Panel Quilting

 I love it when a concept in my head actually turns out better than expected and there are days when this seems to be the exception rather than the rule. I have been browsing around to find ideas for how to include a large panel in a quilt and just haven't come up with any really great ideas. The panel I've been saving is not so much pricey, it's the fabrics I'm putting with it that are so I don't want to mess it up. Along comes another panel, bought at a thrift store, that gave me the push I needed to actually dream up panel quilt ideas of my own.

While browsing one of my favorite thrift stores, I spied a panel that said something I wanted to keep:

Center panel with 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

There were about eight of them and even though I was tempted to buy more, reason kicked in and I went out the door with only one. Showing it off to friends later I noticed it wasn't cut even on one side and that was going to be a problem so I went back the same day and traded it out for a better one. It didn't languish long when I got out block patterns and tried out various color combinations, as you can see from the block next to the panel above. Here's a close up of my experimentation:

Color combinations

The white or cream background was nice but just too washed out. When I tried a print as the main color you can see that it's so busy you cannot see the pattern.  Since I was using a 10" layer cake stack of fabrics (the colors were really great with the panel colors), I went with one of the dominant colors for a turquoise main color with the others as supporting fabrics. There was too much red/pink to my liking so my husband suggested I try more yellow. I had to look in my stash of fabrics to find a few more that would coordinate well but in the end that was what worked.

Mock up for borders

With my daughters' help in color coordinating, I added the blue and brown inner borders but when it was done it just didn't look complete so she suggested another brown border and that was exactly what was needed. I found a brown print in my stash that would work for the backing and I was on a roll. Deciding how to quilt the various areas was really fun with an outline of the large botanical elements on the panel, outline the word "love", free motion designs on the blue and brown borders, but what about those big 12" blocks? I moved to a walking foot and stitched in the ditch on one side of each V pattern. With only twenty blocks it wasn't too tedious even if I did have to take out stitching once in awhile due to puckering on the backing. Once I got to the final border I got excited to mimic the straight diagonal lines of the blocks by making a diamond grid along the final edge. There was even enough brown fabric left to bind the whole thing! I love it when I don't have to buy anything new and for this 76" square project I only had to purchase the turquoise solid. Here's the quilt I took to First Quilter's to show off as well as get some advice:

Almost done!

I shared with them how I wanted to add stitches in the panel area so it would wash well and not bunch up and I got two suggestions. I added an outline of a dove in the center of the words and also added some flourishes around the lines of text where needed. It worked out  with no spaces larger than the 8" required for spacing by the batting manufacturer. 

Which machine did I use? For this project I started on a Janome Skyline 3 that was wonderful for piecing but when it came time for the free motion sewing the Janome didn't have feed dogs that dropped so I moved to a Bernina Artista 200. While that was great for free motion, when I needed to use a walking foot I moved to the Elna Quilting Queen 7300 with its built in walking foot. I love all three machines but think the Janome is going to be listed for sale and the Bernina was only bought so I could learn the embroidery system. More about those things later because we are off camping again to give me a bit of relief from sewing. 

We do have some sad news: our beloved cat, Meg, was finally put down a couple weeks ago, just shy of her 19th birthday. She was my sewing companion many times sitting on the back of the chair seat with me, trying to vie for my attention. Here's a final photo of the quilt and one of our Meg. May this quilt give someone joy as Meg did for us.

Grand finale

Meg, our quilting cat

Are You Ready?

 It's been a busy time here, getting ready for a garage sale as well as buying and restoring sewing machines (and sewing). Although I've had sewing machine garage sales where I put out thirty to forty sewing machines and sergers, this time it's just a garage sale except there were three tables of fabric and three or four tables of jewelry. You read that right: jewelry. Along with hot mitts, towels, ironing board covers, and a whole lot of other sewn items, my craft fair booth has included tables of my husbands collection of jewelry for sale. Scouring garage sales, thrift stores, and antique shops, he collected quite a bit of vintage jewelry, some to refashion, some to clean up, as well as supplies to make new earrings, bracelets, and necklaces. Although he did fairly well, by now he was tired of those boxes taking up space and making him feel guilty for losing interest in this hobby.  He decided to sell it all at a garage sale so we plunged into  those boxes and priced everything for sale at about 90% off of our original asking price. Although it took a whole weekend and many other nights, we got it all done. Here's what it looked like when we took photos for the ad:

Table full of jewelry!

