I thoroughly enjoy shopping in charity shops. It’s the lure of the chase. You never do quite know what you will find. I’m always on the look-out for haberdashery, although I’ve learnt the hard way that thread which is ‘antique’ and looks beautiful may have become too weak to use. But many of my buttons, cards of elastic, ribbons and patterns have been acquired this way. Sometimes it’s a piece of fabric that catches my eye, and in fact my ‘Funky Flowers’ quilt pattern was inspired by a little girl’s dress I found in a charity shop. (You can find the pattern here.)
On Saturday I was in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, a town well-endowed with charity shops when I spotted a small oval box:
When I lifted the lid, I felt rather excited, as on the top lay a very small deck-chair.
A few years ago, I had quite a long “dolls’ house” phase, although I now only own two. One is one-twelfth scale (one inch in the dolls’ house furniture is equal to one foot in real life), so the deck-chair will fit in quite well. The smaller house is one-sixteenth scale, so these lamps and fireplace will go in there.
The little pink cupboard has an opening door, shelves and a drawer, while the pink wash-basin is cast in metal.
The black and white dog is also cast metal, while the somewhat less stable small black one is plastic.
There were tiny implements: a tray, a vase, a shovel, a spade and fork and a cake slice??- or maybe a trowel for pint-sized plasterers?
Finally, there were three rather scary babies. The larger one has a moulded-on nappy (perhaps you were supposed to paint one on), but the two smaller ones are in fact dressed in fully-fashioned romper suits with straps. I’ve let them sit on a one-twelfth scale hexagon patchwork quilt that I made years ago. It was quite nice to see it again and remember that I really had worked at that size, as I am currently engaged in a full-size hand-stitched hexagon patchwork quilt. It involves a whole lot of stitches…
I’m also busy preparing for classes. Click here to see what’s on.
Please subscribe if you would like to receive a blog-post each Monday, direct to your in-box.
Do get in touch. I would love to hear from you.
Thank you for reading my blog. Quilt patterns are here, Fabrics are here, Classes are here