Flea Market Finds

A couple of weeks ago Vince and I had a few minutes before an appointment and, much to Vince’s delight, we were close to a flea market. Vince said . . five minutes . . let’s walk around in there. Briefly I thought about one of those shows that used to be on TV (maybe still are) where people ran around inside a store with a shopping cart trying to get as much in the cart as they could in a certain amount of time. I don’t remember if it was to see who could put the most stuff in their cart or if the goal was to see who could get the most dollar amount in their cart . . I just remember people running like crazy and filling their carts. That was the vision that popped into my head as I thought of Vince spending five minutes in a flea market.

I only made it down one row because I ran into a lady who has an 18 year old dachshund and we started chatting and . . ding, ding, ding . . time was up.

I found this dachshund bag and, of course, I had to get that.

I found this box of DMC floss. This one has numbers 800 – 3850 so I felt like there was at least one more box, maybe two, with more DMC but it wasn’t in that booth and I ran out of time before I got to explore more. The floss is so neatly wrapped around the bobbins and the writing on the bobbins is beautiful. More than finding the other boxes, I wish I could find the owner of this box and meet her and see her stitching, but, that likely isn’t going to happen.

This sheet was tucked inside the box. It has so much info on it, as well as a list of all the DMC colors that were out at the time so you could check off the ones you have and it looks like she had them all, a list of the numbers and their corresponding color name but what I love is this chart that tells you the size your piece will be based on the total number of stitches horizontally and vertically and the fabric you’re using.

I’m sure this was before online stitch calculators were available – maybe before online was available. This has a 1990 copyright. I think we got our first home computer in 1993. Even now, for some of us with less than dependable internet, this chart could save on having to do the math. I have copied this onto cardstock and have several copies in places.

The third and final thing I found was this stitched Santa for $1.00. It was in a different booth so I don’t know if it’s connected to the floss box or not.

The stitching seems perfect and the back is so very neat. Seeing this piece gives me incentive to fully finish everything I have stitched so that when I’m gone, no one will see the back sides of my pieces! 🙂

I soaked this piece in cold, mild soapy water, rinsed it, spread it out on a towel to dry. I have plenty of Christmas fabric but not sure if it’s packed or buried because fabric is stacked two levels deep on the shelves. As soon as I find the Christmas fabric, I’m going to finish that into a pillow. I think I have a couple of other projects to be made into pillows so once I get started, I’ll probably do several.

Every time we pass that flea market, I think about stopping and searching for another DMC box but going in a flea market with Vince or should I say “leaving” a flea market with Vince can be stressful.