Souvenirs and Other Stuff

 Someone asked me if I brought home any souvenirs from my trip. Well, actually, I did, five sewing machines! We started out finding the turquoise Singer 347 in a little junk shop. DH asked how much it was, and when he heard $10, he was paying and loading it in the car. Next was a Japanese machine for which the antique store owner wanted $40. I told DH I didn't want to pay that, but I found a set of low shank Singer feet in pristine condition for $3 that I did want. Now you have to realize, DH really likes the looks of the Japanese machines, so when he pulled out his wallet to pay for the presser feet he came out with, "How about if I give you $30 for the feet and the machine?" Thus, machine number two was purchased. The third machine was another Japanese machine at a thrift store for $5. The fourth, a Kenmore for $10. The last purchase was mine alone, no help from DH required. I have really been wanting a hand crank, and although I was hoping to find a Singer 15, I came across a Singer 12 for $125 which is much cheaper than most hand-cranks I've seen. It looks to be in decent shape, has the bobbin shuttle and a long bobbin in it. I found a source for needles and more bobbins, so as soon as I get some needles, I will see if I can get it sewing again. The Serial number puts the hand crank as being made in 1890.

 

 DH took the photo as he was unloading the machines from the van, and he didn't realize he had the hand crank backwards. Could be he didn't realize it because he's left handed so this made sense to him. I haven't tried to get the machines up and running yet, life has been really busy.

I've been having a hard time getting back into a routine since I've been home from vacation, so blogging has been low on my priority list. I've not been doing the things I had planned to do, so what have I been doing? Well.......I had this plastic shoebox completely stuffed with 2.5" cut squares.....you know where this is going don't you? After all, in San Diego I was busting my 2" cut squares.

The thing is, after I found this page of tutorials, these scrappy quilts were all I could think about. Film at Five and Fading Charms use 2.5" squares, and my shoebox was packed tight so it was time to use them. I decided I wanted the quilts larger than hers, so I tweaked the patterns in EQ, and I've been happily sewing up my squares ever since.

None of these are pressed yet, so the nine patches don't look like nine patches and the four patches don't look like four patches, but they are, trust me. So far I have made 45 twenty-five patches, 100 nine patches, 24 sixteen patches, and 40 four patches. That's 2,569 squares used, and so you think I'd be almost out of squares now, right?

Wrong! This is how many squares I had left tonight when I stopped sewing and came upstairs to blog. (I use silverware dividers to sort my quilt pieces by color for anyone wondering) I'm almost out of brown and black, but I didn't have a lot of those colors to start with. I am really wondering how many 2.5" squares fit in a plastic shoe box! Once I have all the units made, I need to decide if I want to start cutting the background fabrics and start assembling these quilts, or if I am just going to set them aside for now. Well, actually, I made nine extra 25 patches, so I could make a mini Film At Five quilt for a baby boy on the way. I had a lot of novelty fabrics in these squares, so it will end up a kind of I Spy quilt. I will use blue for the background instead of the white the tutorial calls for. White is not a good color for a baby quilt in my mind. That one I will definitely keep working on, since the baby is due in November.

I have two wedding quilts to make that don't need to be specific colors or patterns, so I could go ahead and finish these for those gifts, or I could finish the Pineapple Blossom quilts I started to be the wedding quilts, or one of them could get Easy Street if I finish it. I'm actually not sure what I'm going to do, and the first wedding is in November.

I am planning two other wedding quilts too, and now that DS the Younger had proposed, and my future DDIL accepted, I should likely move their wedding quilt up in the queue. I pulled some strips from my strip drawers in the colors and sizes I need, but other than that, I haven't done much for their quilt. I did figure it out in EQ, as I was changing the size of the quilt from the pattern, and doing it in different colors. Their quilt will be Bonnie K Hunter's design Smith Mountain Morning done in greens and browns. I had wanted to do that quilt in those colors anyway, so when they chose their colors, I asked them if they liked that pattern and they did! Love it when I get to make a quilt I've been wanting to make anyway as a gift.

I'm not sure when I'll blog next. Tomorrow is errand day, and I babysit the rest of the week. Next week we leave for New Mexico, and I have jury duty as soon as I get back. I may be able to get in a blog post next weekend, but I doubt before that.