German Cranks

I'm not going to write about upset people who are from Germany but about my new hand crank sewing machine that is of German origin. It was a bit of an impulse buy, meaning I didn't need it, but I was following this auction and was the only bid. Isn't that always a bit upsetting? What does everyone else know that I don't? How big of a mistake did I just make? Shipping was quick and I found it to be in great shape:

Hengstenberg Hand Crank sewing machine

It even moved smoothly right out of the box so with a bit of oil it ran even better. Fairly clean, it was just a bit of cleaning spots that were missed by the seller. The wood case top was also in good shape so a session with Howard's Feed and Wax was all it took to get it looking good again:

Decals on the front with inlaid wood trim on top of the lid.

 There was only one flaw and it doesn't seem to be much of a deal breaker:

Hand crank knob with broken section

The ceramic knob on the crank handle was broken on one end and a trip to the local Ace Hardware did not find something we could use. They did show us ceiling fan pulls and that got us thinking: maybe we have one already? Indeed, we did so with a drill to hollow out the center we found a temporary solution:

Painted wood handle: needs more drilling to set the end tight

With it sewing well I was going to have to make something on it and my current project with a block-of-the-month quilt that I've been working on, this was going to be perfect. I've been using my Elna Stella, a cute portable 3/4 sized machine but I'm not totally happy with the end results on my piecing. It couldn't possibly be me and my lack of skill (!!!!!) so just maybe it is the sewing machine.

Right.

I did like piecing on the hand crank since I could go so slow and the seams were so short. Here's a sample of what I finished this weekend:

Pears: the lighter color pear fabric had to be totally replaced

Strawberry: I finished this one in the early morning hours

Cherries: I had to solicit more brown stem fabric due to cutting it wrong

You can see this has been quite the struggle. Yesterday I got the egg basket done but the bottom of the basket does not align correctly. This morning I finished it off, pressed it, and had to decide if I could live with it like it was. Not really so I checked to see if I had more fabric to remake that section and I found the extra I needed. That means I will be remaking that part. It doesn't look right and I don't want to show the other, better, quilters my glaring mistake. I'm not a perfectionist but I also have my pride. Here's my attempt to find the right color for the sashing:

One possible arrangement of the nine block quilt

I like the taupe color for the background so will try to find a shade similar from the selection at my local shops before I order online. It's pretty difficult to find correct shades online, just trusting the colors on your computer screen. All in all, this was a good experience for me to stretch myself in learning new skills, keep moving on a project, and to finally get to the end. Whew!

What is the score on using a hand crank for piecing? I really liked it! The machine is very nice, smooth stitches, easy to stop and start, and that reverse stitch would come in handy in other projects. I'll finish up the last block this week and then can put it away until our last quilt group meeting in May when we learn how to do the sashing. I might actually get this done before summer comes but with all of our snow this spring it looks like summer is never going to come. Know what that means? Sewing machine sales are up, up, up with everyone being forced to stay inside several more weeks. There is a silver lining to this dark cloud of winter/spring!