How to Make Sure I DON"T Buy Your Sewing Machine on ebay

I am on the hunt for a Singer 301. I've looked in town with no luck, checked Craig's List, Freecycle, thrift stores, etc... I've been looking online at etsy, ebay, and shopgoodwill.com.  After several days of pouring over hundreds of ads, I've decided I have some pet peeves about online ads. I have sold a sewing machine on ebay before, as well as lots of other things, so I know the stresses of being an online seller. The only sewing machine I've ever bought online before was brand new and shipped from a reputable sewing machine dealer, so online shopping for vintage machines is newer to me. I have shopped for vintage before, but with no real plans to buy, this time I want a 301 really soon. I am on the hunt!

I will continue to look in town, but I want a 301 by June to travel with, so I may buy it online after all. Here are some of the complaints I have about ebay ads, sellers take note.

1) If you are only going to post one photo of the machine (big mistake right there), make it the front of the machine, not the back or the case. Your photos should clearly show the machine. This is not the time for artsy silhouettes in front of a window. If I can't see the machine, I'm not buying it.

2) If you tell me the machine has just been serviced, I am not going to believe you if the machine is filthy. If it hasn't been serviced, say so, and if it has, it better be clean.

3) Do not say a machine is rare just because it is old. Singer made thousands upon thousands of sewing machines, most are NOT rare.

4) Do not say a machine is industrial if it is a domestic model. You really just look ignorant of what you are selling. Not sure if a model is industrial or domestic? Check here if it's a Singer. 

5) Do not say a machine is for sewing leather if it isn't designed to do so. Just because a machine is capable of sewing leather doesn't make it a good idea. Also, not many people are sewing leather all day, so it's a silly selling point.

6) I'm going to group all my gripes about sewing samples here under number six. I think showing sewing samples is a great idea, but there should be rules so you at least appear honest. If the machine is not threaded, but has a sewing sample under the presser foot, I'm not buying it. If the machine is threaded with white thread but has a red thread sample, I'm not buying it. If it's a straight stitch only machine but you show a zigzag sample, I'm definitely not buying anything from you.

7)If the machine is a handcrank, you are not missing a foot pedal, it doesn't have one. Do some quick research people!

I have seen all of these examples and more, but this covers a lot of them. If you aren't looking for a vintage machine, but need a good laugh, check out ebay ads.

You know what doesn't bother me in the least? A seller who says they have this sewing machine they know nothing about, so they aren't sure if it works or if all the parts are there. THAT is honest! I'd rather buy a machine from an honest seller than from one who seems shady any day. 

 

On a quilty note, this was my project from Sunday, a potholder for Miss E's other grandmother. I had a few firsts with this one. It was the first time I used 505 spray instead of pin-basting. It was also the first time I broke out the BSR for my Bernina Aurora 440 since I took the machine classes. It was a fun quick project, and is now in Texas thanks to the post office.

Today the Dam Broke

I haven't posted in a while, because I had no quilty things going on. Writing about laundry and dishes isn't very interesting, so I just hadn't written.

 

My corner of the bedroom has had a change. I switched to my Rocketeer, which is named Cliff. I was making rally bags, and I usually make liberal use of reverse to reenforce the opening for the drawstring. The Featherweight doesn't have reverse, and it was bugging me, so I switched machines. This is the first time I've had any amount of sewing time on Cliff, and he sews like a champ! I got to make bobbins, and I switched to the straight stitch plate, so I am becoming familiar with this machine. It is a keeper, lots of fun to sew on, and very versatile since I have some cams for it. I only have six bags made so far, but it's a start.

Not having any time to sew has really been getting to me. Sewing is my time, my time to think, and block out everything else. I always wear headphones when I sew to block out the noises from everything else going on in the house and I just go to my own quilty world. My sewing room has been unavailable, but DD#2 who has been sleeping in there is away for the weekend. I moved things around a bit, and managed to access my Bernina, Roxanne. I should have worked on the rally quilt. I could have worked on bags. I have had all this desire to sew, and I just haven't been able to, and today the dam broke and I wanted something to sew where I could just sew a lot of units. I grabbed the nine patches I've been using as leaders/enders and had a blast just sewing away. The black and white nine patches were already in threesies, so I managed to sew up 80 of those today, and about 10 of the pink and white nine patches which are from squares. I'm now up to 200 black and white nine patches total, but I need over 550, so lots more to make. I strip pieced some sets to sub-cut to make more of those.

My mood is greatly improved after some real sewing time. I should have some time to sew tomorrow before I have to put things back into bedroom mode. I think I'm going to work on a fun little project tomorrow. Something I can easily finish in a couple of hours. Maybe the thrill of a finish, no matter how small, will carry me for a while, since I'll be back to little or no sewing time.

