Hand Sewing

With my love of sewing machines you would think I never pick up a needle and thread for hand sewing. It's almost true but for most projects there is a bit of finishing work that requires hand sewing and I don't object too much. We have been cleaning out my aunt house in Iowa and she has been a crafter and quilter, making items for her church sale every fall. Over the years she made each one of her nieces a quilt that was all hand pieced and quilted. I still have mine:

My quilt from Aunt Marcella, all hand stitched!

and I figure it's about forty years old. My aunt was a big crocheter and we shared patterns as well as recipes: these are things I have treasured and all the more since she can no longer do them. You see, my aunt is slowly yielding to dementia and it has taken away her ability to make spacial judgement. That means following lines when embroidering flour-sack dish towels is tricky, cutting out shapes and patterns becomes difficult, and centering your car on the road is a challenge. Through a series of events and a hospital stay she is now in a nursing home. This was not a choice we wanted for her and she was ready to leave and go home for the first month and then she stopped talking about it, accepted her new quarters, and now has made friends. Come to find out, she was comfortable in her home of sixty years that her husband built for her, but she was very lonely.  The staff all love her and they tell me she is a favorite resident.

As we have gone through her house, taking her clothes and personal items to the nursing home, we have found some great treasures. One has been her tall dresser with craft items. Here's a quilt in the making:

Flower garden quilt blocks

I packaged it up and brought it home and now have started to figure out how it can get finished and enjoyed by her. There were blocks finished, extra pieces of fabric, and even yardage of the white used between the motifs. As I check it over I saw it was all hand pieced and the pieces were small enough that it would have been even more difficult to use a sewing machine. I got out my needle and thread and got to sewing, cutting, sewing some more, until I've come up with this:

Final arrangement of flower blocks

Trying to figure out the edge work has been challenging: how do you finish an uneven edge? My sister said she could use a long arm quilter for the final quilting but I don't want to make the edge any kind of a challenge. It looks like I will have to fill in enough white around the edges to try and make them straight. I think the corners can be rounded and it might be preferred if she is in a wheelchair. I'm excited to finish it and to see if she recognizes it or can remember any of the fabrics.

Adding edges

Three of the sides are about done so I'm taking it with me to sew in the car on the ride down and then I can sew on it during the evening when we are back at the hotel. It can go to my sister who will long arm quilt it and possibly add the binding but might also send it back to me so I can finish the edge.

A project like this gives me great satisfaction because you can see something that was clearly a UFO (Un-Finished Object) that is going to get finished and make someone happy. The quilt will give staff and visitor something to talk about with her. Everyone likes a little positive attention, even when you are not quite sure what all the fuss it about!

Aunt Marcella with the quilt she made over 40 years ago

Keep on Learning

Some people scoff at the phrase "lifelong learners" but I really believe in the concept of learning new things as long as we live. My late in life obsession with sewing machines has nearly transformed my life (and my house) giving me many new friends, an occupation in my retirement, and a worthy place for my mind to travel to. All that is a prelude to those pesky Pfaff 1222's that I cannot fix! The one that's only running in reverse is my current project and hoping I could take one more look to see if it's the buttonhole mechanism that is stuck, is now going back home. I can hardly blame the owner but it feels like such a failure; she bought another one and her husband wants to take a look at her original machine again. It's getting picked up today and another machine is getting dropped off: a treadle!

Now we are back into treadles and it came about when I found a model 22 cabinet reasonably priced and not too far away. It was a fun texting conversation when I asked if the treadle mechanism was still inside and she said "What would that look like?" As it turns out, there not only was a full treadle mechanism inside, there was a Singer 66 sewing machine, too. Since it had been in their family I tried to convince her to keep it and I would even show her how to use it but they were moving and there would be no room for this cabinet as a TV stand. Yes, that's the most popular use of old treadle stands. We got it home and when I went to use it there was resistance as I treadled. Was it the treadle or the sewing machine? I took the metal spring belt off (those are so cool!)

