Going Vintage

I've been wanting a Singer Featherweight for a while. Truth be told, I really wanted one that had been painted some wild color. If a machine needs to be repainted do to hard use, I have no problem with repainting it whatever color you please. I've looked on ebay, looked at various dealers, and I just couldn't bring myself to spend that kind of money. My MIL had a featherweight that was given to her (I think by a family member, I really should find out), and she said I could have hers.

So here she is, my new-to-me featherweight 221, and the price couldn't be beat! There is no case, and no accessories, but I am pretty sure the Singer feet I picked up in Flagstaff will work. According to the serial number, this baby was manufactured in 1955, one of the featherweights biggest years. I know it hasn't been used in years, and the cord had a nasty spot covered in ancient electrical tape, so she went straight to the repairman for servicing. I wasn't willing to risk bad electrical just so I could play with my new toy.

I plan on mainly using the featherweight as my travel machine, so although I could get a reproduction case easily enough, I plan on just making a cloth cover and storing her in  my sewing machine trolley. I will play with the featherweight at other times too, but since the sewing machine trolley takes up space no matter if it's empty or full, it may as well hold a machine.

DH is willing to pay for it to be painted the color of my choice, but really the paint is in good shape, some minor chips on the handwheel, and one chip on the light cover. I am leaning towards leaving it as is, color- wise.

I ordered some bobbins for the featherweight today, and a foot that said it was 1/4". We'll see how that works out. I'll have to take another pic of the featherweight when it is all cleaned up.

While I was thinking vintage, I decided I have waited long enough to get my grandmother's (my father's mother) treadle up and going. I knew our repairman would look at it if we took it out of the cabinet. After a little fiddling, DH got it out.

 

Obviously it wasn't very cleaned up at this point, though we had knocked some of the dust off. I didn't take a photo of the cabinet, but you can see it in this ad

 http://www.ismacs.net/free/fly9.html

The cabinet I have is the 560. It is a very pretty cabinet, and it's been in my living room for years. Everyone just thinks it is an antique table, and no one ever guesses it is a sewing machine cabinet.

I am missing an important piece to this machine, and that is the screw assembly to hold the needle in. We brought this to the repairman at the same time we dropped off the featherweight, and he said he thinks he can come up with something that will work. I will need to buy a treadle belt, but most of those are interchangeable.

I found the manual online, (thanks to this blog post  http://lifewithlou.blogspot.com/2011/06/free-no-5-treadle-sewing-machine.html ) which is great since I've never sewn on this machine before. I didn't recognize all the accessories I had for it, but thankfully, the manual tells me what they are. It looks like of the original accessories, I am missing the two screwdrivers, the stiletto, one of the hemming feet, and the braiding foot. I have far more accessories than I am missing. There is a long bobbin in the shuttle, and I have one spare, which is all I am likely to ever have unless I get incredibly lucky. Long bobbins varied drastically in size, and since Free is not a major brand, I am unlikely to be able to come up with more the same size. I do know of an antique store with a jar of bobbins I can look through, and I know there are long bobbins in the jar, so I will likely see if I can come up with another.

I had planned on quilting a baby quilt today, but instead I spent all day online, learning all I could about the featherweight and the Free treadle. I learned you have to thread the featherweight backwards from my Bernina, and the needle is inserted opposite as well. Finding the age of the featherweight was easy, the treadle not so much. I have figured out the treadle was made sometime between 1913 (the latest patent date on the machine and 1925, when Free merged with Westinghouse, and became Free-Westinghouse. A couple years later than that they were bought out by New Home. I couldn't find a serial number on the machine, but I read about where to look, which I will do when I get it back from being serviced.

I would like to have the cabinet completely restored, but so far I haven't found anyone local who will do it. I still have a couple calls to make. The front of the cabinet looks great, the top is badly scratched, and one of the cubbies had the bottom fall out of it. The backing is in poor shape as well. I would really like to get it looking better if I can find someone with some experience in jobs like this. That being said, the lift works great, and when you pull up the top the machine pops right up. It is not heavy or hard to work at all.

I am so excited at the thought of getting these vintage beauties up and running! It has been my dream for a while to piece a quilt on my grandmother's machine. I just think that would be amazing. Maybe I will break out the 30's repros for that project. If I can piece on the treadle and the featherweight, it will be just such a fun link with history, and having family machines from mine and DH's families makes it all the sweeter.

Using my Test Blocks

I was a block tester for Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, Volumes 3 and 4. After the first couple of blocks, I decided to pick a color scheme, so I could use most of the blocks together in a quilt. I chose blacks and brights, though some blocks didn't lend themselves to that, so I still have some that don't work together. I have been trying to figure out ways to use these blocks and get some finished projects out of them.

