Cultural: A short trip to Ikea

I know, I know. I've been a little "lean" on the quilting posts lately. 

That's because I've not been doing a tremendous amount of sewing lately - some, yes, a lot, no.

Today we went to Ikea. My nephew said he'd never been and wanted to at least visit once.  I told him it is a lot of furniture and household items, but that I'd be glad to take him. There are a few things that I like to get at Ikea as well - specifically zipper bags of various sizes and paper napkins.  I also like to look for duvet covers.

I didn't take a tremendous number of pictures due to the fact that I didn't want to get fussed at by employees.

For those of you who have heard of Ikea but have never been there (or maybe you haven't heard of it?), it is a Swedish store that specializes in furniture and household goods. Some call it "cheap" furniture, but I call "cheap furniture" what you can get at a yard sale or thrift store--To me, "cheap" means not retail or even discount - retail. These are supposedly discount/retail prices.  (If you've read or listened to the book "Cheap", you heard Ikea mentioned quite frequently.)

Anyway, they set up the store so that as you walk through it first you see all the furniture set up. You are supposed to write down the number of the items that interest you and pick up the boxes that hold those un-put-together-items and take it home where you put it together by yourself.

Hopefully the two or three little Allen wrenches and all the screws and nuts and bolts that come in the packages with the rest of the hardware is all there when you get it home!  What happens when you are missing a critical piece of something in the box? Well, you go back to the store, unless you happen to have a supply of hardware at home - that's speaking from personal experience, by the way.

I had previously taken pictures of their ironing board, but the ironing board I saw today didn't even have a metal place to set the hot iron on - in other words, it was a regular ironing board, so I didn't take a picture of it.  Almost 100% of the fabrics were upholstery weight, so I didn't take pictures of those either.  It was rather uninspiring - but that also meant it wasn't tempting, right?

I'm such a sucker for "folk" things and these folk design pillows were calling my name (for a picture, that is...I didn't buy them.) My nephew liked the sheepskin.  

I didn't see very much that was related to quilting.  I did see this cute-as-a-button rug.  I had seen it on various Facebook groups, so when I saw it hanging there, I just had to get a picture for you.

And of course, this rug hanging on the wall - it looks like it should be a quilt.

As to what I came home with - just a few things including some zipper bags and a duvet cover.

The zipper bags - esp. the large ones -- I do use with quilting - as they are big enough to put blocks or pieces in in order to keep them together. I don't know where I can buy this size locally (Ikea is about 45 minutes away.)

The duvet cover is Swedish themed and will be a backing.  I'm 50% Swedish (genetically), by the way--my dad was 100% Swedish and grew up in Montana.

It cost about $20.  

It is 200 cm x 200 cm, plus there are two rather large pillow covers.  It should easily make a backing for a queen sized quilt.

It's kind of a gray day today....that isn't a bad picture - that is what it really looked like at 11 am.

I wanted to get more pictures for you, but really and truly...I didn't see much today that related to quilting that interested me.

Oh, and any prices you see -- they are in Polish zlotys - not dollars.  Divide by 4 to get an approximate price in US dollars.

While you are here, feel free to check out the goodies my sis has for you!