Treadle belt in spring style steel

to find it was a problem with the sewing machine so I came inside with me. After cleaning and oiling several times it still wasn't smooth but I took it back outside to the garage hoping it might get past the problem as it was treadled. Nope, it was still sticking at some point. It was late and I went to bed, hoping for better results in the morning.

Singer 66 in treadle cabinet with steel spring belt

Never underestimate to power of walking away when you can't figure something out: it worked fine in the morning. No kidding, it was smooth, made a nice stitch, action of the treadle was fairly effortless. I'm going to have a harder time selling this one when it is just so nice. Actually, that's not entirely true because now I'm looking for a Singer 66 Red Eye for this awesome cabinet.

Drawing room cabinet similar to Singer #22

In the meantime I get a call from Jane saying Bob can drop off a treadle today. We have been working on getting this one from Bob's garage to mine for several years and today is the day. Here's what she looks like:

New Home treadle with missing drawers

I think I have some work to do on this one. We had to concede to leave one of the cars out of the garage for the duration of the summer (and into fall) so I can get the cabinets ready for sale, something that happens each summer, but I have been very careful about bringing cabinet models home. Here's what it looked like for most of the winter:

Yes, that's a Bernina cabinet stacked on top

We are getting ready for a garage sale and those cabinets will still be here so I bet there will be For Sale signs on them, too. I've got my work cut out for me!

Baby Baby

We are all wrapped up in babies these days with my new granddaughter only two months old and a step-daughter getting ready for her third in October. There is a baby shower in August for the October baby and I already bought a backpack diaper bag that was requested so I considered my job done. Not so: our granddaughter, Sarina, who has been sewing with me, came over on Saturday and brought her sewing machine along. She showed me the photos taken on her iPad last winter of the fabric she wanted to use in her next project. Of course, I had forgotten all about it so we dug out the Minky and flannel trying to think up a project. It didn't take her long to decide it would be nice to make a baby blanket for her newest cousin. This is something I really like about Sarina: she always wants to make something for someone else. One of her first projects were pillowcases for her cousins and now a baby quilt. What a sweetie.

Here was our plan: aqua Minky fabric in the center with a cream print border in flannel, another border in aqua print flannel, and then a final border in blue floral Minky. We picked a blue print flannel for the back and got cutting. Of course, the fuzzy and stretchy fleece was going to be difficult to sew on but after consulting Tips on quilting with minky fabric from Superior Threads I remembered I had a Brother walking foot we could use. This was a new idea to Sarina but she took to it like a duck to water and most of the sewing went off without a hitch:

Minky fabric center with first border

By the time we added the second border we could see it was getting too big so we stopped right there.

Two borders was just right for size

 Adding the blue flannel backing just didn't settle right with we so we took it to a higher authority: Grandpa. Sarina argued we had an animal theme going on so the white sheep on the blue flannel was great but I argued the blue looked too much like a boy and this was a baby girl so she needed some pink, not blue. Grandpa encouraged us to make a trip to JoAnn's to see what they would have in a better color match. Off we went to the fabric store only to find there were too many matches! We took our top three to the counter so see in better light and decided the baby's mom would like the print with baby onesies on a clothesline the best. We bought what was left on the bolt and rushed home to wash and dry it. While it was fluffing up Sarina played Battleship with Grandpa and then Cribbage and I made up pizza fondue for supper. When the table was all cleared off we got things set up again and Sarina did the final sewing.  One final pressing job and she asked me to do the top stitching all around since it was going to show. I thought it also needed more stitching so I added stitches around the Minky section for added stability. Here it is, all done and Sarina is so proud of her work:

Sarina with her new baby quilt

It amazed me how well that little Brother sewing machine worked. The walking foot was a real help but I think Sarina just needs to keep sewing straight lines to gain more confidence. It was her plan and design with only a little assistance from Grandma, especially when planning on how wide and long to cut the borders. That's right , you even use math in everyday life!

Final quilt with backing showing