An Exercise in Stash Building

Last weekend was the Rocky Mountain Sew Expo in Denver. I went there to gawk over the booths of fancy sewing machines and hunt down another sashiko embroidery kit.

But the booth that really caught my attention (and my money) was a little unassuming booth called Craft Scraps. The name’s pretty descriptive; they fill their table and shelves with all manner of secondhand crafting temptations that need new homes. There’s scrapbooking, rubber stamping, knitting and crocheting supplies, and of course, fabrics and sewing notions.

I was just going to, you know, window shop… peruse… browse… scan. Shucks, it was a no-go from the get-go. Little bundles of vintage fabrics reached out from the shelves and yanked at my heart. Then it was yarn, then it was buttons. The shop owner finally handed me a basket because stuff kept falling out of my arms. Sigh.

Anyway, one thing I noticed as my pile was growing is that it was a wonderfully color coordinated pile. I must of been feeling orange that day. And turquoise. Now I feel like whatever final form these treasures take on, they’ll have to do it together. I can’t break up a matched set! I’m justifying it all because the prices were so irresistible. $1.10 for wool yarn, $1.35 for buttons, $1- $4 for fabric, who can resist?

Have you ever seen such adorable, sculpted vintage buttons?

Now I don’t know yet what I’ll do with it all- placemats, bags, book covers, pouches, water bottle cozies? But in the meantime I’m digging the vintage color combinations. So to honor the colors, I’ve created a little color storyboard, AKA the blog Color Collective. Enjoy the color goodness with me!

If you live in Colorado and you’d like to find out where you can catch up with the gals of Craft Scraps, they don’t have a website, but you can email them to find out what shows they’ll next be appearing at: craftscraps@comcast.net.

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