Some New to Me Treasures

As I mentioned in my last post, we found a few little treasures while at the Rylstone Swap Meet last month.

On the Sunday morning, after we had set ourselves up I suggested Mick go for a wander around and see if there was anything interesting.  He declined, so I said I would go.

Well......I only got two stalls up from ours when I found a little treasure trove.  There was an older lady and her husband and she had some vintage sewing bits and bobs for sale. My timing was perfect, as the lady was just unpacking her items for sale.  These few items came home with me..... and all at very good prices.  

I couldn't believe my luck when I saw this.  I never find such things, except at exorbitant prices.  Upon doing a little research I have learnt that it is a German made "Muller No. 4", probably made in the 1920s.  Such a sweet little toy sewing machine.  Apparently the lady had purchased it in England about ten years ago.

It goes well next to my Peter Pan.

I do have a shoe similar to this one that was my Grandma's, but this one has the original pincushion and shoe laces.

These pinking shears are quite large, more suited for a man to use.

Once again, I did a little research when I returned home and learnt that the "Pinking Shears Corp. N.Y.C." was the company founded by the man who invented pinking shears.  They would date from the 1950s. I haven't tried them as yet.  Hopefully, they are nice and sharp.

I had to buy this, as I had no idea what it was, and neither did the stall holder.  She had two more, which were a bit larger, about 5 inches wide.

I did a bit of Google research on this too, and finally discovered that it is the shuttle from a ribbon weaving loom.  I must say I've never seen one before, so it was an interesting item to add to my collection of bits and bobs.

She had some other interesting items as well, but I did have to leave something for others to purchase, didn't I.

For Mick, I found a metal figurine, to go with the other couple he has, and when he did finally go for a walk he found the little crane, to add to his collection.  This one is for a Hornby railway layout.

My other find, which I was pretty happy about, was this little item.  I have been half heartedly looking for one for a while now.  My best friend in early high school had one and I was always intrigued by it.  It is a Royal Worcester Egg Coddler. A little research here too, and the design on this one is "Bournemouth".

I could't wait to give it a try.  If I didn't like it, I would just put in on the next Swap Meet stall.

You grease the inside with a little butter, break in your egg and then you can season it with salt and pepper and maybe add a little grated cheese and chives, etc.  Then you screw the lid on and immerse it in a saucepan of boiling water to a height just under the metal rim.  It takes about seven minutes for the white to cook and the yolk to remain soft.  The beauty of this, is that you can take the lid off to check if it is cooked or not, unlike an egg cooked in its shell.

Then sit down to a nice breakfast of egg and avo toast.  Yummo!  I'll try this again. It is not going back on a stall.  Now I'll be keeping my eye out for another one.  I had a quick look on Ebay and they sell for about $40!!  I think I did OK with my $5 purchase.

I went to a garage sale recently as well.  It was advertised as having a lot of craft and patchwork supplies.  We arrived at the advertised start time and there were large plastic tubs of fabric being sold at $10 per tub - like about 20 of them!  There was next to no patchwork fabric.  Apparently, it had all been sold already - about 15 tubs of it!!!  There were tubs and tubs of crocheted rugs, and crocheted kitchen towels, and hand worked baby items.  I've never seen so much craft work or supplies.

There was a huge tub of crochet cotton that Mum could use, so I bought her a few balls.  There was a  big tub full of zips.  I bought a few, but they weren't all that cheap.  

I was very happy with two of my purchases though........

There was a bag of bias binding at $1 per roll.  I bought all of these.  The wide ones have the price of $2.99/metre on the roll.  They will be perfect for trying some quilt as you go and the others for trimming bibs.

For ages, I have been looking for some of this style of trim, to no avail.  You can only buy the cord, without the section for putting in the seam, at Spotlight.  Now I can go ahead with a project that has been sitting patiently for a few years.  The colour is even ideal. I was happy with the price of $5 for the lot.

I think I need to keep my hands in my pockets for a little while now, don't you?