Finally Done!

It has taken a while but I have finally finished this little quilt. Made from fabric my daughter bought me for my birthday a few years ago. My downfall is always the hand quilting, it takes such a long time but I enjoy doing it and love the way the finished quilt looks.

I have quilted it with  a  running stitch using purl cotton. It looks exactly right for the fabric.

I recently had the chance to go and have a look around ''The Mains", a homestead on the outskirts of Corryong built by the Baileys around 1878. Mr Bailey paid for the ticket of a Scottish stonemason to come out to Australia and work off the cost of the ticket by building the house. It is a bit neglected and the gardens have all been removed but you can still see what it would have been like almost 140 years ago.

Even the fence around the yard is stone.

This could possibly be where a baby was buried. There is another one further down the fence. Bit sad
.

The milk room or cool room is one side and quarters the other. There is a cellar under the milk room, (Didn't venture down there!)

And then there is the barn.

Garage Sale Goodness

Generally there are at least a couple of garage sales on here every Saturday morning and occasionally I pick up something of interest. Today was an extremely successful day, so successful it has got me back on my Blog!

First garage sale this morning there was more than a little too take my interest.

The Vintage picnic basket immediately caught my eye and then I started rummaging through a box with some doilies and other bits and pieces in it and decided to make an offer for the lot.  The embroidered goodness sitting on top of the box was the next thing to be quickly put on my pile of purchases.

So I have laid it out on Mum's queen size bed. How amazing is that? Handmade by an Aunt of the lady running the garage sale. I don't know how she could part with it. After a very short discussion between family members it was decided that $40 was a fair price to charge for this. I did promise it would be well looked after.

I wasn't sure how much of the stuff in the box was going to be worth keeping but figured that the $30 they decided on was fair enough from what I had seen. Turns out I got an extremely good deal.

Vintage bits, tablecloths, tea cosy , crocheted lavender bags...........

Very old hankies that were in the process of being sewn together to make something?

Lots and lots of embroidered tablecloths, tray cloths, doilies, runners and more!!

A very old lace petticoat and a linen bag.

Tablecloths and doilies that haven't been embroidered yet or only partially done. I wouldn't even try to guess how old some of them are. Also a box of threads to go with them.

And in a plastic bag right down in the bottom corner of the box.......antique lace. 

And last but not least........

At the very bottom of the bag a fragile silk shawl, light as a feather.

Money well spent I think.

On to garage sale number two where I picked up a couple of things.

Jars with Bakelite lids, a small wooden rolling pin and a vintage salt spoon.

The lady running this garage sale (in her early 70's) remembers these jars sitting on a shelf above the wood stove in her grandmother's kitchen filled with spices.