Some Bargains Come Around Only Once

For some reason I have a little time tonight so I thought I would share with you what I picked up on a recent trip to the Dollar Tree Store. I enjoy this store because everything is still just a $1. My daughter, Moon, and I made a pact to go into the store and find some items that could possibly be used on a CQ and not spend more than $10 for the trip. We were to go in and out in just 15 minutes. One of the great things about the dollar stores is that their inventory changes all the time and you can always find something different. The drawback is that if you like it you had better buy it because it might not be there next time!

Because we had just passed the Easter holiday the store was still full of spring type merchandise. I picked up 2 rolls of good quality 1/2" wide satin ribbon to use for ruching, bows and folded flowers. I also found some narrow gold braid which will be great for laying on a seam and couching down with beads. One thing I have always had trouble finding at the dollar stores is beads. But, this time I hit the jackpot. The beads I found were already strung into something else. Eyeglass holders! They have some very uniform sized beads in great colors and some super little novelty beads on them. I just had to have them! I bought the 4 packages below for myself and then one of each for a friend. Of course, this put me over the $10 limit I had imposed but really, some of it was for my friend and my portion was below $10, LOL.



Aren't the little butterflies and flowers cute? They came in a variety of colors too! The metallic hearts are really great and I wish they had more of those! You have to think outside the box when you are looking in there for this stuff, that's for sure.

I'd also like to share a little blue bear that lives in my bedroom. I think I have mentioned my dear friend Nelle Stafford before. She was my CQ mentor and she was so creative! She could sew like nobodie's business too! She spent several years perfecting a teddy bear pattern that she could use for CQ purposes. It had to set up, not fall over, be large enough to show off her seams and embroidery. As she grew older she quit doing her CQ and started to give it away for the benefit of others. She would donate bears, of all sizes, that she had made to our EGA chapter's annual auction. Everyone wanted to have a Stafford Bear. If you didn't have one that she had made for you out of love or that you had paid her to make for you then this could be your last chance to get one of the few left in her personal collection. I am happy to say I have 3 Stafford bears! One that she made for me out of love and one small jointed one that I bought at the auction (paid a pretty penny for it too - everyone wanted it).

The third bear I own that Nelle did the work on is actually a TY bear that she made a vest and beret for. I named him Neil (as close as I could get to Nelle). Here he is in his finery.






I am very grateful that Nelle was a part of my life. She had the sweetest disposition. She taught me a lot about transferring patterns and interpreting how to do them in various embroidery stitches. Near the end of her stitching life she had trouble making the embroidery meet her own high standards so she quit. "While I am ahead of the CQ Gods" she laughed. I like to think of her now as being in heaven teaching some little angels to stitch those beautiful, perfectly spaced seam treatments and flower petals.