Oh, I have a funny grandkid story. Miss E from Texas loves the dog door, and when we can't find her, we know she's outside. The twins have been out the dog door before, but we discouraged it. Now that Miss E has been out it so many times, Mr L thinks he should be able to go in and out it at will. He's not sneaking around though. I was doing laundry and he comes in the dog door from outside, and says "Hi, Nana!" I tell him hi and go back to the laundry. He says, "Where's Luke? Look what Luke can do!" and goes out the dog door. As soon as he's outside, he asks very loudly, "Where's Luke?" I ask him "Where's Luke?" and he pops back in. This went on for a while, and he was very proud of his dog door skills. Of course, the dogs almost knocked him over a few times, because they were all excited about kids going in and out of their door. I may have no sewing time, but I have lots of grandkid time, and they sure do some cute stuff!

Sitting in the Corner

My, how fast things are changing around here! I think the only sewing I've done since my last post is sewing the spacer border onto the rally quilt center. I have the next border ready to go on, but no access to my sewing room! My sewing room is now a temporary bedroom, and will be for the next month or so.

Here is my current sewing space, this small area in my bedroom, and I had to rearrange to get this much space. Today I had a couple hours I seized, and cut out rally bags from a couple fabrics I will be happy to have out of the stash. I will work on rally bags in any "spare" time I can come up with. I was going to work on some quilts, but I really have no space for a pressing area, so I was trying to think of something I could sew that didn't require a lot of ironing. The rally bags need to be made, and don't require any ironing really, so that is a perfect project to work on right now.  I need to hunt up a folding chair tomorrow, because my sewing chair isn't going to fit.

I am working on the prep work for some applique on the rally quilt. I did not feel like "building" the scooters and stagecoaches from a million little pieces, so I hunted down some fabrics I think are close enough scale to work together. They are only rough cut right now, but the fusible is on the back, and I'll be cutting them out more exactly as I have time. I usually use a satin stitch on applique, and I can't do that on a featherweight, so I'm not sure when I'll finish the applique, but I can at least cut the borders these will go on and get it all fused. That will make things go much faster once I have another machine available.

So, there you have it, I am sitting in a corner with a little machine in the little bits of time I have available to sew. Little bits of time are better than none, and I will get the rally projects finished on time, I'm determined.

It's a Beginning

I finally got a couple hours to spend in the quilting cave, and here is the center of the quilt that will be raffled off at the scooter rally, For a Few CC's More 3. I've made several scooter themed quilts, you can see my first one here, and my second one, the one for the first For a Few CC's More here, and last year's rally quilt. This quilt will have scooters on it, but obviously not in the center ;-) Where will they come in? I'm not telling, you'll have to wait and see. The finished quilt will be about 69" square, and this is only 33" square, so there is still plenty of room for scooters to make an appearance.

The star blocks are Blazing Stars and I used the Eleanor Burns die for my Accuquilt Go! cutter to cut the pieces for it. It is so much easier to get accurate blocks when using a die cutter! I likely wouldn't have attempted the block without the die.

I also finished making some blocks for a donation quilt, and finished piecing a piano key border for another quilt, and even got a couple more pink nine patches done. Not too bad for about 3 hours in the sewing room. Everything is pressed and ready to go to the next step too!

When will I sew next? I have no idea! I'll let you know when I do.

Little Bit of Nothing

This has been one of those week where you just wonder, where has the week gone? I felt busy but have little to show for it. I did get to spend a lot of time with my DDIL, and DGD, Miss E, who said "Nana" today for the first time :-)

The only sewing I managed to do was to make some pieced sashing for the scooter rally quilt. Now I can assemble the center which has four blocks with the pieced sashing. No secret on any of that, so as soon as I get the center together, I will post pics, and again after each border most likely.

Here are the three 3 inch nine patches I made as leaders/enders while working on the sashing.  I designed a quilt that needs a bunch of these, and I had lots of leftover pink squares from making DS the Elder and DDIL's wedding quilt. I'm in no hurry to get the quilt done that will have these in it, but they make a good leader/ender anyway.

DDIL wanted to have a bit of fun before her knee surgery, so DH took her for a ride in the sidecar. She thought that was pretty fun. Her knee surgery was today, and it went great, so now she just needs time to heal, and things will be better.

I have no idea what I'll manage to get done this weekend. It will be a surprise for me too. I will just take things as they come, and see what happens. I'm hoping to get some sewing time in, but there are extra people around, and extra stuff to do, so we'll see.