Out and About, Antiquing!

After spending quite a LOT of time at A& E in Pensacola, we ran over to McGuires pub for a luscious lunch, with plans to hit a couple of antique malls once we were fortified and well fed!

McGuires is also a very unique place, it made me feel like I was right back in Dublin!  Except those were dollar bills hanging from the ceiling, not euros! (There are over a million dollar bills hanging from the ceiling….I kid you not….

Ceilings lined with money, honey!

Antiquing with a group is a lot of fun –it’s interesting to see what each of the five of us were drawn to and found unique,  of course, I was after quilts and sewing machines…..and we weren't disappointed!

8 pointed stars in early indigoes!

A great 1940’s model 66 in a very cool curved case!  I’d buy this one just for that case….love it…..I’ve got decoupage dreams! 

The machine didn’t go home with anyone, but would be a great one for someone just getting into vintage machines.  I think the price was around $50 ---and the wiring looked good on it.

Lovely Album Block Quilt!

Gorgeous 1930s green – and what about that striped sashing?!

This is a badged treadle, made by National and badged “Richmond Special”

Cabinet in beautiful shape, priced about $350 – a bit on the high side.

LOVED this idea!

Hang an old wooden ironing board on the wall and mount hooks on it….fun display!

This Singer 127  treadle was the steal of the century. 

On sale for $129, the finish is very worn, decals gone….but that hand wheel turns like silk.  It’s got a wooden pitman rod, the rod that moves the pedal – and this thing will sew SO silently ---it was well loved…imagine all the sewing it would take to wear a finish down to bare metal? I hope someone adopts this one quickly – and gets years of good use out of it.

Sweet hand quilted 9 pointed stars in red stripe!

Close up!

Bright and lovely!

Full of 1950s and 1960s fabrics…this quilt has seen years of good use and I love the colors!

Another treadle – beautiful MAPLE cabinet….

This one is a class 15 machine

Sweet string stars with yellow sashing!

This was my favorite of all…well maybe, at least up to this point!

These scraps are from around 1900 ---but that yellow gold sashing – did it come later?

And then I saw it…folded upon a dresser, just PART of it…And I knew this was something special!

Oh my goodness!  These squares are less than 1” --The whole quilt is hand sewn in 1930s prints and solids!

THIS was my favorite of the day!

Can you imagine the time, the patience, the skill it took to cut out each of these squares by hand, to piece them one at a time by hand, to hand quilt inside each little square by hand…to bind it by hand….THIS is a masterpiece!

We all stood around gawking and oohing and ahhing and feeling the texture of the quilting against these beautiful 1930s fabrics….speculating about the maker ---

Who was she?  Did she make other quilts?  How much time did she spend on this one?  Did she piece in the evenings, or during the day time on her veranda?

We will never know.  Somehow this family heirloom has ended up in an antique mall via an estate sale ---and its history is now lost.

LABEL LABEL LABEL!!  How many of you have that ringing through your heads?

It was a wonderful day out with new-found friends.  We are off to retreat this morning where I will be teaching through the weekend, but have plenty of time sewing for myself too!  I’m borrowing a machine and will be playing with the ladies when class time is officially over.

Great way to spend my birthday, don’t you think?

I DO!


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