Jewelry making supplies

Table full and waiting to be taken out to the driveway

Along with the jewelry, I went through bin after bin of fabric to remove anything I knew I wasn't going to use. It wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be and rather cathartic. There were pieces I ended up with as part of a package deal that I had not picked out myself and really didn't even have any money into them, fake fur from fifty years ago (no kidding), and vintage linen left over from my collection that I was not going to use. It all was measured and priced, put in plastic bags, for a huge amount of sale fabric. 

It was a heat warning day when we opened up, vowing to close at 3 pm when the heat would peak. On that first day we sold as much as the next two days combined despite the heat. All of the jewelry making supplies were sold and about half of the jewelry, same as the fabric bundles. It was great but we planned on having the sale two weekends in a row and our stock looks pretty weak in comparison to when we started. We can't/won't produce more jewelry but I can keep going through fabric bins to see what else might be sold. Yes, there were bins that didn't get sorted yet so I have more work to do!

While this was going on I continue to buy sewing machines and have a few that are pretty nifty: Singer 201, some plastic Singers, two Montgomery Wards machines, White sergers, and the best of all, a Singer 1200. I loved the 1200 I bought last year and was sorry to see it go so when my husband and I stopped at a thrift store on senior discount Tuesday and spied this lovely, it came home with us. Unfortunately, it started to emit a thin stream of white smoke from the motor so I knew it was going to need to be rewired. Following Rain's series of blog posts on How to Rewire a Potted Motor, I'm almost done but it has been quite a job. As it turns out, this motor had been rewired previously so it didn't seem like it was going to respond well to another attempt. Since I had another Singer 201 potted motor in a machine with terrible cosmetic flaws, I was able to exchange parts between machines to ensure at least one would be safe and working. 

When putting it all back together, I noticed the 1200 had some electrical tape on the controller box, what is used as a foot controller in this model.

Inside of the controller box and wiring

It was easy to rewire the controller, no splicing needed but now much safer:

New wire added, ready to be installed

It continued to smoke and the motor was hot to touch so something was still wrong. After much reading about the possible problems, I ended up taking a motor from another 201-2. This time it worked great except that foot peddle wasn't as responsive so it would keep stitching even when I removed my foot. More adjustments but this is minor and I'm happily sewing on it now out in the garage.

It's swimsuit season and I've stitched up six so far: two for each the nieces in Michigan and one for each of my granddaughters.  I got carried away with the nieces and not only made the suits but also tote bags with their names:

Suits and tote bag for Frannie

Suits and tote bag for Vivi

Both girls are on swim team and have to wear regulation swimsuits but for when they are home in their own pool they can have "fashion" suits. I loved making them up, making them feel special. My niece said they loved them and I even got thank you cards.

Which machine did I use? My Bernina 1100DA serger, of course, but this time I bought a new toy for it to play with: an elasticator foot. It was my hope that it would make sewing on the elastic in the swimsuits five openings easier but there was a learning curve that almost made me want to give up. Even though you feed the elastic into the foot and there is a tension dial, you still need to figure out how much tension you should add when the elastic is in your hands. This enabled me to add more tension on the back of the leg openings and less on the front of the legs. By the time I was done with the four suits I was getting the hang of it. The next two suits were for my granddaughters and it was much easier

Evelyn's dinosaur swimsuit

That's enough for now and I hope to continue writing about sewing machines and my adventures with them but for now I'm just enjoying sewing with all the different machines. Who wouldn't?

Cheaper By The Dozen

Editiors note: sorry for the long delay in finishing up this post. I always want to include more photos but while I'm thinking about it I'm cleaning up and putting them away. I'll try harder "next time" 

When it rains it pours and sewing machines have started to pile up here in Minnesota. It started with an offer to buy six sewing machines from a young woman who wanted to start a business in sewing high end clothing. She traveled the world buying fabric, renting a space to work and store supplies but then things took a turn and she decided to go back to school instead. Not only was she selling off all of the fabric, she had six very nice sewing machines for sale: two Bernina's, two Elna's, a Brother and a Signature dedicated to buttonholes.