The penguin block was one of my test blocks, and I opted to make four of them, and pair them with some stars with penguin fabric centers. The border fabric I picked up at a thrift store. I only have a bit of the border fabric left, so I will piece it into the backing. The penguin fabric was scraps I had leftover from making DH a scrub top.

Here are twelve of my test blocks with the black and brights. I still have a couple more blocks with this color scheme, which I am likely to piece into the back, just to have them all go into the same project. I am not a big fan of sampler quilts, so I opted for a more complex sashing/cornerstone design to add more unity to the quilt. I plan on adding a border, but I am undecided on what to add. I need to audition a few things.

My next piecing project will be working on Double Delight, a mystery quilt from a few years back. That is the project I took to Flagstaff with me and couldn't sew on because I forgot the power cord to my sewing machine. I have finished all the mystery quilts I started after this one, but since this one was meant for my bed, it kept dropping to the back of the line. I am determined to get this quilt finished this year.

Of course, I still have that mountain of quilt tops to get quilted too, But I am making good progress on those, and I am pretty happy with how the sewing is going :-)

Forward Momentum

I did get some time to sew this week. On Thursday, I quilted up two baby quilts. I want to finish quilting the stack that is pin-basted before I mess with binding. I have four (I think) left that are pin-basted.

Since I got two quilts quilted, I decided to reward myself with a little piecing, but I am trying to be really good, and I worked on assembling the two quilts I have ready for that step.

 

I only got the rows sewn together today. I was planning on getting at least the centers together, but we had a thunderstorm during part of the time I had to sew, and I didn't want to risk frying my new Bernina, so I unplugged it and worked on some cutting instead.

Tomorrow I should/hope to have time to get the rows together. Part of what I cut was the borders for the penguin quilt. I am debating on borders for the black and brights quilt. I think I need to finish getting the center together, and then audition a few things before I can decide.

The rest of what I cut was the shirt parts I had left out to be cut into strips. I looked through some quilt books of patterns I want to make from the shirts, and 2" strips was definitely the most common size I will need. Needless to say I cut mostly 2" strips from the pile I had out. I also cut some other strips. but I now have strips cut from every shirt I have, so it's a nice assortment. They are all sorted by lights and darks, and ready to play whenever I get to those projects.

This weeks sewing goals are to get the penguin quilt top finished, get the black and bright sampler quilt center together, and quilt at least two more baby quilts. You can see the baby quilt next in line peeking out from under the quilt rows.

Getting these tops together makes it nice, because now I won't have sashing and cornerstones piled in various spots of my sewing room. My cutting table is looking a bit better as well, now that the border fabric for the penguin quilt is cut and off of there, as well as the pile of shirt parts put away in the shirt strip containers now that they are cut.

 

Judy Martin

I just love how the wedding quilt for DS the Elder and DDIL came out, and I am not the only one who liked it. I was contacted by the publisher of the book the pattern came from, and now a photo of that quilt is available from Judy Martin's Viewer's Photos page.
 http://www.judymartin.com/Viewer-Photos.cfm

There are some amazing quilts on that page. Mine is under the Log Cabin Book section, Shoreline Log Cabin by Melodie Rains. If you have some time, check out some of the other quilts. Trust me, you could spend hours on this site checking out what's there. There are several other of Judy Martin's patterns on my long list of quilts I want to make.

I didn't sew today, it was errands all day. I'm hoping for sewing time tomorrow.

My Days Off

When I posted on Saturday I said I was taking Sunday off, and it is true that I haven't sewn since Saturday, but boy, have I been busy. What have I been doing? Let's just say a little soul searching.

 I have had some time to think things over lately, and I have realized a few things about myself. I used to consider myself a crafter, and I have gone through several crafts through the years. When we were newly married and broke, the only way we could afford for me to craft at all, was for me to make gifts we needed for people, so my craft budget was the gift budget, and I think I made some pretty nice things. I went through a ceramics phase, and a long-lived cross-stitch phase, and some needlepoint, both on tapestry and plastic canvas. I've made a few baskets (the only craft classes I have ever taken), and I have always sewn various things. I tried scrapbooking, but never did get into that.

I started sewing when I couldn't find maternity clothes in larger sizes, and I've been sewing ever since. There were seasons I made all of the clothes my five kids had, and almost every curtain I've ever hung has been made by me. DH has a closet full of scrub tops, all made by me. I always wanted to quilt, I've always loved quilts, and I was a typical blanket-loving child, I had a yellow one I really loved, and when I was sick, I wanted it. My mom even sent it to me, after we were married. 

