I was so excited about going to the big sale today with Sue from The Sunshine Club, that I literally woke up at 4am and could not get back to sleep!
My car is more unreliable than usual right now with it's porous radiator that loves to leak and overheat the engine, so I was thrilled that Sue drove. I was Chief Navigator, she was the Pilot, and we cast off from our 9am meeting at the Alton, New Hampshire Senior Center, bound for adventures.
The Keepsake Quilting Retail Store's annual tent sale is legendary. It was tough going to find parking and then to walk down to the grand porches of Senter's Market in Center Harbor, New Hampshire.
We were very happy that the weather was overcast and cool to mild, but really no rain. I've attended this sale when the weather was broiling hot and that is no fun at all since it is all outdoors.
We spotted license plates from Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island, and even one from California. The broad porches were lined with throngs of quilters waiting in lines two abreast down the length of the building for their turn to go into the cutting tent.
I think that Sue and I were about an hour in the queue. As we chatted we constantly amused ourselves digging along the way into the ubiquitous big boxes of scraps. We got to fill our 6"x9" ziplock scrap baggie with our chosen treasures. One baggie, stuffed full, but the top must be sealed, cost $7.
Lots of veteran shoppers bring their own lawn chairs and choose their strategies as to whether to roll the scraps or to fold them to get as much as possible into their scrap bags. Inside the tents there are teams of workers at cutting desks for the sea of bolts standing up in plastic tubs. There is a one yard minimum and most go for $5 or $6 per yard.
Spirits are friendly but most definitely assertive when new scrap boxes are first brought out. A mad crush ensues to grab the very best of that lot. Some gals held armloads of scraps to roll or fold later after they had finished waiting to get into the tent.
Sue and I juggled with each other's loot to help balance our loads. I was rolling pads of scraps down my chest to stuff my scrap bags. Below is Sue, in the act of grabbing up a lovely blue floral toile, I think it was.
There were some tubs outside of the tent that held Keepsake precut "seconds" or "irregulars." I found two 5" charm packs of 50 squares each for $5 apiece. Once inside the tent, I settled for 7 one yard cuts, all of nice Civil War selections, of course!
We discovered that after leaving the tent, we needed to wait another hour, or maybe a little less, in the line to get a cashier from the four or five gals that were all hustling to ring us up as quickly as possible.
I had the best time ever!! My total for the day was under $70 and I absolutely loved the stuff that I bought. Sue outdid me with $113, but we were both very happy with everything.
When we made it back to Sue's car, we just sat, rested, laughed, and gloated over our bargains.
The gals in line had shared with us the directions to the Route 104 Diner in the next town over from our way home. It is part of The Common Man chain of top notch restaurants here in New Hampshire.
There Sue feasted upon the full Turkey Dinner, while I wolfed down a Classic Reuben Sandwich, and we split an appetizer of homemade fresh Onion Rings. We enjoyed a good lunch and felt revived to make our journey home. Below is a picture of my loot, Yippee, skippee!
I hope that you had some good fun today, too!
Happy Sewing!
My car is more unreliable than usual right now with it's porous radiator that loves to leak and overheat the engine, so I was thrilled that Sue drove. I was Chief Navigator, she was the Pilot, and we cast off from our 9am meeting at the Alton, New Hampshire Senior Center, bound for adventures.
The Keepsake Quilting Retail Store's annual tent sale is legendary. It was tough going to find parking and then to walk down to the grand porches of Senter's Market in Center Harbor, New Hampshire.
We were very happy that the weather was overcast and cool to mild, but really no rain. I've attended this sale when the weather was broiling hot and that is no fun at all since it is all outdoors.
We spotted license plates from Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island, and even one from California. The broad porches were lined with throngs of quilters waiting in lines two abreast down the length of the building for their turn to go into the cutting tent.
I think that Sue and I were about an hour in the queue. As we chatted we constantly amused ourselves digging along the way into the ubiquitous big boxes of scraps. We got to fill our 6"x9" ziplock scrap baggie with our chosen treasures. One baggie, stuffed full, but the top must be sealed, cost $7.
Lots of veteran shoppers bring their own lawn chairs and choose their strategies as to whether to roll the scraps or to fold them to get as much as possible into their scrap bags. Inside the tents there are teams of workers at cutting desks for the sea of bolts standing up in plastic tubs. There is a one yard minimum and most go for $5 or $6 per yard.
Spirits are friendly but most definitely assertive when new scrap boxes are first brought out. A mad crush ensues to grab the very best of that lot. Some gals held armloads of scraps to roll or fold later after they had finished waiting to get into the tent.
Sue and I juggled with each other's loot to help balance our loads. I was rolling pads of scraps down my chest to stuff my scrap bags. Below is Sue, in the act of grabbing up a lovely blue floral toile, I think it was.
There were some tubs outside of the tent that held Keepsake precut "seconds" or "irregulars." I found two 5" charm packs of 50 squares each for $5 apiece. Once inside the tent, I settled for 7 one yard cuts, all of nice Civil War selections, of course!
We discovered that after leaving the tent, we needed to wait another hour, or maybe a little less, in the line to get a cashier from the four or five gals that were all hustling to ring us up as quickly as possible.
I had the best time ever!! My total for the day was under $70 and I absolutely loved the stuff that I bought. Sue outdid me with $113, but we were both very happy with everything.
When we made it back to Sue's car, we just sat, rested, laughed, and gloated over our bargains.
The gals in line had shared with us the directions to the Route 104 Diner in the next town over from our way home. It is part of The Common Man chain of top notch restaurants here in New Hampshire.
There Sue feasted upon the full Turkey Dinner, while I wolfed down a Classic Reuben Sandwich, and we split an appetizer of homemade fresh Onion Rings. We enjoyed a good lunch and felt revived to make our journey home. Below is a picture of my loot, Yippee, skippee!
I hope that you had some good fun today, too!
Happy Sewing!
7 comments:
When I lived in Vermont, I made the trip to Keepsake Quilting (best store ever!!) several times, but never got to go to the sale...
Congrats on your loot and on a fun day!
This looks like a great day!
Fantastic haul, Vic. Well done!
Megan
Sydney, Australia
Glad to see you had a lot of fun :)
Yippee Skipee. I'm looking forward to see what you make with those lovely charm packs. Looks like you really enjoyed yourselves.
Fun to read your account of the sale. Getting there in the afternoon, we were able to walk right into the tent and the cutters were standing around waiting for someone to help. There were only a few boxes of scraps left to pick through, but we managed to fill two bags. They even brought out a fresh box of scraps just as I was about to stop. There were some lovely big Jo Morton scraps, so I rolled them tightly and was stuffing them in my bag when I was told that if you put a hole in the bottom two corners of the bag you could get more in. It worked.
It was fun to experience what I have read about on your blog each year. So sorry our situation didn't allow meeting up this year.
can imagine it was a terrific day and scads of delish fabric....glad you "restrained"....LOL
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