Brother CS 100

Signature ZigZag

We made arrangements and I picked them up a couple weeks ago. While there I could see how much fabric she had and it was overwhelming and a bit reassuring: I don't have that much fabric! I should have brought my husband along so he could see how fortunate he is that my fabric collection is much smaller! My sewing daughter and I went to her "bundle" sale last weekend, vowing we were just going to look but we each managed to spend $42 for some pretty nice fabric.

How about those machines: they seemed to be very complete with cases and accessories so I got own to cleaning and checking them out. The Elna 8000 was very complete and in good shape but the Elna 9000/Diva is missing the spool pin and doesn't have the extra vertical pin either. That got ordered and in the meantime I tried out all of the cassettes for more stitches, something only the Diva has, not the 8000. Don't let anyone tell you the 8000 and the 9000 are the same because they are clearly not.

The Berninas were also great with accessories and cases. Just a little loving care was needed and I think one might already be going out the door. The Brother CS-100 did sell right away to a grandmother who is teaching her granddaughter to sew, something I heartily approve of! The only one left is the Signature that came with a Singer buttonhole attachment, use solely for making buttonholes. They do work up very nice buttonholes! Here's my bundle of fabrics I brought back from my second visit that includes the stretch velvet, leather like fabric, a nice dress fabric, and some scraps that I couldn't resist for only $1.

From knits to leather, I can't wait to sew them up!

While I was busy with this group of machines I answered an ad for a set of four machines up in Lindstrom so off we went. This was a much more rugged group that I suspect came from an auction. It included a Pfaff 77, Bernina 700, another Signature, and a Kenmore 158-19412. Unfortunately, the Pfaff 77 bit the dust early and I had to strip down for parts, the Bernina 700 has stitch width problems, and the Signature has a bad case of smelly case. The real winner here is the Kenmore: very dirty but working just fine. I spent some quality time with it and she's looking good, just needs a Kenmore case that I think might be in the garage attic. 

Whew! But I wasn't finished. There's also a Singer 301 in a lovely table that included a full set of accessories and the cradle for easy lifting out of the machine from the table for transport. I'll have to tell you about the fabulous Elna Quilting Queen I picked up and even a New Home/Janome MyExcel 15S that works perfectly (and was free). Now I have to stop buying and need to get these sewing machines in shape so someone else can revel in their "new" machine as I have. Sew on!

More Vintage Linen

 Picking up on the last post about using tablecloths, I seem to be on a roll and can't stop sewing up those vintage linens. I went into a huge storage container at the bottom of the pile to see all of the linen I've collected. Some got washed, pressed, photographed, and made ready for my Etsy shop. Others had stains or even holes so I have earmarked them for porch pillows. I then worked on making summer tops out of two of them in better shape. Here's a very fancy top sheet that was probably never even used it was so pristine:

Bed sheet?

The embroidery was only along one edge so that was my conclusion. I went with a sleeveless shirt pattern and put the fancy work at the bottom

Decorative edge extends on the back also

I like it but it seemed like it was a long way from the top of the decoration to the neckline so I added a row of stitches

Embroidery stitches using light gray embroidery thread

What machine did I use for this nearly perfect stitch? My Bernina Record 730, of course. Now I'm happy with it. Next up was a cross stitch tablecloth that reminded me of a little shirt my daughter Kelly wore when she was only five years old. I didn't trust myself to make up a peasant blouse pattern although there are free ones online. Here's what I came up with using a commercial pattern:

I couldn't fit the long sleeves onto the tablecloth so I tried elbow length sleeves with the scalloped edge of the tablecloth at the bottom. It worked great so I went with that rolled hem edge for the hem of the shirt, too. As it turns out, not every serger can make a decent rolled hem (I tried three) and I finally had to pull out a Simplicity tiny three thread serger to get the best rolled hem. I leave that one set up for rolled hem only!

While looking for the sergers, I had to check out a shelf that had some old White treadle heads. I know I'm not going to be using them so I bit the bullet and listed all three for sale: I got two calls for buying all three! Dwayne came down yesterday and picked them up, telling me he refurbishes and sells them to the local Amish community. We then had a bit of discussion if I would have others without motors and I just might have to take him up on that. I would love to see some of these machines go to good homes and sometimes a motor is the only thing that holds them back. Dwayne might be my next best friend.

Everyone is sewing and buying sewing machines with cold weather and indoor activities at an all-time high. Some sell as soon as they get posted, other linger but are just as worthy. They are all my friends, but some just a little lower on the list. 

