Another Wednesday, another flea market

Yes, we went to our favorite Wednesday flea market yesterday, in Leesport, PA.  The weather was supposed to be iffy but it turned out to be a beautiful day, sunny and mild temps.  And the place was loaded with dealers so there was lots to see.    Click here to see their homepage.

There were pansies, tulips and other spring flowers everywhere for sale.  So pretty and spring like fresh.  I bought a few little pansies to put in one of my gardens.  I will probably wait another couple of weeks before I buy anything else.  I usually make my big garden purchases around Mother's Day.

I didn't buy a whole lot of other things but enjoyed seeing all the things that were available.  I did see a lot of cups and saucers so I will feature them on Teacup Tuesday.  But here are some of the other things I found.

These little Amish Dolls caught my eye.  This area has a large Amish and also Mennonite population  so it isn't a surprise to find the dolls.

 I thought the use of this buggy to hold some flowers was a clever idea.

 If you need some planters this was the place to be.  I admit it, I bought several!

 Here was one of the table where there were a lot of pretty spring plants.

 

And I did buy some of the veggies.  Always a great selection.

And finally a Mantle.  No fireplace at our house but if we had one, this would be nice.

I hope to get to another flea market over the weekend.  If I do I will report next week.  Also check back on Tea Cup Tuesday.

First Tea Cup Tuesday of April

April showers bring May Flowers....  well actually we have quite a lot of flowers already.  So here is another Tea Cup Tuesday already.

After you visit my post today be sure to check out  these other tea posts today.

http://www.marthasfavorites.com/

or http://artfulaffirmations.blogspot.com

   ALSO: Rose Chintz Cottage


This week I am showing your a little Japanese Tea Cup and saucer I found at a local flea market this past weekend.  I though it was very pretty.  Not my usual style so didn't buy it.  But you KNOW I had to take a couple of pictures.

I thought they were very pretty.


Next week I hope to be able to show some new finds at a flea market I hope to be attending next weekend.
See you then.

This and That

   Enjoying all the pretty flowering plants and shrubs.  We planted these forsythia a couple of years ago and they are doing better each year.

Perhaps it was because Spring has sprung and we had a nice vacation. But for the past week I have been getting very industrious.  Actually finishing or nearly finishing some projects.

I have mentioned that  I have done a lot more sewing lately but seemed to have trouble finishing things up.  This past week was different.  To begin I made this mat.  I saw a place mat on line that I liked and decided to make my own pattern and see if I could do it.  Here is the result.

Now that I know it turns out ok, I will probably make it in colors more suitable for my dining room table.  I just had these purple scraps and decided to use them.
       
The next project is this tote bag.  Last fall I went to one of my favorite fabric stores where there sell lots of scraps of upholstery fabrics for REALLY CHEAP.  I bought quite a bit and this is made from some of those.
I used a lot of the special stitches on my sewing machine, also did a bit of machine applique in the middle.
So here is that result.

And the final project is a "fall table runner."  Last summer I found the idea in a fabric store in Maine and brought home the idea to replicate.  I bought the fabric at that store but the rest is my pattern.  I went on line and found a picture of an oak leaf which I enlarged, worked on and made it like I wanted it.  I cut out the four different colors of leaves and machine appliqued them onto the base piece.  The thread I used was a variegated one using the colors of the different leaves.   I also found a picture of an acorn on line and used it to create a pattern.  I printed up enough, pinned them to the base and stitched over the stop to served as quilting on the piece.  Then I ripped off the paper.
     You will notice there is no binding yet.  I will be doing that in a class I will be taking later in the month.

If you look closely you can see the "outlines" of the acorn that make up the quilted areas.
I will show again when I am completely finished.

Meanwhile I have been doing a bit of cleaning out in my garden.  I was NOT a happy camper when I discovered that the deer had been dining on my freshly growing hostas!  See picture below.

You can see the little places where they bit off the spikes.
I was reading a gardening book recently where they suggested that you put up little pinwheels in the areas where you want to scare off deer....  So I found one and put it up.  It doesn't go constantly but it does move.  I do hope it helps.  If it doesn't, well it looks cute anyway.

Come back to see me on Tuesday.  I have another tea cup Tuesday blog entry planned.