Lori, Mona & Bonnie at the Antique Mall!

After dropping Randy off at the airport on Thursday we still had plenty of time for some quick browsing and poking around!

After all, it was only 1:30pm and our shopping at Mary Jo’s in Gastonia had only whet our appetite in the pursuit of more wondrous finds of the vintage kind.

This spot was new to me this past week, I discovered it while waiting for Randy to arrive to start our retreat.  This is where I found the  Red Eye treadle head and the H Quilt.

Catawba River Antique Mall in Belmont, NC opened October 2014 in a HUGE 107 year old cotton mill.  It is light, bright and airy.  Booths are not over crowded, nor are they stuffed with yard sale junk as you see in a lot of malls.  This is a great one to wander, and it will take you a long time to do so!

All of the wood floors in the mill have been refinished and they gleam.  It’s kind of like “new car smell” in a very old building!

We spotted several machines, but none came home with me.

This FREE was a beautiful machine –but it cracks me up that no one knows how to release the tiny set screws on the hinge pins and just lift a machine out.

Instead they tear the whole thing out of the cabinet, hinges and all, damaging the cabinet in the process.  SAD!  This one is still in its cradle, you can tell by the frame with the treadle belt holes to the far right.  Too bad!  I would have loved to have seen this one in its natural state.  It will be hard to find a cabinet that this machine will fit in because many machines only fit their own manufacturer’s cabinets.  For instance, you can’t always pop a White into a Singer cabinet.  They are different shapes and sizes and the width between the hinge pins may vary.

But the shuttle is there!

Beautiful cabinet!  Buried in STUFF!

This also drives me nuts.  You’ll find a sewing machine cabinet, with the machine hidden inside, and the top of the cabinet so laden with merchandise that you can’t get to the machine to find it inside the cabinet.  This one however was pretty pricey – no wonder.  It had a BEAUTIFUL cabinet!

$25.00 door stop! 

No shuttle, and completely frozen up and rusty in places.  This one was made by National.  You can tell by the circular medallion at the top of the stitch length adjuster.  That little medallion swivels out of the way so you can access oiling points.  The tensioner at the top of the machine is called a “leaf” tensioner. 

We found quilts and tops!

Baskets minus handles!

Maybe these are bowls?

Very wobbly album block!

Of course, every triangle has bias on the outside edge!

My favorite block was the one with the giant polka dots in the far right.  Run out of dots?  Throw in some Gingham or whatever else you can find.  And the giant yellow cornerstones?  They bring in the sunshine and make me smile!  As Lori is often heard to exclaim – “That is ONE HUMBLE QUILT!”  Humble quilts are the best of all!

Mona’s Find!

Mona got the bargain of the century when she paid $12.00 for this quilt in not great condition.  It’s funny how things work sometimes.  She was telling us of a plan to take a vintage battered french door with glass panes and place a quilt behind it so the quilt is visible behind the glass, and use it as a headboard on the wall.  This just came off the top her head in conversation.  She was describing it in detail and all she needed was the quilt.  She already knows where the door is.

We turned the corner, and she found her quilt!

ONE MORE HUMBLE QUILT!

It’s hard to discern the pattern in this one, but it is also album blocks, with squares on point sashing.  And I think the most fun of all is that the sashing is offset on the rows…not on purpose!  The maker just made it however she/he made it and those sashings sometimes lined up, but often they didn’t.  So fun! 

I love it when quilts are random like this ---it echoes our life’s journey –A life with random detours and unexpected moments is a lot more exciting and wondrous to live rather than one that is planned and perfect down to every detail.

Lori’s Catch & Release!

That hanging diamond cross hatching is 1/2” apart!

This one was pretty shredded as well, but the original workmanship was so fine that the price was pretty high even with disintegrating fabrics.  The one thing that ties this quilt together is the use of the pink triangles on the edge of each block.  I also love that there were substitutions where the maker ran out of whatever fabric she had intended the block to be made of.  Run out?  Stick in something similar.  Or something vastly different.  Just get the job done!

Huge ginghams make me smile!

Substitutions visible in the left block.

What an awesome find!

My last night’s viewing pleasure while treadling!

My APQ Quilt Along four patches are coming along!  On the screen—some episodes of Foyle’s War that I hadn’t seen.

I am so happy that I decided to be up here at the cabin for just a couple of days solo.  It’s good to recharge my batteries, settle my mind, and be ready to visit with a local guild in Greensboro, NC this weekend!  I’ll get to sleep in my own bed!  And have a fun lecture time and workshop time with some local gals here in North Carolina.  I’m excited!

Yesterday’s Afternoon hike.

Around the bend as the sun was getting closer to setting behind the next mountain ridge.

Viewed through my pines at the edge of my property.

Enjoy your Sunday, everyone! 

And for those asking – yes.  It’s time to do some Quilt-Cam.  I’m thinking Tuesday or Wednesday evening.  I’ll know more about the schedule in the next day or so.  I’ll let you know!

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