Keep calm and sew on.

When Close is Close Enough

Friday:
There has been quite a run on Bernina's lately and that could be because I have been recommending them more. When people I have sold sewing machines to come back for another machine, many times they ask for something that is really "the best" sewing machine for (fill in the blank here). If it's the best stitches and they want more than straight stitch, I frequently have to recommend Bernina's. Their tension is perfect, stitches are ramrod straight, and these machines have definitely stood the test of time. So I continue to recommend but sometimes get caught in a situation where I have no more machines and that has been my dilemma lately.

Everyone wants the Bernina Record 830, a very top-of-the-line machine before the real electronics came to dominate sewing machines. I know, they have electronic in their name on this model but they are primarily a mechanical sewing machine. Much to my delight, I have two of them, one complete with red carrying case, extension table, full set of accessories in a red box, new power cords and foot control. The other one has the same except no carrying case and no extension table. Everyone wants that extension table and they are hard to find! The search will continue until I sell both machines but one is getting picked up this weekend and we shall see about the other one: maybe someone wants it so bad they are willing to try to pick up an extension table later.

Here's the real dilemma: next up is the Bernina Record 730 and I also have two of them but both have issues. One came with the green suitcase and has the attachment compartment in green that fits onto the back of the machine, the other one came without a case. So what's the problem? The model with the case has a broken cam gear, very common, and the other one uses a knee control instead of a foot control. I have been looking for that knee control for four months and they keep getting away from me until this week when I found one and now it's mine! As far as the gear replacement goes, that's another sage but I'll summarize.

I bought the replacement gear some time ago but without a buyer I wasn't too motivated to actually replace it. After watching an excellent YouTube video on how to do this right with all of the subsequent adjustments, I dove in. Here's a little aside about an oil pad under the can mechanism: the video said to just throw it away but I could see the machine with the decent gear also had a decent oil pad so I switched them out:

Deep inside the machine where the oil pad was removed

Let's throw that oil pad on the left away and replace with the super clean one on the right

The problem comes with these aftermarket gears that are just slightly off in size so there is a bit of a hitch in their giddy-up. For the most part the stitches were great and then there was the occasional misstep but it was unpredictable when it would show up. I put everything away and checked back two days later. Now I had another thought: I have a 730 as a parts machine so maybe I could use that camstack gear! I took it all apart and, wouldn't you know it, it was the same measurement as the new gear! Is my micrometer off?

Broken gear, older gear on camstack, new replacement gear on camstack

 I don't have anything to lose so I go ahead and take the old but not broken gear off the camstack. I try to anyway but one of the screws is not loosening up so I decide to use the whole camstack with gear because, after all, aren't they the same model? It all goes together just fine so I stitch it out but find the stitches are not in the right order. Some of the patterns are all together different. What's going on here? Then I look at the stitch selector for each machine and see there are different stitches and a different order between them. What do I do now? The easy way is to print off a new list and tape it to the machine:

But then I get the idea of switching the top lid:

Original order

Replaced camstack order

I think this might work so I'm relieved for now. Neither of these machines have the extension table but I did find one only to discover it did not match even one of the three 730's I now have. Time to investigate the part number so I can get the correct one when I find another one. I still have two more Bernina's to show but I would like to have all of them in working order. It appears my work is never done but it's oh so enjoyable! Happy sewing...

 Sunday:
It was quite a whirlwind day on Saturday and things didn't turn out as expected! A quilting friend from Cambridge came down to look at the Berninas and bought the 830 without the case or table (since the other one was already spoken for). I told them about the 730 table that didn't fit as I had it on the kitchen table with all of the Berninas. Her husband, who was active in this whole discussion, said it looked like it was the same size opening as the 830 so we tried it and it actually fit the 830 a bit better. He said he was willing to shave off the extra with a file to make it fit and it was sold! All three of us were happy as she loaded up the car with her new-to-her-sewing machine.

Before the next Bernina sale I managed to squeeze in Harlan who wanted an Elna for some basic sewing. The SU62C was not behaving well and I couldn't sell it yet so I sent him some photos of a few Kenmore's. He called Saturday morning to see some of them and I figured I could set them up for his perusal. He ended up with a Kenmore 158-17741, a very nice machine with built in stitches as well as cams for decorative stitches. Upon leaving he said he would still like to have a go at the Elna if and when it was ready to go as he was taken up with the Swiss manufacturing and watch reputation.

