Monday, July 24, 2006

Sale results

I forgot to take my camera to the sale so I have no pictures to post. I really meant to take it, and was so disappointed when I remembered about 10 minutes after we got there. The back lawn was covered with tables, some of which were covered with portable covers - the kind people take camping. We had a table by the south fence partially under a tree, where they had rigged blue tarps to form a large awning over the entire row of tables. Good thing, as it rained a little bit off and on during set up and the first couple hours of the sale. Didn't help the temperature at all - in fact it made it worse because the humidity got much worse. I think the humidity and the 100 degree heat probably affected the number of people attending. It wasn't bad in the morning, but there was almost no one from 1:00 on, so we shut down at 2:30.

I didn't do nearly as well as I'd hoped, but better than I might have done. It was really odd what people bought. I guess it varies from year to year. Other than one woman who picked out almost $50 of fabric, most people picked here and there and spent $2 or $3. I did get rid of a lot of the odds and ends I took for which I was grateful - rolls of triangle paper that I tried and didn't like, a box of Shar Jorgensen templates, packages of template plastic, and other stuff like that. I sold a total of $87.25 - which is certainly better than nothing. My friend who shared the table with me did better - $201.75. This included a box of 53 books that she sold to a woman for $1 each, which will probably go for sale on E-bay within the week. The really good thing is that this allowed me to clean things out. I put some of the fabrics back on my shelves and left about 2/3 of them in the box. My friend Kim wanted none of hers back so I picked 5-6 pieces of hers and added them, including an almost 10 yard piece that will be a good quilt back. The remaining 2/3 of mine plus all of hers will be up for grabs at quilt group tomorrow night, and then whatever isn't taken will go to the guild charity committee. That brought my total sales to over $200, because a quilter at work bought $119 of fabric from me last week that never got to the sale.

I was a good girl too - which was hard. The shop owner had wonderful bargains on her outside tables - big bundles of flannel and more. And everything in the shop was 20% off. All I bought was 6 yards of a Jo Morton red that I'd asked her last spring to save for me when it came in, plus the new Vintage Quilts magazine. I was so proud of myself!

I didn't finish the triangle quilt top yesterday as I had a baby quilt to quilt - a rush job from a customer - so I did that while it was cool. By the time I was ready to do my own sewing it was just too hot to turn on the iron. So I did a lot more scrap cutting until about 1:00, when we took refuge from the heat at our daughter's house.

Back to work today - thank goodness it's supposed to be getting cooler!

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, I love your two purchases; quality over quantity :-).

Anonymous said...

Patti, too bad that the weather was less than cooperative but who knew it would be so blamed hot this past weekend when the event was scheduled.

Still, money that you didn't have that can go towards the longarm payment.... or whatever.

Hope you get some relief from that heat soon or I bet all those that say "we never need a/c" will be installing one ASAP rather than tough it out another summer

Anonymous said...

THe weather is suppose to improve. And the cleaning you've done compensates for the $$$ loss. Congrats on the will power.
Melanie

Anonymous said...

YAY!

Anonymous said...

yard sales and such are hit or miss!! and weather does play in it. But at least you have made a clean sweep of your stash. I did that not too long ago. It feels good. too bad extra pounds aren't as easy to get rid of. LOL!!!

Anonymous said...

glad you were able to "loose" more than you "gained" and enjoyed yourself at the sale. I would have bailed at those temps...

Anonymous said...

Glad you had a good time and got some money for your trouble!! I'm sure the fabric will be appreciated by everyone, right down to the charity group!

Anonymous said...

There is no way I would have been as good as you were about not buying stuff. As I sat around waiting for customers, I'm sure my eye would wander to see what everyone else brought, and I would have brought home more than I took.
Glad you had a net gain.

Anonymous said...

The wedding quilt looks lovely. You have done a great job organizing your fabrics too, and even if you did not sell as much as you hoped you did well, and was good not buying much either :-)

Anonymous said...

Well the good thing is you did clean it out! Wait till you see the Jo Morton fabric I bought this weekend for the back of my mystery quilt! I"ll have to take a picture - it is really fun!

Anonymous said...

I think it's good to have as much gone as did go....AND....you got that nice clean organized look on your shelves..*VBS*

I'd say "well worth it Patti, good job"!!! Hugs, Finn

Anonymous said...

I can't believe you were outside a quilt shop with a sale on and managed to buy so little! I admire your self control.

Anonymous said...

I can't believe the heat you are geting out there! And to stand out in the yard. I am surprised you didn't pass out from heat stroke. Way to go on your cleaning out! It always feels so good, doesn't it?