Cherry Slippers and Featherweight Love

I finished the allover Cherry print slippers - can't wait to use them.  Martha (check out her blog), who made my original pair and shared the pattern, never made herself a pair and is now requesting a pair in ballet slipper pink.  I think that would be a fair trade for giving me the pattern. Not sure I have the right fabric in the stash....hmm, maybe some fabric shopping in my future?  These would be granted an exception to my current 'Shop the Stash' rule.

 

During the stitching up of the slippers, DH was installing a new wireless doorbell.  My part of that project was the flipping on/off of the electrical circuits.  Not exactly brain surgery but we would have never guessed the doorbell was on the dedicated furnace circuit.  I couldn't believe DH kept telling me 'no' as I flipped every other circuit in the panel off.  DH had some special help for the doorbell adventure.

Zena on the ladder

 Thankfully, neither of the other two cats show any interest in climbing the ladder.  Right after this picture, Martha called with some exciting sewing machine news. During her recent road trip for a family Thanksgiving she was given a 1955 Featherweight! Her name is VESTA, she looks almost brand new and she runs like a dream - I heard her over the phone.  

Troubling Martha was the loose lower thread guide so she called so we could brainstorm what the problem might be.  The only way for me to help was to get Dot out so we both had FWs in front of us.  HA! We quickly deduced that an improperly installed needle was causing the problem. Once replaced with a new needle, seated correctly, the lower thread guide is as snug as it should be!  One of the beautiful things about FW is that they are elegantly simple in design and maintenance.

Martha also came home with a quilt restoration project from heck! heeheehee Something about tatters and threads, with batting flapping out in the breeze. Fair trade for getting a FW, I think!

 

Since Dot (1957 FW) was out, I gave her a little love and oil. Her belt seems a touch loose but I'm not adjusting it until I use her full out next time. The oiling seemed to smooth out the tiny slip at the start of stitching. Isn't she pretty?!

 

Feeling guilty, I went into the downstairs bedroom closet and brought out....my other FW.

 

She doesn't have a name and though she runs beautifully, I haven't sewn with her since I got her. As you can see, she needs a complete spa treatment as her finish is damaged and she needs new rubber feet, and a bobbin case.  This free 1949 FW came in a case with only her foot pedal power cord. Not the original, a replacement, that someone altered the plug receptacle to fit - GRRR!  I see her destined to be a Painted Lady. Nonetheless, I gave her some love and oil and ran her to move the joints around.  Maybe 2014 will be her year. I need to move this project up my wish list and start saving my pennies.

Here are the girls together, with my Singer Scholastic workhorse (dang - need a name for that one too) in the background, not wanting to miss out on the photo fun.

 

Today, the weatherman is predicting one last day with temps in the 50's, before a cold snap and snowfall coming this weekend.  I'm planning on spending a good portion of the day OUT as I'm be hunkered down, doing laundry & sewing when the temps fall.  Friday brings the next clue in Bonnie Hunter's Celtic Solstice Mystery Quilt and I have the second French Braid quilt to cut & piece, not to mention I have a small Irish Chain wall hanging niggling about in my brain that I could easily piece as a leader and ender project during the mystery sewing session. Sew many projects...

 

New Direction

Here it is - "New Direction". 

New Direction - 7" x 10.5"

The quilting was done on my Featherweight, Dot, with a regular quilting foot.  I'll be hanging it in my sewing area where I can see it all the time to remind me to always continue to try new things, seek more information and boldly go forward - whether it's a traditional, modern, original or art quilt on the table.

I am thrilled with the performance of the Wonder Under - loving those clean edges!  There are already a few sketches in the new sketchbook that are for fused quilts.  They have to sit there for a bit as I have to get back to the French Braid Quilt today.  Need to get the separator band braids constructed and then determine if I have enough fabric to whip up a second one.

 

 

Well, Where Have I Been?

 

I'm sure given my recent posts, you might come to the conclusion that I was on yet another Road Trip.

 

Nope.

 

This week has been full of job hunting adventures.  Not the most exciting activity to blog about so I won't bore you all with the details.  Let's just say - I'm still looking. 

 

And I haven't spent much time quilting.  I did manage to fit in a quick trip to Michigan for yard work and took both dogs with me. And a sewing project.

After almost 45 years, my Dad's Czech Kroj shirt was in bad shape and a wee bit too small. I was drafted asked to make him a new one.  Of course, there was no pattern so I had to draft one from another shirt.  All of the blackwork and the lace portion of the sleeves were salvaged from the old shirt.  Mom told me the lace work was made by my great-grandmother and it's in pretty good shape.  The blackwork is showing it's age, as the front placket was originally done on a plain thin cotton.  I lifted it all from the old shirt and appliqued it down to the new shirt in the hope of the extra layer giving it a little longer life. It's hard to see but the black work has a row of open loops along two of the edges which I hand stitched down individually to retain their shape. I used Kona cotton for the body & upper sleeve.

