Thrift Shop Adventures

Awesome $2 Thrift Shop Find

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Howdy.

It’s time to return to blogging after taking a week or so off after 31 days straight of posting to celebrate the tierneycreates blog 5th anniversary for the month of October.

I am going to return to sharing more photos/stories from the quilt retreat I attended the near end of October; and I recently returned from a trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico and I have photos and stories to share.

But first, I wanted to share another very cool thrift store find! It’s another entry in my series of posts Thrift Shop Adventures. This post is sort of a follow up to my October 22 post, Awesome $3 Thrift Shop Find. However this time it was an awesome $2 thrift shop find!

A Trip to a Local Charity Thrift Shop

Why I ended up on Saturday at a local thrift shop: I was dropping off a donation of yarn skeins after clearing out my excess yarn stash.

In my master bedroom closet I had two tubs of yarn tucked away. Poor forgotten yarn. 

A couple of years ago I made a commitment to only keep the craft items/materials that I loved and used (see my series of posts My Minimalism Journey) except I appeared to have forgotten about my yarn.

I pulled out the two large tubs of yarn, dumping all the skeins onto the floor and discovered I had yarn that I purchased over 15 years ago, never used, and likely would never use (especially the faux fur type of yarn that was popular for making those furry looking scarves 15 years ago!). I was able to put together a large package of yarn skeins to donate to a local charity thrift shop.

After pulling out all the yarn I would never use, I decided to put the yarn I would like to make something with (someday) somewhere besides tucked away in tubs in the back of my master bedroom closet.

So I organized (and I use that term loosely) the yarn skeins in the closet of my studio which I keep open most of the time:

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So with my remaining yarn organized, I headed off to a local thrift shop to donate the yarn I did not need.

A Yummy Find

After dropping off my donation at the donation area in the back of the thrift shop, I figured it would not hurt to just peek inside, quickly (smile), the thrift shop.

Once inside I immediately headed to the crafts section and what did I find – a large bag of beautiful home decorating samples:

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I could barely contain my excitement when I saw the price on the bag – two dollars! So the bag and I headed up to the counter to pay and I gleefully left the thrift shop with my prize!

Inside the $2 Bag

It was difficult not to open the bag and look inside in my car, but I knew I should wait until I got home and could fully enjoy the discovery of what waited inside.

Inside were many beautiful home decor fabric samples, like these ones below that were from New York City:

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And here are photos of a sampling of the other samples, as I was putting them away in the container where I keep home decor samples (which is now full…):

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Included in the package were beautiful swatches of raw silk, gorgeous embroidered fabrics, velvets and other wonderful textures.

Who knows what I will do with these fabrics, for now I am just happy to have them in my recycled fabrics collection and appreciate that someone donated them for someone else to enjoy rather than having them end up in the landfill.

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Published by tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Quilter, crafter, obsessive tea drinker and lover of all furry creatures (especially dogs and cats) - join me on my tierneycreates blog as I share stories from "A Crafter's Life".

34 thoughts on “Awesome $2 Thrift Shop Find”

    1. Thank you and I was definitely rewarded for donating a whole bunch of yarn I was never going to use! I hope so too – that someone will go – “wow – this is the yarn I’ve been wanting – score!” 🙂

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    1. Thanks so much! I was going to take a little longer break but I appear not to be able to stay away from sharing stories – ha! I like to think that the cute yarn I donated (include metallic/sparkly yarn) will make someone happy like finding the home decor swatches I found made me! 🙂

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    1. That is a great idea! I could make many large totes! There is a local boutique shop downtown that sells little purses and wallets made from recycled home decor samples – that would be cool to do!

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  8. I was given a huge supply of window treatment/upholstery fabric samples–amazing price per yard stuff–and I understand your excitement. Unfortunately, I had plenty of space to put it on a table in my garage so I accepted it all. Oh, dear, what a mistake. Daughter helped me remove all the cardboard and staples so it is now ready-to-use fabric. Lots of fabric. Too much fabric but too interesting to let go. I have made quite a few art quilts for my group swap.I’ve donated some for walker totes our guild makes. A friend has made 50 teacher tote bags for a mission project. And there is STILL a mountain of beautiful fabric! I’m thinking about making placemats.
    I must remember your quote about AWAY…..

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    1. Thanks Martha for sharing that and it would be hard to say no to all that yumminess! I will have to be careful to not become a home decor fabric hoarder! I did put aside about a 1/3 of it to donate back to the thrift shop so they can sell it to someone else 🙂
      Now I know if I need some more home decor fabric who to contact – you – ha! 🙂

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  11. Great find, Tierney. I’m getting the urge to visit my local thrift shop, and this posts reminds me of the treasures to be had. I do love a nice, textured jacquard weave. Hope the new samples are feeling at home with your sample collection! 😀

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    1. Thanks, and thanks for stopping by – great to hear from you and hope life is going well 🙂
      Yes lots of fun stuff for my collection (that I need to keep control of so I do not become a hoarder!)

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  13. There used to be a consignment shop near me. I would go to pick up my money and invariably spend it on something else in the shop instead of bringing it home. I wasn’t crafting at the time, so it was mostly clothes. And I was of a size for which there was a lot of choice.

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  15. I, too recently, purged my yarns. I still have more than I will ever use but they are pretty and and make me happy. They are in a cubby hole bookcase next to my fabric shelves, divided by color. My next purge will be my home dec collection…growing too big and some not to my tastes…at least probably not to be transformed in this life time. I never answered your thrift store treasure question during your give away. But when I read beastie’s second retreat report and saw the dish of mashed potatoes, I remembered my partial set of quilty dishes just like that which picked up once.

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    1. Hello Christine! I enjoyed reading your comment and the fun thing about purging is you get reminded of the cool stuff you have in your collection. I already purged some of my home decor fabric and I hope you enjoy that next purge, discovering some treasures your forgot. As far as my yarn, I am so happy to have it now “in my face” so I can be inspired to work on all those crochet and knitting projects I’ve flagged in magazines/books.
      Oooh – quilty dishes? Very cool – that sounds like quite the find! 🙂

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