Kenmore 158-17741

Julie came for her Bernina Record 830 and we plugged it in and it didn't sound very good. What happened? We figured she must have sewn on the other model and not this one. Then the stitch length lever wasn't behaving well so she said she would either wait for this one to get worked on or might even look at a different Bernina. I do have a 910 coming this week so we shall see. Last night I took the 830 apart and checked the motor, cleaned out stray pins, put it all back together and with another oiling it now sounds like it should. The stitch length lever was cleaned out and adjusted and now it works according to the manual. I'll let Julie know it's fine now but she might want to wait until I have the 910 up and running. We shall see.

And finally, Freeman was back with his restored bentwood case and looking for an exact fit of those strap sets I sell. There was an extension table with his case and he wondered if we could somehow accommodate it with the straps but nothing seemed to work. Then my husband had a brilliant idea: how about making a carrying pouch that attaches to the back of the carrying handle for the extension table? That sounded like it would work so I even produced some Singer logo fabric to give him inspiration. All was well, everyone went home happy, my reputation is still intact. 

Four visits in one day: that might be a record but I don't want to do that very often. Now I'm off to sew a new Hawaiian shirt for my husband (we have to do something to avoid going out in the snow!)

Deep Knee Bends

I'm having knee problems; No, not my knees but knee controls. Bernina Record 730's can come with a knee lever as speed control and although I have one of these machines I cannot find a lever for it. Two have sold while I was searching so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong in my search that I cannot find and purchase before it is gone but I'll keep trying. It's the all metal folding kind, not the one with a plastic handle (the connections are different):

Bernina Record knee power control (not presser foot lifter)

While I continue to search for this elusive knee bar control, I picked up a Singer 99 in a bentwood case that also used a knee bar for speed control. The wiring looked unsafe so before I could even test it out I needed to fix that wiring. It was a model that used these very old plugs but you can take them apart and add new wires:

Plugs that need new wire

Screw for tightening down the new wire (red circle)

Even the funky plug connection was different than most so I added new wire and a new wire and plug to the outlet. It ran but things just didn't look right. Come to find out, the knee lever pulls on an internal lever to activate:

Control box and how it should look inside

How mine looked: see lever out of the slot

and it wasn't in the slot but next to it. Wait a minute, the whole thing isn't screwed down. When I removed enough of the mechanism I found three screws floating around in the bottom so it must have been tinkered with and not returned to its original state. I got it all screwed down, every lever in position, and it worked. Well, there was power to the motor but the sewing machine needed oil and cleaning to rectify the sticking points. As I worked with it all of a sudden it just didn't work. Dead. No power. Since my husband had been sitting at the table at the time, we discussed all of the possible problems and why it suddenly stopped getting power. Out came the multimeter, going over all of the steps we took before this happened, but he kept saying "It's gotta be the box" meaning the metal box where the controller was housed.

Now I took everything apart, again. and when I pulled up the controller there was only one wire connected. It needs two. Upon closer inspection I could see where the wire had finally snapped off. No wonder! With very careful work I could pull through enough wire to give it a new connection, making sure there was no wire touching the metal box. Warning! Warning! Warning! I am not an electrician and only do what I know is sound, having either my husband check my work or I consult with a son-in-law who is an electrician. Do not take chances with electricity!

This one looks pretty nasty inside but both leads are connected

Once I got things back in good shape, it finally ran but needed that cleaning and oiling, all easy in comparison to replacing so much of the electrical system. But there's another part of this tale: I sold the same model to Jordan and the knee lever was not in the right position. I was sure I had worked on it and there was no repositioning of the knee lever. But maybe the lever in the control box wasn't inside the slot to put it in the correct position. Here's the steps to correcting this problem (lever positioning, not electrical connections):

How it looked before with lever outside of the correct slot (green circle)

Remove screw (purple circle) to either lift lever off or up

Move lever (red circle) into place and tighten everything back up

As you take it apart it might fall into too many pieces so take a good look at it before you start to see how it all fits back together. You only need to check the wiring and to make sure the lever is in the correct position.

Icy weather out now so we are hunkered down and sewing. What's up now? An embroidery machine! That's next up so stay tuned.

