Thanksgiving and Stitching, etc.

I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving.  It was just hubby, our oldest son and me for Thanksgiving.  We still ate well.

our Thanksgiving feast

I've been busy stitching even though I don't have much to show to prove it.

The ladies ministry at church hosts an ornament exchange each December.  The lady in charge of decorating decided that we needed matching table runners as part of the decorations for the tables and I was drafted to make them.  She provided the white fabric with the gold ornaments, another lady provided the batting and I provided the red with silver snowflakes fabric for the reverse side.  Thank goodness she just wanted solid fabric on each side.  I did some simple stitching with my walking foot.  Here are the six finished table runners (showing both sides).

red on one side and white on the other side

A special friend offered to quilt both of the Hobbit/Lord of the Rings quilts for me.  I made labels for both quilts, including a separate label that lists the names of the blocks, in order, including the 'extra' block on the back of each quilt.  Both of these quilts have the binding stitched to the front of the quilts.  Now I just need to stitch the labels onto the back along with the binding.

both quilts with the labels listing the blocks

I finished almost all of the hand stitching for the board games (no photos, sorry).  Now to finish the last parts by machine, then stitch the parts together. 

I'm also doing some hand quilting on the 2nd Fat Cats quilt.  I made both quilt tops back in 2011.  A friend asked me to make one for her, and I finished that quilt in 2011.  The 2nd quilt top was made when I made the first quilt top, but I never finished it.  It will be finished before Christmas and gifted. 

Fat Cats quilt (being hand quilted)

Back in September I found a roll top desk at Goodwill.  The roll top desk is MUCH larger than the computer desk that I'd been using for the past 20 years.  We had to take everything out of the computer room and completely re-arrange everything to make it fit.  It took longer than expected to re-organize everything (one of the reasons I haven't had much stitching to show since early September).  I took everything off the walls (mainly hubby's ball cap collection) and we've finally hung some of my quilts in the computer room.  I still have space for a couple more wall hangings.

roll top desk with barn quilt and String Star above it

Elephant quilt to the right

Crazy quilt by the printers

Hubby also hung my wooden scissors above the door frame.  You can see our Christmas tree (lights but no ornaments yet) and our Alaskan Malamute, Ratchet.

wooden scissors

Now to get back to stitching!

Long Time No See and a New Machine

Wow, I haven't blogged since Oct. 1st.  I've been stitching, but not much.  I've been busy trying to save several of my Yahoo sewing machine groups.  Yahoo will be deleting photos, files and such on Dec.14th.  I hate to see all that great info being lost. 

A few days ago I was asked if I'd like another vintage sewing machine.  Today I picked it up.

1950 Singer 15-91 #AJ489583

The machine came in a desk style cabinet.  I seldom keep the cabinets, since they take up so much room, but I might keep this one (if I can figure out where to put it).

bobbin holder and oil can holder in top drawer

The foot pedal is part of the cabinet.  I haven't looked to see how hard it will be to remove all the wiring, etc, from the cabinet.  You can see the foot pedal in this photo.

foot pedal attached to cabinet

This machine came with lots of attachments.  There were even two different zig zag attachments.

buttonholer and 2 different zigzag attachments

It also came with lots of different feet, including 2 different zipper feet (middle, left) one for each side of the zipper.  I've never seen this before.  There is another attachment (bottom, left) that I don't know what it is.

Bobbins, manual, needles and even a shuttle for a long bobbin machine and a top attaching foot (both for other machines) were included.  Some kid had fun coloring inside the manual at some time.

notice the shuttle and foot that do NOT belong to this machine

someone had fun coloring this manual

This machine was serviced back in 2008 (when the previous owner died) and hasn't been used since.  It's a little gummy (old oil) but I plugged it in and it stitches well. 

nice stitches

Something interesting about the finish on this machine.  There is lots of crazing on this machine.  Most of my machines have very little crazing, even the older machines.  This machine is covered in crazing (and the usual pin rash on the arm).

crazing on the bed

crazing on the top of the machine

common pin rash

It does have great decals.

great decals

I could make this machine a hand crank, but if I remove this type of motor, I'll lose the bobbin winder.  I'd also have to change out the solid hand wheel for a spoked hand wheel.  I think this machine will stay electric.

motor attachment and solid hand wheel

The only stitching I've been getting done is some hand work, and that has only been about an hour a day.  I really need to finish what I've been working on, since they are Christmas presents.  I have a few other things that I need to get finished quickly, too.  Hopefully I'll have something to show here, soon.

I also had to deal with lots of spam comments since my last blog post (over 50 in 2 hours).  Sorry, but I had to change my comment approval because of the spam.  Hopefully I'll be able to change it back one day.  I'm tired of spammers.  I wish they would all just go away.