the tree. Sweet I tell you.


This adorable little book is titled, Go West, Young Bear by Elizabeth Hamilton. Copyright 1948. This charming book is a tale of a friendly bear who lives in Eastern Canada and whose one ambition is to meet people and live a social life. However, the people are not too friendly. This bear happens upon a book about Yellowstone Park, and sets out on his quest for the Park who loves bears. This is a really cute book and loaded with cute pictures. The inside of the book has a sticker that says the owner was Miriam Babbitt Simpson.








Well, this is just a few of the bear books in my collection. I hope you enjoyed a peek into the charming illustrations of vintage books. I have about 15 vintage childrens bear books in my collection. I am always on the watch for more to add to my bookshelf. I have read every one of these books. They provide great stories and cute pictures and hours of entertainment.
See you next week.... Thanks for allowing me this rerun post this week, hopefully next week, I'll be back to myself.