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Saturday, May 17, 2008

We took a picnic lunch to the Tractor Pull today and I did not a) pack it in one of my 18 vintage picnic baskets or b) pack a vintage tablecloth. What sort of a picnic is that? I envisioned cold crusty fried chicken, freshly made potato salad and an assortment of freshly baked cookies all packed with loving care in pyrex bowls and stowed in a Redmon basket. Top it off with some graniteware dishes and a sweet vintage tablecloth, throw it in the back of my 1966 Cherried out Chevy truck and off we go. But, alas, turkey on white bread thrown in a Wal-Mart bag with a bag of Great Value chips was my gourmet tractor pull picnic. Maybe next year!

On the way there, we happened upon a sale at the Flea Market. This is a Flea Market with normally sort of pricey prices, but today all the booths were running discounts and (the best part) the vendors were outside selling their extras. I expected high prices outside, but I was pleasantly surprised at the first booth when I asked, "How much are the packages of rick rack?" And the guy said, "10¢ a pack."
He literally had hundreds of packages of old bias tape, but I rarely ever use that as I do not sew, but I love rick rack. I'm wondering if the Bais tape would have been a good Etsy buy. Oh well. I found all this rick rack, threw in a few Bais Tape for the old packaging and the sweet pink button card all for $1.50.
At the next booth, I spotted this fabulous old tin box. It has the Capital and the Cherry trees on the front. It is a Sunshine Biscuit tin and an exceptionally old and unique one at that. I almost didn't go look at it, because more often that not, when I see a really cool old tin like this, the people at the sale are using it as their money box. But, I ventured over to look at it. The price was $19.99 X'ed out, $15.99 X'ed out, $12.99 X'ed out and so on and so forth. I finally made out the lowest price on the tag. 25¢. Are you kidding me? I scooped it up and threw the lady a quarter. She is an expert too - I know her. Not sure why she was letting it go so incredibly cheap. I was stopped three times by different people asking to see the box. Me thinks I did good.

The next booth had lots of old tools and manly looking things, so I almost went to the next booth, but I decided to look around anyway. Sometimes men have cool rusty crap. That's when I spotted a box with an old embroidered pillowcase sticking out of it, so I dug in. I started pulling out vintage tablecloths. Gasp. I didn't really pull them out and check them out because I have noticed the more I look at things, the higher the price seems to be. So, I casually asked how mcuh the tablecloths were and he said, "A buck a piece." I found six in all and didn't even bother to unfold them at that price. I had some nice surprises when I got home and looked at them.

This is a sweet lightweight blue and white cloth. Perfect for that Tractor Pull picnic next year.

This one has a pink background with wirey baskets of blue flowers on it.

This fruit basket cloth has nice vivid colors of blues, grays and greens.

And, I was surprised to discover that this cloth is the same pattern as the cloth above, but in pinks, pale blues and grays. Cool!

Not the best photo - but this one has Roosters on it and who doesn't love a good rooster?

I saw the most awesome linoleum topped table and chairs today - yellow with roosters embroidered into the backs of each chair. The guy was selling it off piece by piece and I PRAY that no one bought one piece and not the whole set. It was da bomb.

And, lastly, this one has really bright vivid colors - greens, yellows and oranges.

I have a cabinet in the garage that I am itching to get into the house to hold my all-of-the-sudden fast-growing tablecloth collection. I did mostly have Christmas tablecloths, but I have been lucky this year and have quite a collection.

I'll be back tomorrow with pictures from our trip We saw bee-U-ti-ful things.



10 comments:

  1. All that food in Pyrex dishes in a big picnic basket?--you would have needed a forklift just to carry the basket! LOL But yeah, I see those (carefully orchestrated) spreads in magazines and dream of the same thing.

    Bias tape is my archnemesis. :D I just gave a huge bag of it (some vintage) to the garage sale this weekend. Someday I will probably live to regret that but I hate the darn stuff! And from the amount I find at thrifts, I think I may not be alone in my fear. LOL

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  2. You and Heidi both had comments about bias tape and I thought "oh crap" b/c I bought a huge lot of pkgs. last weekend. I just looked and 98% of it is the lace seam binding. It can be used for more deco projects thankfully.

    p.s. the word verifications lately are driving me nuts. I think I have typed them AS SHOWN, but get kicked back to try again. ARGGGG. I know my eyesight isn't THAT bad.

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  3. Love your finds...awesome tablecloths..espicially @ a buck a piece! The rick rack was a grat deal! I've collected old sewing stuff for years, and always fall for the old trimmings...ribbon & rickrack & buttons by the ton! Have a great Sunday! *elaine*

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  4. Wow, love the tablecoths! You have inspired me, I think I'm going to start a collection of them myself. I love to change my table linens on a frequent basis, I hope I can find some as nice as you always seem to.

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  5. You did good Shara!! Really good!
    I love it all!
    Every time I read your blog on the weekend when I DON'T go yardsaling, I always get the itch to go yardsaling...but by then they're all over! *sigh*
    I've just begun scouting for vintage tableclothes, but out here I'm afraid all these people use big plastic trash bags as tableclothes because there just are none!! Thanks for sharing!

    Jan

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  6. I love the roosters!!!

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  7. squeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!

    I never really check them over at that price either. What's the point really, we know I am going to buy them all? LOL

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  8. A good rooster? No such thing! They are all bad bad bad. Especially if you have one that lives across the street.

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  9. Anonymous7:41 PM

    such fun finds, love the table cloths! The trip looked really neeto!

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  10. Wow, what a score on those tablecloths! Good advice about not spending too much time looking lest the price go up.

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