Friday 4 May 2012

Friday Flea

 

It's a long time since I last visited our local Friday Flea Market, but this morning I decided to pop along and see what goodies they had.


 

After a quick browse I headed for my favourite stall holder Heather. She sells old linens, buttons, lace, cashmere jumpers etc, and you never know what you will find.

 

Today I bought a huge vintage pure linen sheet, wonderfully fine and crisp, with the laundry marks and a name label still attached. To me this is one of the fascinations of vintage linens and textiles - the wondering where they have come from and who they belonged to, where they lived and what life they had.

 

I also found these pretty vintage buttons to use on some projects. Heather says she loves carding these up, selecting either a group of matching buttons that have been removed from a damaged item of clothing, or from somebody's button tin, and sometimes waiting for more old buttons to come her way before finding the right ones to go together on the card.
This is obviously a woman who loves old buttons!

I can relate to that as I remember that one of the many joy's of visiting my grandparents when I was little would be when my Granny let me look through her sewing chest, one of those large brass chests with a galleon on the front, and my favourite bit would be tipping out the pretty button tin, which was always an old toffee tin with either a cute puppy or pretty flowers on.

 
a pretty matching set of  navy blue buttons with a swirl pattern


 
and a selection of white buttons with different patterns and textures


I have lots of garden photos which I took on Monday and Tuesday afternoon when the cloudy skies cleared and we were left with stunning deep blue skies and sun.


 

Rather than bore you all with one huge post full of flower photos, as is my wont, I will post a few each time as who knows when we will get the next sunny day!

There is a lot of colour in our garden at the moment, thanks to the previous owners as we have done little yet, and the tulips and azaleas are wonderful. These orange, yellow and soft peach coloured variegated tulips are my very favourite, and we are lucky to have some clumps in both front and back gardens.

I will show you the azaleas in another post, but now my sewing room beckons as I have had little time to sew this week.

An unexpected drama on Wednesday afternoon when water spewed forth from my kitchen cupboards and drawers like waterfalls due to a burst kitchen tap hose, and within minutes flooded the floor in inches of water, put paid to the day I had set aside yesterday for sewing. Instead I spent a lot of time clearing and cleaning and dealing with plumbers and I am glad to get back to normal now its all fixed!


 
Edited to add:
I have just had a warning that due to the background I use from shabbyblogs.com there may be malware so I am having to remove my pretty patchwork background. I hope they get the problem sorted soon as they have some lovely backgrounds! So sorry to all my regular readers who may have been scared away by this, it should be sorted now by my removing it - I didn't get the warning when I accessed my page after removing it..


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12 comments:

  1. Hello Gill:
    Oh, doom and gloom over your plumbing problem. We are so sorry and know only too well how much valuable time can be spent sorting out these kinds of things. We do so hope that all is well now.

    Your button finds look most intriguing and we are fascinated to read of your grandmother's sewing chest. How wonderfully exciting for a small child. Do you think that your love of sewing comes from her?

    Kellemes hétvégét!

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  2. Hi,

    I just love looking at buttons, when I was young one of my favourite 'rainy day' things to do was to get my mum's old button box out which had belonged originally to her mother ..as you can imagine it was full of the most fantastic vintage buttons...and where is it now? My mum threw it out without me knowing with the comment 'well who wants a load of odd old buttons'..I nearly fainted!

    Hope you have a lovely weekend.
    Fleur xx

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  3. Hi Jane and Lance
    Thanks for your sympathetic comment re: plumbing!
    I think my love of sewing and vintage comes from what I absorbed as a child, as like many children of my era (60s baby!)I grew up with handknitted cardis and home sewn dresses - all female relatives seem to either knit or sew or do both! So there was always button tins, fabrics and trims, and wool and needles in use all the time, and projects being undertaken.

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  4. I find buttons fascinating too.When I was little and poorly in bed,my Mum would get out her button box and I would love looking through all the lovely colours and shapes.
    Hope the sunshine peeps through this weekend...it's cold here today! :0)

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  5. I love buttons, especially old button boxes!
    Your card of white buttons are very pretty. :)
    Have a lovely weekend Gill,Vivienne x

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  6. Gorgeous buys Gill, I would love to get my hands on a vintage linen sheet :) hope you have a wonderful weekend sweetie

    Bee happy x
    Have a delicious day!

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  7. Gorgeous buttons Gill!
    I found a sheet like that one just last week, and it had the red name tag on it too!! Not the same name though. LOL

    Your pipe business sounds a pain!!
    Have a lovely weekend my dear and take care. x

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  8. The picture of your camellia is lovely. Our garden fence blew done during the heavy rains and fell on top of mine so it's looking a little sorry for it's self.
    Gillx

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  9. Lots of lovely lovely buttons! I'm sure you'll have LOTS of fun with those! Cx

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  10. Gill... I just love your vintage buttons! There is something about old stuff, isn't there? You wonder who owned them, where they come from, what would they say about places and events they have seen, if they only could talk!

    I love the way you recycle vintage! I love your skills. You are one very clever lady!

    HAPPY WEEKEND!

    ANNA
    xx

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  11. Buttons are very addictive, they are such a tactile thing to play with.
    The tulips are very pretty.
    What with the car and the plumbing you have had your share of mishaps, hope things run smoothly now!
    Lisa x

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  12. I love collecting old buttons, there's just something about them that reaches out to me :) Hope your plumbing problem is all sorted now!
    Best wishes.

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Thanks for visiting and for taking the time to leave a comment - I love to read them!
Gill x