I made my first quilts years ago, I think the very first was a wall hanging for DD#1, with horses on it. I made quilts for DD#2 and 3 when we re-decorated their rooms on a shoestring budget, and those were made from old jeans, backed with sheets from the clearance section. Eventually I made another quilt for DD#1, again for a room redo. All of those quilts were tied. 

When I stopped homeschooling, I actually had a bit of time to do what I wanted to do, and that was quilt. I started with a wedding quilt for DD#1, then I had to make both my boys quilts, because I had never made them any, and then I started making LOTS of quilts.

I have tried to play around with doing other crafts since I started quilting, and I occasionally get something done. More and more often though, I just want to quilt. I started a set of plastic canvas blocks for the twins before they were born. There are six blocks in the set, one is finished. They turn 17 months old tomorrow. On the other hand, they have two crib quilts a piece from me, one lightweight, one winter, and I have already started quilts for them for when they move into twin sized beds. 

Hmmm, you know, I think I am over everything else. I don't want to do ceramics, I don't want to cross-stitch, I don't want to do plastic canvas, and I definitely don't want to scrapbook. I still plan on making the occasional garment, and I'm sure I will making curtains for years to come, but what I want to do is QUILT! I have dozens of my own designs saved in EQ, just waiting their turn to be made. When I am stressed, I plan quilts, when I am getting an MRI, I plan quilts, when I doodle, it is quilt patterns. 

So what did all this soul searching lead to? It resulted in two days of sorting, packing and flinging. I am passing on all of the stuff from the crafts that no longer interest me. I am not panicked about the "what if I decide to do another ________ project?" If I really want to make something, supplies are easy enough to come by. I even got rid of some of my sewing supplies, since I am not garment making frequently. I didn't get rid of all of anything for sewing, but I did weed out some things I have lots of, some trims I will likely not use, some zippers I had multiples of, some cheap thread.

Here are some of the the things on their way out:

These are being passed to one of my sisters. There is also one more box for her not in this pic. DH and I are meeting her tomorrow for lunch and a craft supply hand-off ;-)
 

These things are being donated, some of these are not craft related. While I was sorting I packed up the computer games no one plays, and the last of the VHS tapes, along with a few misc. things.

There are also three other boxes that will be moving on that I didn't take pics of. Now in my sewing room I have two empty containers, and four empty drawers, as well as some empty space on shelves. Where my craft books once took up four shelves, they now fit on two with enough extra room for my quilting DVD's! I was merciless going through books. I looked through every one, and if a pattern didn't jump out at me, the book went. I did keep an assortment of quilting books, some on scrap quilts (my favorite), some on paper piecing (not my favorite), curved piecing, books on borders, books on settings, basic blocks, free motion quilting books, and a couple on design. One craft besides quilting made the cut. I kept two books on basket-making. You know what is really funny about that? I have no basket making supplies! I only ever purchased enough to make one basket at a time!

I still need to go through my quilting magazines, though they are all sorted now. I have had subscriptions to seven different quilting magazines over the past few years, trying different ones and seeing how well they fit my interests in quilting. I think I know which one fits me best, but it will be interesting when I go through the magazines with the same criteria I used on the books. Whichever company I keep the most of, I would suppose will really be the best magazine for me to keep receiving. My quilting magazines take up one shelf with some empty space on that shelf. I am only willing to give them one shelf., so for now they may all stay, but when they don't fit on that shelf anymore, the purging will commence. I think I am getting three different magazines currently, but it may only be two. I have never gotten seven magazines at once, I just try one for a year, and see how I like it.

I have already started reorganizing a few things with my newly found space. I have a drawer to put all my Sewing machine feet into now! The Bernina BSR and the walking foot come in tins and now they actually have a home! No longer are they on top of things in my way. It's a good thing. I learned a lot while I went through so many things. I found out I used a lot more of some things than I thought. There were several things I thought I had a bunch of, but when I actually went through it, I had used most of it up. I learned if I had consolidated a few things as I used them, I would have had one empty drawer long ago.

You know what else? I FOUND MY MISSING CAMERA! I have been looking for it for weeks, and I had correctly assumed it had fallen off my workbench in the sewing room. I had looked all around on the floor and couldn't find it. I had moved the set of plastic drawers next to the workbench and it wasn't under there. So where was it? It had fallen into one of the plastic drawers from the backside. I only found it, because I had decided to get rid of all my felt, and when I was taking it out of that drawer, I found it.

I did take two days off from sewing. I worked hard on those two days. I found extra space, I found out what I use and what I don't, I found my camera, and I found out I am a quilter.