Sight Unseen

It is nice when the results of a sight unseen risk come out as you expected. There were some who thought from my earlier photos of my new featherweight project, that the machine looked great the way it is. However, upon arrival in West Virginia, my suspicions from the poor eBay photographs were corroborated, and then some. The finish of this 1937 beauty does indeed need some work, and the original decals are at least 1/3 missing. She is a perfect candidate for a makeover!

True to many auction listings, the possible water damage and extent of decals missing were under described. It’s not a hot mess, but not very collectible as-is.

This is what the listing said:
“1937 Singer 221 Featherweight Sewing Machine with case and pedal. Very nice condition with wear consistent with age and normal use. Tested and operates perfectly. Bobbin case intact (sometimes they are missing). No other attachments present. Case has wear consistent with being used and moved around. Handle has been taped with electrical tape but is still attached to top strongly. Work light works. Some of the gold trim printing is worn off from use. Belt has minor use wear but still in very good condition. Motor runs freely and strong. I will ship as cheaply as possible.”

If she really operates perfectly, then all will be well. If she doesn’t, then I will fix it. When I am 80 years old, I can only hope I fare so well!

I think she will be out for delivery for stripping, maintenance, and refinishing this week. My new waterslide metallic decals arrived from keelersales.com and I have decided on a color. It isn’t exactly a hot rod, but as close as I have ever come! This 2000 Ford Ranger was my very first “new car”. Since then I have driven a station wagon and a minivan. Sigh. I think that I need to remedy this. An old curvy Jaguar with silver racing stripes would look great in this metallic green color too! (Hey, a girl can dream…)

My brand new truck – Spring 2000 before I graduated from college

I have a picture in my head about what the 1937 will look like all decked out in green metallic with silver Celtic knot decals and all of her original shiny chrome.

But, what shall I name her?

If I’m lucky I will ger her back before June when I attend the Kansas City Regional Quilt Festival. (If not, I’ll borrow Mom’s machine and treat it to a spa day.) I signed up for a Nova Montgomery Singer Featherweight Maintenance Class. I thought this would be great to guide me through maintenance of the machines, help me maintain my machines health and be a great resource for my mother, friends, and family who own these machines.

The tulips in this photo give promise of spring, though winter won’t be over until March 20th here! Our biggest snow might be yet to come! My ankle is doing really well, so…

LET IT SNOW!

A Feathered Journey Begins

My new toy is traveling today!

Funny story anyone?

My fun friend Teresa, who I met at Quilting Elevated last year, was going to bid on a featherweight at an auction in West Virginia last Sunday. She is an auctioneer and knows how auctions work. I felt good about letting her spend my money. Saturday night I get a call… ” I bought you a machine! (I hope you’re not mad…)”. Now, I was momentarily confused since the auction wasn’t until Sunday. However, never underestimate a friend. I had mentioned the type of the machine I was most interested in and given her bidding limit guidelines. She ran with it and probably saved me some dough ( and a very long drive for her) by finding said model on an Ebay auction without a 10% buyers fee. So far so good. We have a tracking number!

This 1937 beauty is making a grand tour from Daly City in Sunny California (home of the Cow Palace just south of San Fransico) to Buckhannon, West Virginia and then finally to my home in Overland Park, Kansas.

WARNING: IF YOU ARE A PURIST… Read no more today.

This little machine is going to travel about 3,550 miles before I ever get to touch it, and I can hardly wait. The machine appears to have some wear to the decals, and some finish scuffing on the neck, and may need some foot pedal cable work. It’s hard to see defects from the Ebay photographs. My friend knows someone that is great at helping to give some TLC and hot rod old machines, and I hope to hire him! Cleanup, Tune Up, Strip Down, and Refinish & Decal. It reminds me of the scene in the Wizard of Oz before they have an audience! I also plan to figure out how to restore the case, which is in less than stellar condition… Stay tuned.

Can you imagine the fun we would all have if they made a reality show restoring and “hot rodding” vintage sewing machines! I bet mechanics, machine artists and wild quilty ladies involved with all of the curvy, chromed machines of the past could be a hoot. The machines would become showpieces of the future. Computerized, plastic machine cases may never be collectible like the older machines. They aren’t pretty, just very functional. Once the circuit boards are aged, they may just take up space. They don’t make sewing machines like they used to, and electronics are sometimes harder to repair. Don’t get me wrong. I love computerization. But I am very psyched about my new, old toy!

I wish I could go to WV and help with the process of stripping it down and refinishing it.

Do you have a hot rod in your collection?
Comment and tell me about it.

Safe Travels!

Winter Stargazing

Stargazing in winter might seem ideal as you have more uninterrupted viewing hours. However, shivering in a Kansas field doesn’t sound like best way to take in the stars. I prefer to quilt! At least that hobby keeps us warm in the 60 degree winters…

Was anyone else part of the warm spell last week? My kids were running around outside in sweatshirts complaining that they were hot. Sigh. It didn’t stay warm, so they are back inside, bouncing off the walls and each other. We had to declare a moment of silence this evening for our sanity.

Last weekend was so productive! Since the kids were enjoying an unseasonably warm day and my husband was working on a project, I was able to quilt.
(Pepper helped.)

