Happy Halloween!

'Lobster'

 HAPPY HALLOWEEN! 

I just had to show my dogs all dressed up to help hand out candy.  Katie is a Lobster.  She sat on my lap most of the evening.  We sat outside on the porch, with the chiminea  keeping us warm.  Padfoot (yes, named after the character in Harry Potter) was a yellow submarine.  I've been humming that tune all evening.  I don't usually dress my dogs up, but, once a year, on Halloween, they get to play along with the others who dress up. 

'Yellow Submarine'

I found a great costume this year, but, I got home too late to put it on.  I guess I'll get to be Snow White next year, instead. 

Hope you Halloween was fun, too!

Treadle Tuesday and some fun stuff.

White Rotary FR3020554 (before)

 No, these lovely machines aren't mine :( Waa!  I cleaned them up for a friend.  Bonita owns a quilt shop in Batavia, IL, and she lets our Quilts of Valor group use her classroom once a month for sew-in.  Bonita has these machines in her quilt shop, but, she'd like to be able to use the treadle.  I spent the day cleaning these machines for her.  First, I worked on the White Rotary (it's like my White Rotary, except that she has the full treadle, mine is only the head).  This machine already moved nicely, it just needed cleaning and oiling.

White Rotary (after)

Gritzner Durlach Handcrank #1126116 (before)

 The second machine, a hand crank, didn't move at all.  I wasn't sure I could get it to move, but, I knew I could at least clean it up.  This machine was really dirty.  The wheel and the hand crank wouldn't move at all.  Many of the parts were stuck on the machine.  I took my time, and lots of Liquid Wrench to get the parts off this machine.  I used LOTS of oil on this little lady.  Her hand crank was frozen stiff.  I finally got enough oil in the correct places, that she finally started to move.  This machine took most of my time, but, she was worth it.  When I left, she turned freely.  All in all, it was a day well spent.

Gritzner hand crank (after)

Several of the ladies from Quilts of Valor were also there.  They decided to have a 'cut-in' while I was cleaning the machines.  They cut lots of pieces for quilt kits for our next sew-in.  Thanks for keeping me company, girls.

Gritzner handcrank (after)

Toy Story characters in car window

Lastly, my hubby and I were out on Saturday and saw these Toy Story characters in the back window of a car.  I just had to take a picture.  Every time I think of these characters, I think 'Ooo, the claw'.

Teapot Tuesday and a shop hop!

tiny dragon teapot

dragon saucer

Thimbles Quilt Shop quilt

panel from 'The Sew It Book Collection'

 This teapot is TINY!  I found it at a garage sale last week.  It's less than 2 inches tall, but, it's a REAL teapot, not one of the little resin ones.  This is actually made of china.  It has dragons on it, and it is hand painted.  I love the little teacup and saucer that came with it.  The details are so pretty, sorry they don't photograph very well.

up close of the panel

up close of the panel

Mrs. Sew & Sew

Punctuation by American Jane

Foundation by the Yard

doll dresses pan

Last week there was a 'shop hop' in my area.  There were seven shops in the hop, but, we stopped at eight shops, since the other ladies hadn't been to one of them before.  It is new.

We covered about 100 miles for this shop hop.  We've done more than that on another shop hop. 

One of the shops has a quilt hanging by the register.  It has their name above the little door on the quilt.  They even quilted some falling leaves on either side of the building.  They made this quilt a few years ago for another shop hop. 

My little guild (I'm in two guilds) is having a class to make ruler holders tomorrow.  Well, since I've been so busy with work, etc, I haven't had time to see if I have matching material to make the ruler holder out of my stash.  Oh No!  What's a girl to do?  I had to buy more fabric.  Terrible, isn't it ; )  I found some button fabric and some matching fabric at the first store.  Hmm... not enough color choices, guess I'll have to use the same fabric instead of over and over.  At another store, I found the panel that matches the button fabric, and the other matching fabrics.  Yipee!  Oh yea, the panel was on SALE!  I bought 2 panels, one for the lining, and one for 'later'.  I'm trying to decide if I should make an apron with it, or, fussy cut it for a pin cushion/thread catcher or, make a sewing machine mat with it.  Hmmm.... maybe all three (I tend to buy way more fabric than I'll need for a project).



I have a panel in my stash of the Mrs Sew & Sew.  I only have one pin cushion/thread catcher left, so, I need to make more.  I usually make about a dozen at a time.  I love these fabrics.  I may also make a sewing machine mat with them, too. 



Since I already needed to make some pin cushion/thread catchers, I'd found the off white Punctuation fabric in Texas last month.  I checked at each store to see if they had fabric from the line.  Finally, store #4 had some.  My shopping list was almost done.

Several years ago I tried to find some of this 'foundation by the yard' fabric.  One of the stores has it in stock now.  I bought the crazy quilt squares, since I want to make a crazy quilt one of these days.  I just need some more satins and velvets first.

A missionary couple at our church are having their first baby, a girl, near Christmas.  I'm hoping I can find the time to put some borders around this panel and machine quilt it before the baby comes.  I know, I know, I don't machine quilt.  I can do some 'in the ditch' machine quilting.  My friends all figured I could just quilt around the squares and where the 'rick rack' is.  Now if I can just find the time... I'm looking!!!!

I was a good girl on the shop hop.  I only bought one thing that wasn't on my shopping list (yes, I had a list).   I don't think there is another shop hop until February.  Oh well, we'll just have to make our own shop hop.  Yipee!

Catching up!

Our yard, flocked!

 Wow!  I can't believe it's been 10 days since I last blogged.  I've been so busy!  My boss FINALLY decided to give me more hours each week.  Now I'm working a few hours several days a week.  I'm also still volunteering with the church at least one afternoon a week.  That means I have less time for other things.  But, I have been quilting.

