Topeka, Kansas 1952

Yesterday I woke up to thunder.  I took that as a clue to stay home and work.  It doesn't hurt that I spied an auction Sunday in southern Missouri which advertises. . . *be still my beating-out-of-my-chest heart*. . . feedsacks!  Sigh.  :)  So, I skipped out on the farm auction north of Kansas City and was able to plan for this week's listings.

So, while I was pawing through my storage tubs, I came across a large bag of vintage feedsack quilting material cut up into various blocks, triangles, yo-yo's and such obtained way back in the Spring at a farm in Hiawatha, Kansas.  That was the auction that had a plethora of deer heads as evidenced here:

Remember when I mentioned earlier that every single farm auction has deer heads?  You may be interested to know, or you may not as I wish I didn't know, that the woman who purchased the slew of deer heads planned to "plant" them in her garden with just the antlers sticking out of the ground.

Hmmm.  I'll let you stew on that for a bit before continuing.



So back to my delightful bag of feedsack fabric. . . while I was digging around, I noticed a few pieces with sharp edges, so I pulled them out.

Attached to heavy card stock were small squares likely cut out for use in a quilt block pattern, no doubt, but what I loved most is the story.  It was 1952:

in Topeka, Kansas; March, to be exact, when Alice penned a letter to her mother.  She wanted to be sure that her mother knew that Patti and Buell were written to alerting them of the Santa Fe sale.  Alice mentioned that Babs and Leroy will be visiting in May and that the folks may come soon, too, but first are home selling off furniture, etc.  It appears her husband's name is Jimmie, and he just talked with Karl about Karl's new calf which had yielded them 5 gallons of milk.

But most importantly, it was a beautiful day on March 28, 1952 in Topeka, Kansas.

And, after the thunder and rain, the sun came out yesterday, October, 26, 2011, which made it a beautiful day here, too just about 60 miles east of Topeka, Kansas 59 years later.  

To whoever cut out the blocks and attached them to this letter, thank you.

Farms, Consignments and General Stores!!

The title is my schedule for the next few days.  Tomorrow I'm bundling up (a cold front has come through, brrrrr) and headed to a farm auction north of the city!

Friday I'm going to a consignment auction in our lake town and Saturday I'm going to an old General Store auction in Missouri.  The store has been in business since the early 1900's through today.  The advertisement reads that some items haven't been out of storage since the 1950's!  Doesn't that sound fun?

Just a couple more weeks of auctions and then the season will be winding down and I can finally focus on listing, listing and more listing!!

I did list a few sewing patterns on both eBay and Etsy today like this vintage New York Pattern:

and this Simplicity Pattern:

Remember, shipping for all patterns is free until November 1st at Etsy, so please take advantage of the sale by entering PATTERNSHIP at checkout!

My Past, Present and Future

Here's my "old" car if anyone is in the market for an HHR in the Kansas City area:

2011 Chevrolet HHR

Lovin' the new Equinox and tried it out this weekend in Hoisington, Kansas.  Look at how nicely all the auction finds AND my bag fit in the back?

I may have seen my future in Russell, Kansas, however.

*Awesome*

Weekly Shop Update

Not much on the front lines to report, but much is going on behind the scenes.  I'm in full swing attending the fall auctions before the cold weather permanently parks itself right over Kansas and nesting season begins.  I've been traveling quite a bit, as you have read in past blogs.

I've been spending ample time at gas stations filling up the auctionmobile and witnessing scenes such as this:

Wait!  I should reiterate and not use the scene in plural form because honestly, this has only been repeated at the same gas station outside Warsaw, Missouri.  The funniest part is if you look closely at the far-right gas pump, there is an ad for fried chicken on top of the pump.  I have to chuckle and think that there's nothing fresher than a chicken straight from the parking lot!  Ha-ha!!

At the farm auction near Clarence, Missouri, I picked up a box lot of antique eyeglasses, so I've been busy cleaning and photographing them for future listings:

And this week, we traded off the 2011 Chevy HHR because it just wasn't cutting it as an auction hauler and in its' place we purchased a 2012 Chevy Equinox.  I had to laugh when I told my husband that it's a vicious circle when you think about it:  trade in a car for a larger car with higher car payments so I can buy more stuff to sell.  Do you see the flawed logic there?  The good news is that the Equinox actually purports to have better gas mileage, but we'll see.  At any rate, that transaction has kept me busy for several days.

In honor of breaking in the new auctionmobile, my husband and I are traveling out to Central Kansas for an auction Saturday and hopefully fit in a few photo opportunities in the process.

2009 was the last time I was out in my beloved state, so I'm really, really looking forward to it!  Hopefully, I'll bring home some more goodies to add to the shop!

From Dancing Bumblebee Cottage to you:  Have a GREAT weekend!

Saturday's Missouri Farm Auction

I was tickled pink when I read the auction listing for a farm auction just 35 miles away from our lake cottage.  This meant that I drove down Friday and spent two nights.  But better yet, I had access to our storage unit, which is a good thing right now as the last farm auction still needs to be sorted in my office.

Oh, what a fun time it was!