Sewing Machine Spotting

It's deer hunting season here in Minnesota and I just had to accept it when I moved here and embrace it when I married a hunter/fisherman a decade ago. While he was going to be out in the cold I decided to visit my friend in Arizona. Knowing I had missed our vacation a few years ago due to his kidney stones, my husband gave me gift cards for Delta last Christmas just so I could visit Cathy this year. We got it all arranged and I took off in six degree weather in Minneapolis on Tuesday and flew into seventy degree weather a few hours later. It was heaven!

Left is Arizona temp of 70 and right is 6 degrees as I left Minnesota

Among the usual pool time, favorite pizza and ice cream shops, we took in Scottsdale's Canal Convergence water and light festival. Great fun to see how water is important to the desert and making it fun with lights and music. We also went to the Scottsdale Museum of the West for a Barry Goldwater exhibit of his photography. Before we got to his terrific display we took in the work of Maynard Dixon. As we wandered around I found this line drawing:

Maynard Dixon's sister at the sewing machine

Leave it to a true sewist to find a sewing machine everywhere they go! All in all, it was a wonderful get-away with sun, extra sleep, great conversation, and love of a dear friend.

Coming back to 38 degrees wasn't as hard as I thought but the question came up about getting both cars back into the garage since snow is coming. Before I left I got the summer furniture up in the garage attic with the help of a daughter but now we have the returned the snow blower to it's rightful spot and need to get the sewing machine cabinets out of the way. While I was gone I got an email about the Singer 27 in a drawing room cabinet:

Singer 27 in drawing room cabinet

and the calls have been coming in for the rest of them! How great is that? Here's the garage on Sunday at noon:

Waiting for their buyers this afternoon

Tom and Freeman both came at the same time but it was a fruitful session with two collectors/sellers. Now the Singer 12 in the house is gone and the Singer 27 is in a new home. While checking everything out Freeman asked about the Singer 301 cabinet and then it was gone, too. Three machines in one hour! I nearly cried because now there's only two left, one empty cabinet, and hopes of getting the cars inside before the snow. Here's how the garage looks now, waiting for the Bernina 730 to be sold tomorrow:

After three more gone

Good to have a warm vacation and rest, good to be home again, too. Now, what's my next project? I think I'm making legging for a seven year old granddaughter!

In the Meantime

As usual, there are so many sewing machines and just too little time! I've acquire some very nice ones, sold a few, fixed a few more since my last post but it's craft fair season! I do not have time for machines, just sew, sew, sew. Tomorrow is our final day for being in a craft fair so I took some of the comments from the last fair to heart and have made a few changes.

The baby booties attracted some nice attention but it was the little cuties herself who stole the show:

Kelly & Evelyn at the Blaine show

Yes, that's my granddaughter Evelyn, with her mom who got many offers but apparently she is not for sale. Hoping she could model some of the booties brought about the comment of her too-big feet. I don't think her feel are too big but I made only the smaller sizes: 3-6 months and 6-9 months. People wanted to buy them but they were just too small. In the two weeks between craft fairs I have made a dozen pair of booties in sizes 9-12 months and 12-18 months. They are much easier to make when you aren't struggling to turn them right side out so there's no objection from me! It's always fun to match up fabrics with patterns:

Booties for sale

When not sewing up a storm, I managed to pick up a Bernina Record 830 for a song. As usual, when they say it's still available, I do not hesitate but go right over (before they change their mind or get a better offer). It came with a wonderful set of accessories but no extension table or carrying case. During the testing phase I found out the foot control was wacky and this model would need a much more expensive replacement for $75. Ouch! Maybe there was an alternative? I Googled "Bernina 830 foot control rewire" and found a YouTube video. I had a nice new electronic foot control so I opened both up, switched wires paying attention to the colors and instructions, put it all back together, and it worked. It continues to surprise me since the whole process is pretty simple but the inside of an electronic foot control is anything but simple.It's my plan to continue to learn about circuits from LinkedIn Learning and my son-in-law so I'm saving the complex problems for later. Here's the Bernina Record 830:

Bernina Record 830 with accessory box (full!)

