Score!

DS#2 and I ventured into one of our larger thrift shops yesterday. I'm paying for it now but it was worth it. I bought a bag of neckties for $2.50, which is 50% off the regular price for a bag of ties. In the past when I've purchased bags like this I would end up keeping maybe half of the ties in the bag and throwing away or re-donating the leftovers. I've even been stuck with weird things like suspenders. Consequently I'm very reluctant to pay full price for such pot luck. Yesterday, however, I hit the motherlode:

There were 21 ties in the bag. Nineteen of them were silk! I'm tempted to keep the two polyester ties and try to use them because they have such unique prints on them. There are a couple of ties that are so beautiful I'm a little surprised that they didn't sell out on the floor. Maybe they're just be too wide for current taste. Okay by me! I'm delighted to have the opportunity to turn them into something else. Normally I pay anywhere from a dollar t0 $3.00 for one tie so you can see why I'm so excited by this find. :- )

I have also photographed my Bead Round Robin block. I left if full size so you should be able to click on the picture and see it really close up. I also tried a couple of detail shots. (They've been rescaled so clicking on the picture won't do you any good.)

I have a bunch of wet ties to press dry so I'm not going to take the time to check my notes to see exactly who did what on my block but check out this tree! The trunk and ground are embroidered in what looks to me like a perle cotton. The treetop is all seed beads. Awesome!

On the left there's an embroidered blackberry vine with little beaded blackberries. Very cool and very appropriate as blackberries are indigenous to this area. I love the little embroidered "flight line" for the butterfly button! The area to the right of the sunflower is all beaded too.

My detail shot didn't do the upper right corner of the block justice. There's a great sisha mirror that was applied with a varigated thread and embellished with beads. And a ribbon that was appliqued and then beaded. My original idea was to make this the side panel of a tote bag but now I'm thinking I may have to turn it into a wall hanging or something!