Staying Home

So we are staying home these days but working from home. What does that mean when I'm always working at home? My work laptop came home with me and I set up a tall table in the sometimes sunny porch. There are two mornings each week where I'm in charge of monitoring our local chat service for the library and answering the group email account. We are all on internal chat so I keep up with everyone while we try to support our faculty in getting everything online for the remaining two months of class. I've learned how to work in chunks of time, taking breaks to go clear my mind; it's at those times when I will sometimes solve a problem so down time isn't always down!

Since I am no longer spending time driving for work, I not only have extra time at home but my sewing machines and projects are a nice break time diversion. Before everything started to close down I picked up two sewing machines from Goodwill auction, a Husqvarna Viking "Emma" and a Kenmore 158-1310. I couldn't resist the Emma since that's the name of one of my granddaughters but wasn't expecting much since it was just a mechanical model. This one surprised me with its solid feel, easy controls, and more than passable stitching:

Husqvarna Viking Emma

It came with all you could need with extra presser feet, some tools, a few bobbins, and a great padded carrying case. There was a receipt in the pocket showing it had been bought in 2003 for a fairly hefty price considering it is mechanical, in fact it was twenty times the price I paid. You gotta love an auction. Maybe some day Emma will sew with it but not to worry because it's a solid machine that someone else would like, too.

Next up is the Kenmore 158-1310, a nice machine that seemed pretty familiar. I clean it up and test it out to find it only goes backwards. What? Again? I checked my inventory database to find I had just sold this exact model with the same problem. Of course, I don't know what I did to fix the one I sold  so I put the cover on, made a note on its label, and had to walk away for the time being.

 

Kenmore 158-1310

Because I'm so happy with the Singer Futura XL 400, as I wrote about in Embroidery the Easy Way?,  and its embroidery functions as well as free motion, I took a chance and got a Singer Futura CE 250 embroidery sewing machine. It came with everything so there was less risk involved but I knew this was a problematic model. Upon testing it out, I could see the manuals were nearly identical so I was hoping for less of a learning curve. I was lucky that I could install the software on the same laptop as I had for the XL-400 with no problems or confusion on the part of the software but I kept getting error messages after the first project was stitched out. I kept playing with it until I got the right combination of thread and sequencing of steps but I'll need to use it more before I feel confident enough to sell it to someone. Here's a nice stitch-out:

Deer antlers and arrows on camouflage fabric

I didn't even use stabilizer and it turned out this nice so now I just need to keep trying different patterns and features. I'll do it "for the cause" (said tongue-in-cheek).

Not to let too much time go by, I attacked another one of the quilt block sets I got back in September at the river Rats TOGA. With one under my belt, pieced but not quilted (a future blog post), I got out a Joann's Block-of-the-Month set from 1997 where the blocks were all done and an attempt to assemble them. It looked like there had been a change of heart with some purple sparkle fabric added to the sashing but I took that out and started over again. Here was part of the planning:

Blue BOM 1997 with new sashing

This was the easy part since the blocks were all done and a pretty nice job of it, too. I used my Singer 66 treadle since this came from a treadle sewing group and that made it even more fun. Here it is all assembled:

Final assembly, waiting to be quilted

Because it has a white background, I needed white batting so I ordered Quilters Dream batting. I've seen it talked up in a few of the quilting books and it gets great reviews but it's a bit pricey so this was a smaller project to try it out on, only 45" by 60". This is also a smaller project for continuing to practice my free-motion quilting skills so it's a bit of a win-win.

Let's continue to keep busy and keep sewing because this is one way we can head off the pandemic: stay home (and keep sewing).

A Quilting Vacation

I'm back from a week of vacation in Charleston, South Carolina, where quilting is alive and well. We met my quilting sister and her husband for some nice rest, good food, and as it turned out, visiting quilt shops. Who knew? It started out with a plan to have the guys do their own thing looking at ships and such but a wrong turn and  backup on the bridge meant they came along with us as we spent the day touring shops (I think they were along for the lunch).

First stop was Five Eights Seams, a bright and cheerful shop that actually had various sewing machines and classes.

I love the subtitle: Perfection starts here

More than just quilting, they had samples and fabric for clothing that caught my attention:

Border prints!

I did my best to resist but I bought one piece of fabric before I left, a lovely Lori Holt sewing themed piece that I planned on making a cover for my industrial Bernina 217. We shall see:

Heading up to Summerville, we stopped for lunch first at Fives Loaves Cafe and then on to People Places and Quilts. I found this very fun fabric with four different patterns in each width. I couldn't decide so I got a yard of each of the red and blue:

Then there were patterns! First I picked up the sewing machine cover with a camper theme and then I found the travel iron bag that doubles as an ironing surface:

They even added the heat resistant fabric so you don't have to go shopping around for it. If and when I make this little gem I will have to show you.

On another day we stopped at Wild and Wooly where they were having a birthday celebration for one of the owners who happened to have a rare February 29th birthday. How old was she? Not very old since she only could celebrate every 7 years or so but it was all fun with birthday cake and punch. Of course, we did buy a few items we were sure we couldn't find anywhere else, including camping themed fabric:

 

 

Camper fabric with a companion piece

Camping fabric paired with four patterned fabric

Loved the camping fabric and even found another piece of the four patterns on a width that I think might work together. So now I have several pieces of fabric and patterns for sewing machine covers but I only need one of my machines covered. Who knows where this will end?

Before our trip was over, my sister shared the quilt top that I had assembled for our aunt as a lap robe as I wrote about in Hand Quilting back in the summer. When Aunt Marcella died we just let that project drop, or so I thought, but she had it quilted for me and I am now the proud owner of my aunt's lovely flower garden quilt.

Flower Garden blocks all assembled and quilted

Another great trip was put away but we have many happy memories. The four of us are planning our next trip with our campers, maybe not this coming summer but for the next year. Could I pack a sewing machine along with me? We shall see!