Neighbors yard, flocked!

We got Flocked!  Our church's youth raise money for mission activities by 'flocking' yards.  The flamingos roost in your yard for about 24 hours.  You can pay to have someone flocked.  We flocked our neighbors, since they loved it when we got flocked last year.  My neighbor called me last night, laughing.  She and her hubby had driven into our cul-de-sac and were joking about us getting flocked, when they drove up to their house and saw their own flock.  They loved it!

local Halloween decorations

 Hubby and I drove to some garage sales today.  While we were out, we saw this yard FULL of Halloween decorations.  Oh my!  My hubby wanted me to take pictures of it.  The first two pictures are of the same house.  The third picture is of the house next door.  Thank goodness there wasn't any other 'mooning' going on there.

local Halloween decorations

local Halloween decorations

 

hand quilted table runner

old iron

sewing machine drawers for a VS machine

slots for long bobbins

Halloween table runner

Spiderweb quilting on table runner

I made this table runner two years ago.  It is hand quilted. It was super easy to piece.  I did raw edge applique on it.  Nothing was fused, since I hand quilted it. I've done very little applique, since it is harder to hand quilt thru all the layers.  Hand quilting thru fuseable applique just isn't worth the effort.  I found some cute, orange placemats earlier this week that go with the table runner.  Now I have several placemat options to use with it. 

Cute turkey!  Gobble! Gobble!

I've been wanting an old iron.  I found one yesterday at an antique store that is going out of business. Since I see them so often, I didn't want to pay very much.  This one was half price.  I also found the sewing machine drawers at the same place.  They were also half off.  They were already cheap.  They are for a machine that uses long bobbins.  The top drawer has a holder in it that holds 5 bobbins. 
















Last fall, I made three table runners and a set of placemats on my very first treadle, a 1896 Singer 15.  I started quilting them using a thread I'd never used before.  It didn't want to 'pull through' the fabric.  I had to really tug to get it to work.  I didn't like it, and, finally snipped it all out.  By then, it was Halloween, and I put the project down until later.  Well, later has come, at least for one of the table runners.  I found a pale grey thread for the spiderwebs.  I've been working on this for a few weeks.  It's only getting worked on during commercials while watching TV (mainly 'Castle', love that show).  There are five spiderwebs on this table runner.  I'm working on the fourth one.  

Lastly, I found this turkey at a garage sale today.  Isn't he cute!  Can you tell I'm starting to get into the 'Fall' spirit?

A New Hand Crank!

Japanese Princess sewing machine

I had a visit today from a new sewing machine collector.  She stopped as she was driving thru my are to see my 'herd' of vintage sewing machines.  This blue sewing machine was the only one I showed her that has a tail (electric).  I purchased this machine the end of August, and hadn't had time to clean it up or play with it. (see post here)?  Well, while it was out, I decided to clean all the lint out of it and see if I could convert it to a hand crank. 

stitches

attachment box

 This machine was drowning in lint!  When I took the motor off, there was carbon dust everywhere.  Some of it was 'glued' to the machine by old sewing machine oil.  I've been afraid to plug it in and try the motor, since the wiring is so bad (see pictures below).  I was afraid I'd start a fire.  I'd like to re-wire the motor and foot pedal one of these days and see if the motor still works.  After LOTS of oiling, I got this lady to turn easily.  I took the spoked hand wheel and the hand crank off of my Singer Spartan, and, they both fit this machine.  I threaded the machine (something I'm not good at, especially since I don't have a manual to show me how this machine should be threaded), and she sews!  Yipee!  Now I have to order another hand crank and spoked hand wheel just for this machine. 

motor, foot pedal and wiring

old scary wiring

My 'herd' consists of (currently) 4 full treadle sewing machines, 2 treadle heads, and (when I get the other hand cranks in) 4 hand cranks.  I'll show the other hand cranks as I get them converted.  2 of the treadles will be leaving this Sunday, if everything goes right.  They were supposed to leave 2 weeks ago, but, the lady couldn't make it that day. 

Teapot Tuesday

another cloisonne teapot

 My mother bought me this teapot.  I like the funny shoes.  It has the same thing painted on the other side. 

painted thread spool

 I found this hand painted thread spool at a garage sale a few weeks ago.  It was only 5 cents.  The lady said that her sister would paint anything that didn't move.  It looks cute on my vintage sewing machines.

other side of painted thread spool

Today was our monthly sew-in day with Quilts of Valor.  I took my hand crank.  It's a good thing I did.  We blew the fuse more than 5 times before they started moving plugs around.  I just kept on sewing while they all scrambled to reset the fuse.  Lots of fun and great food, too.

I met Andrea, another blogger (check out her great ideas on her blog) at a new quilt store near us.  Afterwards, we stopped a two thrift stores near there.  At one, we found several bags of folded fabric in the domestics bin.  Whoopee!!!  99 cents a bag!  I bought 12 bags.  It's all washed and several large pieces have already been donated to Quilts of Valor earlier today.  This was all quality quilting fabrics from name company's.  I left the floral fabrics, since we can't use them for soldiers quilts.  My favorite was a large cream piece with tiny fishing lures in green.  It will be great in our quilts.  When I get my camera back out, I'll show you the 'real' reason Andrea and I met up. 

This is a 'sewing' week for me.  Last night was one of my guild meetings.  Great bunch of ladies, even if we are small in number.  Today was Quilts of Valor.  Wednesday, a lady is driving from another state to see my 'herd' of vintage sewing machines (wow, I have a 'herd' now).  On Thursday is our weekly sew-in at one of the LQS's.  I'm also trying to finish the hand quilting on one of my Halloween table runners.