 

If you all remember, I had just had my workhorse Singer cleaned & tuned up just last month. This was in anticipation of a machine quilting class on October 12th, at Pieceful Gathering (a LQS), taught by Terry Johnson, (check out her Blog here) which was great!   The class size - 6 students was perfect for individual instruction, questions, variety, etc. 

 

Since the class was in the afternoon, I thought I'd start the day doing some quilting on the DWR quilt.  I threaded up & stitched around all the arcs to stabilize it. And then hung it up on the wall until I can figure out the rest of the quilting I want to do on it.  Then I figured I better get myself together for the class so I wanted to run through the walking foot (which I never use) and the free motion foot (which I have used) and that's when the wheels came flying off the bus!!! 

 

All of the sudden, I had skipped stitches and tension wackiness and some general machine weirdness!! ACK!!!!!!!   Some really creative words issued forth and after some unsuccessful machine wrestling, I threw in the towel. My DH gently broached the topic of what I was going to do given I had a machine quilting class in less than 2 hours and apparently a non-functioning machine.  Brave man!

 

I calmly explained that this is *exactly* why I have more than 1 sewing machine.  I made lunch, jumped in the shower, dressed, wound a few bobbins and gathered my supplies. And off I went to class ... with my Featherweight!! So there!

 

 

 

 

 

 



Fun with my Featherweight!!

WOOOHOOO!!!

I can free motion on my Singer 221 Featherweight!!!

 

Okay, I *knew* it was possible because I did it at a quilt show but now I *know* I can. 

 

 

And because I really love my FW, here is her picture. 

She is a beautiful 1957 machine that I found on eBay.  I really need to do more sewing with her - machine should not just sit around. They need to be cleaned, oiled and run on a regular basis. 

 

I should mention that while I machine quilt all the time - I am a mostly straight line quilter.
My 'sun rays' can be quite intense.

 

And I think I set a record for 'quilt-stop-turn-quilt' on this quilt

 

 

My problem with free motion quilting is letting go of uber-control and just go with the flow.  I can do it and will do it.  Its a matter of deciding to learn a better skill, putting in the time, practicing, creating muscle memory and building one skill set on top of another.  Oh yeah, and remembering to BREATH!

 

While roaming around blog-dom, I came across Diane Gaudynski's blog.  I love her 'Yes you can & you can on a regular home sewing machine' approach to machine quilting and now own both of her books, which I had read before from the library.  I am starting with some practice pieces (see above), which are the cut-offs of backing & batting of larger quilt projects.  I'm also dating the samples so I can document my hopeful progress and which machine I used on which sample.  The first sample were done on my 6510 and are not shown here - that will be a later post - stay tuned.

 

Happy Labor Day! Time for a break..

A Service Break 

 

Last Friday I bite the bullet and took my sewing machine in for an overdue servicing.  While it hasn't been as long as the rotary cutter debacle (DUH Moment of August 23rd), I had been seeing an issue with tension.  On an auto tension machine, that's an issue.  Most likely, it's a 'get the machine cleaned & serviced, you idiot' issue that will be resolved fairly quickly.  I hope so, cause I get twitchy without it.  'It' is Singer 6510 Scholastic machine that has been driven miles & miles over the last 12 years.  It has sewn quilts of many kinds and sizes, curtains, Renaissance Faire garb, dog beds, leather bits, etc.

It has also regularly traveled to Wisconsin, Indiana & Michigan.  Recently, I headed to Michigan to do some yard work for my folks, scheduled to be gone for about 2 days, and when I told my DH I wasn't taking my machine, he looked at me like I had grown another head on my shoulder.  I took the machine with me on that trip. 

Unfortunately, the service techs are on holiday for a week so it will be two weeks at least before I get my machine back.  Breathing deeply... So what's a quilter to do without her workhorse machine???

 

Go Fabric Shopping, of course!!

 

A Shopping Break

I headed over to Shipshewana, Indiana to my most-favorite-quilt-shop-in-the-whole-world, Lolly's Fabrics.  It is an AMAZING place, with over 13,000 bolts of quilt fabric - batiks, moderns, civil war repro, 30's & 40's prints, flannels, solids, blenders, florals, Orientals, holiday, wide backs, conversation novelties, baby & kid prints, books, patterns, kits, notions and more!  This is a picture of the side door and porch, complete with rocking chairs so folks can sit and rest from all the fabric and other shopping.

 

Lolly's is located inside the Davis Mercantile.

 

 

Here's just a few of the things I picked up.

 

 

An Experiment Break

 

While the workhorse is in the shop, the Featherweight gets to come out & play.  Featherweights are incredible for piecework but I'm going to push the envelope and practice some free motion quilting on it.  Yes, it can be done and while I've tried it at a quilt show, I've never done it at home. Time to try something new.  I'll keep you posted on my experiment.