The house was very, very old and had 4 barns full of stuff so much so that there were two rings which I normally hate when I'm alone, but this time it worked perfectly because half of my competition was elsewhere!

Check out the bent lightening rod!

Boy did I ever get a workout!  The parking was in a field past the 4 barns and house.  I had to drive over worn, rutted paths with rocks sticking up to finally land in a field that had vegetation over the bottoms of my wheels that included thorny bushes.

I was so thankful I had my trusty cart purchased at an auction in 2001.

Sadly, one of the blue wheels just couldn't take the terrain one moment longer and on the way to the car to drop off a shipment, the wheel broke in half and thus ended the run of this trusty, little auction cart.

But not to fear, there was another cart still to be auctioned:

See it?  It's on the left hand side of the white stove.  The cart went for $7 ( money WELL spent) and the stove sold for $2, not to me, though.

The barns were old:

One had a deer head inside.  It seems like every single farm auction has this type of deer head in the barn:

There were lots of interesting items I had no chance of bidding on because this was in the other ring:

But the auctioneers did pull out these items to sell in our ring such as this awesome wheelbarrow:

It went for $65.

I adored this box still partially covered with vintage wallpaper:

Look at these primitive pieces:

I thought this can was especially interesting because it had a glass ball on top that was broken at the bottom:

Finally, these glass bottles and tops were visually cool to look at, though I didn't stick around long enough to bid on one:

I did buy several quilts:

and other sundries, not photographed.

Everything went into the storage unit next to this pile of boxes purchased at the farm auction in Northern Missouri:

Now I'm headed back to the internet to plan for this weekend with my hubby who has the weekend off!  Yay!  I love having an auction partner!

FREE SHIPPING to the US on ALL Vintage Patterns!

Free shipping to the USA on ALL vintage sewing patterns like this one:

Find the rest here.    Use code PATTERNSHIP at the checkout to receive this special offer!  Sale ends November 1, 2011

DeKalb Flying Ear of Corn

I grew up in Illinois; the same area where DeKalb Ag started.  As long as I can remember, the flying ear of corn logo has been a part of everyday life for me.  When we bought our home, I started collecting vintage DeKalb memorabilia for the dining room.  My favorite piece is this DeKalb sign:

It's probably at least 3 feet in length and at least 3 feet high and weighs a TON!  We purchased it from an out-of-the-way antique shop near the Kansas/Nebraska border.  It was sitting behind a large collection of "stuff" on the back wall.  After digging it out, we talked the dealer down to $75.  It's my prized DeKalb possession.

Over the years, I have also collected DeKalb seed sacks.  Recently, I decided to cut one up and turn it into a pillow:

Since I have quite a few seed sacks in my collection, this one is listed on eBay here.

I have another pillow made from an old dairy feed sack from East St. Louis, Illinois. It was the artwork that drew me in with the dollar sign and a dairy cow peeking through.

This pillow is also listed on eBay here.

I'm headed to a farm auction in Missouri tomorrow.  The last time I went to an auction in that neck of the woods, I didn't come away with much because there were a lot of dealers with very deep pockets.  But I'm still going because it appears that the farm has been in the owner's hands for decades and there are several outbuildings full of items.  The pictures show many great dust-covered primitives; just the way I like it!

Monday's Consignment Auction

After finally finding some relaxing time Sunday evening at the cottage and going to bed extra early, when the alarm clock rang the next morning, I was rarin' to go!  Monday's auction was a fall consignment auction about 50 miles south of the cottage.

Truthfully, it wasn't the best auction by far, but did have a few interesting things to keep me long enough for them to auction off several tables of guns, rifles and coins.  ::Boring!!!::

Finally, they started auctioning the things I was most interested in.

First was the 1950's PINK Atlas sewing machine:

Isn't she a beauty?  It comes with the original carrying case and who knows what else.  I won the bid and will be listing this awesome machine in the future most likely on eBay!

There was a full table of antique Singer sewing machines and their original wood cases:

What I loved most was the light on each sewing machine:  *I apologize for the picture, I was using my cell phone camera*

Each machine went for around $17.00.  I started bidding, but backed off when I noticed a Mennonite bidding.  He bought most of the machines and I felt good that they were going to be used once again!

I didn't stay long enough for the very primitive cabinet top and possum-belly table to be auctioned, but I did take a photo of this piece of hardware attached to the cabinet top:

I can just imagine hot pads were attached to the clips.  If I had room or an antique mall booth, I definitely would have bid on this piece!

Also purchased was a large, vintage General Electric clock, like the kind you probably grew up with in your school room or business office.  We also bought an antique milking stool and metal pieces from old stoves.  Not bad for about 3 hours worth of travel, standing around and bidding.

Saturday is another farm auction, but this time it's in the vicinity of our lake cottage!  Yay!  So, I'll drive down Friday afternoon, spend the night, go to the auction Saturday and go back to spend another night and head home Sunday!  That's much easier than driving hours to an auction, standing around all day and having to drive back.

I don't know how many great deals there will be Saturday since we stopped at a few antique store haunts after Monday's auction and I discussed the auction with a few people who were really excited for Saturday.  Prices will probably go high, but we'll see.  The thrill of the hunt is half the fun!