Making up for lost time I managed to longarm a Minecraft quilt for the school auction, create a log cabin paper piece pattern for my friend, and finish a few small blocks and projects. I’m saving some of the other projects for later posts, so no pics, but you can see the Winter Star block from the Farmgirl Vintage book.

One thing great about the Farmgirl patterns is that you rarely work with bias. Take the star point for instance. Instead of cutting parallelogram pieces on the bias, you start with a rectangle and sew two squares on, similar to creating quick half square triangles. The bias is never exposed, so your block stays nice and squared up. I love this!

If you only sew the desired line, you end up with triangle waste on each end. However, if you are tricky you could create smaller half square triangle blocks for your next scrappy quilt by making a second seam line 1/2″ away from the first, and trim between the two stitch lines. I really should do this more often! They might be handy in scrappy or mini quilts.

I said no pictures, but I’d better share this mini that I finished from a BOM club my Mom has gifted me. 🙂 Prairie Point Quilt and Fabric Shop has a fun Tiny Dresden BOM program that started this month. The pattern is for hand applique dresden with embroidered sayings. Of course, I love my machines, so tried to figure out how to beautifully finish this mini using a scanner, custom digitizing and embroidery, and longarm quilting. Alas, the buttons were too small, so I had to hand stitch those on! In February, I will give a run down on how my experiment worked and what I would do differently next time.

Hattie’s Trick

Hattie’s Trick blocks from the Two Sister Sampler are complete, “Just In Time” (JIT). That has been a fad in manufacturing for years! Since I don’t actually need a new top to quilt yet, I delayed the completion so that this top is completed when I DO need something to quilt! (Do you buy that?)

Hattie’s trick is another layout using half square triangles. I feel like I have made a lot of these this year. Mine are four colors, with three values.

Annemarie Chany , Author of Sister Sampler Quilts, used two-tone blocks . I like them better that way. The quilt looks great! This kind of block would be easy to setup in EQ7 to try out different color and fabric combinations. I might try it with some of the other blocks from this series.

I’ve been busy in my quilt lab for the last couple of weeks, and have some more finishes ready to trickle out. Some are quilts, and others are small projects. I’m keeping this post short so that I can work on them!

What’s in my queue of finishes?

Falling Charms and Scalloped Edges with Bias Binding
Falling Flakes Mini – Minus the Hand Stitching
Valentines Mini Quilt
Quick Curve- Urban Runner
More Minecraft
Curve it Up – Topside Reveal
Star Trek Zipper Quilt
Chocolate Bunnies
? Will I get to teach my first class?
? Will I get lucky and find myself a “hot rod” machine project?
And more… I wouldn’t want to be bored!

Be Happy! It’s a choice.

A Table Well Set

Happy New Year! We decided not to procrastinate and started our new a little early. Something sweet found itself under our tree on Christmas Eve (as I hinted to earlier)… Pepper, a 5 1/2 lb, 5 month old dilute calico adopted our family on Christmas Eve.

I was a little nervous, as I have never lived with a cat. So far, she is so stinking sweet, we should have called her Sugar. The little quilt lover made herself right at home with us.

I have managed to get back to my quilt lab to put finishing touches on some projects, and move others that direction.

My first finish is gift of some new wheelchair arm bags, and a mini-quilt frame with quilt. They make their way to my Grandmother in St. Louis later this month. She is a Cardinal baseball fan. It’s hard to tell, but the background of the paper-pieced bird is quilted with baseballs. (Shhh. Don’t tell. I used “artistic license” on the paper piecing and used fabric marker to create the black detailing. Those pieces were just too small…)

Another finish is decorating my table with my Children’s wish for snow. I set the table for leftovers tonight! Indian Food. Yum. I really like the way these four blocks turned out. The blocks were from a row-by-row kit I bought a couple of summers ago. I turned them on point, added narrow sashing, and set them with a batik background and border. (Never underestimate the possibilities!) The quilting was done with a pattern called “Jessica’s snowflake” by Nancy Haacke, Wasatch Quilting. I loved the description on the pattern;

“Jessica’s snowflakes originated when Jessica wanted snowflakes on her quilt that were structured with six sides, as she learned in her molecular studies class, that real snowflakes always have six sides! True story.”

Well, Jessica IS correct! If anyone is a geek like me, or even if you aren’t, look it up and brush up on these crystalline beauties! Any snowflake with other than sixfold symmetry, is an impostor! Check out this fun science article from Jon Hamilton on NPR, All Things Considered, “What’s Wrong With This Snowflake?”.

I completed the scientifically correct ensemble with some embroidered hemstitch napkins decorated with an ombré style embroidery design from Urban Threads, called “Let it Snow”. If you are into embroidery, check them out each month for a new freebie! This month’s is for pet lovers.

Note: All Christmas Lego & crafting chaos has been ingeniously hidden outside of the camera field of view!

I don’t have any more finishes to share, but did load and begin quilting my April Showers, Falling Charms quilt, and cut the pieces for a new Quick Curve table runner. My New Year’s Resolution is to put together at least one quilt class this year. I plan to combine all of the tips and tricks I have learned on the curve-it-up quilt, and share those with others! Who knows, if you aren’t already an expert, maybe I will see you in class!