Purists Shouldn't Look

If you are a vintage sewing machine purist, and don't like seeing them altered, stop here and look elsewhere. If you are OK with taking a machine with ratty paint, and giving it a whole new look, here's something to see.

 

A new to me Singer 301a longbed! I'm calling it my birthday present, since that's in 10 days. I already had a 301, a shortbed, and I LOVE it! When I saw this one come up for sale on ebay, I just had to bid, and I got for a very good deal. I am so excited! Most of my vintage machines are as original as I can get them, but to have one really sweet custom machine, yeah, baby!

The color just doesn't show true in photos, it looks much better in person. I was amazed when it got here this afternoon. It has a burgundy undercoat, a carbon fiber treatment over that, and aeronautics grade clear coat over that. It is gorgeous!!! I was so excited to blog about it, I haven't even sewn with it yet, but the sewing sample sent with it looks great!

As far as what I have been sewing, I ended up with 614 white/black 3" nine patches, which is a bit more than the 578? I needed. I keep forgetting the exact number I need for the quilt I want to make. These are getting put aside for now, but I will be cutting for this quilt as I process my scraps. I've been making these as leaders/enders for months! I'll likely not be doing any more sewing on this quilt until next year, but when I do get back to this, the tedious part is done.

Now I am working on pink/white 3" nine patches for a different quilt. I just passed 150, and I need 250 of those. I am out of squares to make them, so I'll be strip piecing the rest. Strip piecing goes so much faster, that I don't think it will take long to finish up the pink/white nine patches. Once those are done, they will be set aside until next year too. I've designed two different quilts with them in mind, and I'm debating which quilt to make. Each quilt needs the same number of nine patches, so once I have 250 of them, I could use them in either design.

I will be starting to work on wedding quilts on our trip to California. I have four wedding quilts to make right now, with more likely to be added. I am guessing my next few years will be spent making a lot of wedding quilts, followed by a lot of baby quilts! My kids, nieces, and nephews are just all around the marrying age, and even a few of my kid's friends that I am especially close to are likely to end up with a wedding quilt made by me.

DH and I leave for California in 6 days! The first five days we are gone he will be attending a scooter rally (AmeriVespa) while I sew to my heart's content at the hotel. After that we go up the West coast and see whatever we see. Our plans are pretty vague at this point, it's mainly a trip to spend some time together, just the two of us. We'll be gone two weeks total. Hopefully I'll have some great photos to post of the trip.

I got most of what I wanted to do before our trip done. I haven't finished another quilt top and gotten it basted, but I may be able to do that still. I have gotten a bunch of smaller jobs finished up, including making a couple potholders this morning. If I don't sew another stitch, I'm still happy with all I've gotten done in this portion of my summer break. I have three quilts pin-basted and ready to quilt when I get back from California, before our trip to New Mexico in August. It's a fun, busy summer!