The garage continues to get cleared out with another treadle going to a new home to a maple tree farmer, a Singer 15-90 going to a young father who wanted to make gear (his wife had a new computerized sewing machine he wasn't allowed to use),  and a few sets of treadle irons and cabinets without machines were let go very cheap. So there is a plan and we should get one car back in the garage after the craft fair is over. No new machines! Especially in cabinets! Then I spy a Singer 301 in a table. Oh no, not a black 301. Yes, it's still available if I can get there in the next two hours. You bet.

It's an estate sale so they do not know anything about sewing machines. It's missing the power cord and the foot control has the button missing but it comes in a decent table with the cradle so it is mine. It is also Halloween and I need to get home to relieve my poor husband. That means since he answered the door while I was gone I get to answer the door during dinner. Oh well, that's a price I'm willing to pay.

Right next to the front door is a Singer 12 treadle that I've been working on rather unsuccessfully. Someone has shown some interest in it so I'm motivated to get it working smoothly. For this one I check Treadleon for how to clean and adjust a treadle and then Youtube videos for threading a model 12. I finally put a brand new leather belt on it, shortened it twice, adjust the pitman rod to shorten it, and she runs! I keep treadling to work out any of the kinks and find she's really fast, loud, but fast. I'll try it again this weekend but I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.

Singer 12 treadle

Singer 12 treadle with new belt

The cabinet is in good shape and a coating of Howard's Feed & Wax really make it look good. I have to keep wiping it down to get the excess off but by now it's practically glowing.

 

 

Singer 12 in treadle cabinet: she glows!

Summertime in the Cities

Life has a way of grabbing us and making demands on our time and resources. Lately, it's been my time that has been in low supply but it's Sunday morning when I typically like to write a post for my readers. Loyal readers. Most of the time I have no idea who reads my blog posts but then I get questions and realize I have some very loyal readers and that humbles me. Thank you for your faithfulness while I attend to other duties.

I have continued to buy, restore, and resell sewing machines but it has slowed down as it happens every summer. There are cabinets stacked up in the garage but neither car wants to be sitting out and I've been too busy to try and clean them up anyway. One is for a Bernina Record that I have been using to hem bridesmaid dresses for a step-daughter who is pregnant with her third baby so they are hemmed with that in mind.

Bridesmaid dress with lower hem in front

I love the hemmer foot for making rolled hems and it seems to work the best of all the rolled hem foot attachments. Leave it to a Bernina to make the best stitch.

Next up is a Viking 2000 that I've been using for all kinds of projects because it's so sweet.

Viking 2000 in perfect condition

This is a model that is known for all kinds of problems but mine has been perfect so I want to keep it active and sewing. I made up swimsuits for a granddaughter and great nieces again giving them a choice of fabrics:

Swimsuit fabric choices: electric blue or dancing pink?

and they liked both so I decided to make up the blue fabric first:

Swimsuits sizes 7, 10, and 12

Sorry about the color difference but they really are the electric blue as shown in the first photo. I was busy sewing along and didn't notice anything amiss until I laid them all side by side. You can't see it very clearly in the photo but the middle one has a very narrow crotch! I don't know what happened but I wasn't paying attention and didn't catch it in time. Although I do not have any extra fabric I could have done some sort of an insert if I caught it sooner. I sent it along in hopes it just might work but with apologies and the promise of sending the pink swimsuits this week. It wasn't the fault of the Viking sewing machine because it made such a nice zigzag elastic stitch making the whole project easier. Maybe too easy? There is no autopilot for sewing!

I had another run-in with a New Home XL-II, a favorite of mine. It needed a new hook drive gear but after replacement I find it has other problems that I cannot fix. This is a big disappointment since it's such a good machine but I fear it's going to go for parts, too. At least I learn a few things along the way!

As we continue to care for my aunt in Iowa, I find I'm spending more time getting her financial papers in order and that takes a huge chunk of time but is necessary. I keep telling myself it will slow down but not yet. We cancelled a trip down this week because we need to go down the following week to take her for a bone marrow test. She could have this done without us but she doesn't want to have it at all and we are hoping if we go with her this might allay some of her fears. We just need to know what is causing her blood counts to be so dangerously low and if there is something that should be done to help her. Thank goodness she is not in pain but we are in more distress than she is at this point.

Life goes on, I continue to keep sewing as it is such a soothing task for me that I can't imagine not sitting down to a sewing machine to have a little fun. Having so many sewing machines to choose from makes it all the more enjoyable, don't you think?