Some Finishes, a Gift and Getting Ready

 Yipee!  I finished both Harry Potter Castle quilt tops this weekend!  The long arm quilter has them now.  I started the blocks for these quilts back in February.  I didn't get a chance to work on them over the summer, but I finally got time to get the blocks in the Castle setting this past week.

Harry Potter Castle quilt

2nd quilt top is folded on the cutting table

Yes, I made 2 identical quilt tops.  My newest grandson will get the first quilt, and I'll keep the 2nd quilt to put in my large quilt guild's quilt show.  

These quilt tops are much larger than I was expecting.  The directions don't mention sizes, other than the paper piece block sizes.  I didn't care enough to stop and graph it out to pre-determine the finished sizes.  The quilt tops are 58" x 82.5".  Way too large for a baby quilt, but, the paper pieced quilt tops I make for my grandkids are usually hung on a wall, not slept under.  I always make them plenty of quilts to sleep under and throw on the floor.  

Monday night was my little quilt guild's Annual Tea.  One of the members made gifts for everyone in the guild.  She made us all sewing kits.  Each kit was made using different fabrics.

closed sewing kit

open sewing kit

continuous threaded needle & thread holder
(each holder has 10 threaded needles) 

finger pin cushion, pop-up thread catcher and pip

each pip had a rubber thimble and 2 Clover clips

Much of each of these items is hand stitched.  She made around 24 kits.  Everyone loved their kits and have asked her to do some demo's on how to make each part.  

This weekend is the Annual Kendall County Historical Society's Lyon's Farm Fall Festival.  Last year the festival was cancelled due to Covid (like everything else).  This year the festival is happening. I've had a booth at the festival since 2012.  It's always fun.  Well, this is the first year that I have to set up by myself.  I usually have my husband or son help set up, but they can't help me this year.  It will take me 2 trips to get everything to the festival this time.  I've already loaded my car, even though I can't set up until Friday afternoon.  I'm bring fewer machines this year than I normally bring.  I'm only taking 12 machines this time.

three machines on the floor of my car

four machines on the back seat of my car (room for one more machine on the seat)

four machines, 3 chairs, several quilts, a Featherweight table and a 401/301 short bed table

I'll have to come back to get the treadle base and the projects that I'll be sewing on during the festival.  I expect that the crowds will be much smaller than normal this year, due to Covid.  Illinois' numbers are getting smaller each day (less than 4% now).  

If you want to see my past blog posts about Lyon's Farm Fall Festival, then scroll way down to my post list and look under Lyon's Farm.  

Now to go get my projects and sewing notions together for the weekend.

   

A Little Bit of a Lot of Things

    I never showed the completed pin cushion I made for the Treadle On Pin Cushion exchange.  I made a cute little mouse pin cushion.  I made a 2nd one for me to keep.

1st Mouse pin cushion

2nd Mouse pin cushion

Both  Mouse pin cushions

These are the only mice I ever want to see in my sewing room.

On Monday, I finished the embroidery on my Olde Treadleonia map.

map of Olde Treadleonia

    This map is from the early days of Treadle On, back when Captain Dick had lots of fun and games on the website.  I'll use this map as the center of a quilt.  I have lots of blocks from previous Treadle On Block Exchanges that I've participated in, that I've never sewn up into quilts.  

    I ordered a special tool kit designed for vintage sewing machines.  All of the bits in this kit are for the screws in most vintage machines.  The kit arrived yesterday.

Chapman set #9600

    I ordered this screwdriver kit from Sew Purty Workshops.  These kits are made in the USA.  I'm looking forward to using the kit the next time I clean a vintage sewing machine (several are waiting their turn to be cleaned).

    I started the Castle layout for my latest grandson's Harry Potter quilt.  Parts of the layout are paper pieced and parts are traditional pieced.  I'm making the paper pieced parts first.  These are the largest paper pieced blocks I've ever made before.

tops of Castle

    The Castle layout is from the Fandom in Stitches Disney Princess Quilt Along.  The layout uses the same size blocks as I was making (10" finished).

Castle layout

 

    I didn't want the roof of my Castle to be purple, and I also wanted my Castle to be made of gray stone, not wood, so I'm making several other changes, too.  Yes, I'm making two of this quilt.  One for my new grandson, and one that I can show at my quilt guild's quilt show (whenever we get to have quilt shows again).  Eventually my grandson will get the 2nd quilt, when the first quilt wears out.

    The end of August I visited a thrift store that I don't get to very often.  I found this quilt there for $10.  Of course I couldn't pass it up.

thrift store quilt

    I don't know if this quilt had even been used before.  It hadn't been washed.  It washed up nicely.  It may become a charity quilt.  Both of my quilt guilds are always needing charity quilts for different organizations.  

    

Now to go finish the Castle doors and the rest of the Castle layout.  

Happy (2nd) National Sewing Machine Day 2021!

Yes, today is the 2nd National Sewing Machine Day of the year!  Sewing Machines are sew important that they get 2 days each year, June 13th and September 10th.  

To celebrate, I cleaned some vintage sewing machines. The first machine is NOT mine.  I'm cleaning it up for a friend. 

New Home 'Ruby' treadle

New Home 'Ruby' treadle

Those are the 'before' photos.  I've cleaned this machine (spent almost all of Labor Day cleaning this machine), but it is still really dirty.  I'll have to clean this machine a few more times before all the dirt and grime finally come off.  There is also some repair work to be done on the treadle base.

The next 2 sewing machines are 'new' to me.  A friend saw an advertisement for this next sewing machine and sent it to me.  The machine would move, but wouldn't make a full turn when I got it.  Also, it is missing the knob off the hand wheel.  Thank goodness it had a shuttle and bobbin, since those can sometimes be impossible to find for some machines.  These are the 'before' photos.

The Royal hand crank

lovely decal in the center

missing the knob to turn the hand crank

some rust and grime

really dirty tension

dirty

This sewing machine is called The Royal.  It was made by the Gardner Sewing Machine Company, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.  The company was only in existence from 1871-1886, when it went bankrupt. The few hand cranks similar to this that I could find on the internet date from around 1875.  If that is correct, then this will be my oldest sewing machine.  There is very little information about this machine that I could find.

Here are photos of The Royal cleaned up.  It turns nicely now.  I haven't tried to sew with it yet.  I need to figure out the threading (and I didn't finish cleaning it until late at night Thursday).

The Royal

now you can see the decals

back of machine

hand wheel is clean, but still missing the hand crank knob (for the moment)

cleaned tension, but I need some felt to replace that tan piece in the tension area (it's falling apart)

Last week a friend gave me another sewing machine.  So far, she's given me a cute, vintage, Casige toy sewing machine, and another vintage sewing machine (I haven't shown it on the blog).  This time she gave me a Featherweight!!!  She bought the Featherweight years ago at a thrift store for $9.  She's never sewn with it.  It is missing the bobbin case, and needs some parts (bed cushions, belt, oil drip pan, etc).  It will also get an LED light bulb, since I reach under the arm of machines to lift the presser foot, and I've burned myself many times on my first Featherweight bulb before I bought an LED light for it.

1948 Singer 221-1 Featherweight

This machine didn't come with anything, but I don't care (other than the bobbin case).  I have 1/4" feet to fit this machine.  What else do I need?  I will probably make it a cover for the folding table, and a bag to store it in, like I did for the purple Featherweight.  

Happy National Sewing Machine Day!