A New Machine and a Spool Pin Doily

I got a new sewing machine yesterday.  I found it at a thrift shop, and couldn't resist it.  It is a toy machine that was made in England in the early to mid 1960's. It is a Vulcan Countess.  

I learned how to use my vintage Singer buttonhole makers.  I've been wanting to make a Mini Dresden Spool Pin Doily (from The Featherweight Shop).  The pattern is free if you sign up for their email list.

I don't have the correct buttonhole template.  I need the eyelet template.  I made due with one of my oldest Singer buttonhole makers, and set it to the smallest buttonhole I could make with it.  It will do.  I did order the eyelet template, so that I can make a few more of these.

on the machine that I made it on

I have another one ready and waiting for the eyelet template to arrive.  

Blogger is frustrating!  I can only reply to comments from people that I have their email addresses.  Everyone comes thru as 'no-reply'.  How irritating!  I like to reply to EVERY comment that I get.  I appreciate all the comments that I get.

A Little Stitching...

I took a Laura Heine class with my larger quilt guild (Pride of the Prairie) last Saturday.  We worked on the Tomato pin cushion collage.  The teacher was GREAT!  Her name is Linda Lambert, and she has been teaching these classes for several years now.  I learned more in this class than any other quilting class I've ever taken.  I have a LONG way to go before my collage quilt is finished, but here is what I got done during the class.

where I stopped at the end of the class 

me, working on my tomato

teacher Linda, in a blouse she made using the collage technique she was teaching

I have lots more things I want to add to my collage, including 'threading' the needle, a doily, etc.  Not sure when I'll get a chance to work on this again, since I have several things that need to get done before I can finish this.

Another thing I worked on this week was butterfly blocks for next year's Missouri TOGA raffle quilt. We're supposed to bring our finished blocks to this years TOGA.  I made 3 - 12.5 inch blocks for the raffle quilt.  I also made 3 smaller blocks for myself. These are paper pieced.  You can find the patterns here. (I enlarged the pattern to get the 12.5 inch blocks).

Pepper block

Cricket block

Gidget block

3 - 5.5" blocks blocks for me

Remember the oversized sewing notions I've been making (previous 2 blog posts) for my little quilt guild's Annual Tea?  Well, hubby finished the 2 wooden needles I asked him to make, and I got them painted.  All my oversized sewing notions are finished now.

pack of hand needles shown for size

I'll be using all of these oversized sewing notions for the Tea, then (hopefully) for this year's Lyon's Farm Fall Festival (waiting for the vendor forms to be mailed out, they are really slow).  I'll also be using them in my booth at my large quilt guild's quilt show March 14-15, 2026.  Put this show on your calendar.  It is ALWAYS a GREAT quilt show!  I attended this quilt show before I ever joined this guild.  The quilt show was why I joined this guild.

I still have a few demo's to prepare for the Missouri TOGA (Treadle On Gathering & Academy) in June.  If you love vintage sewing machines, and want to travel to Missouri, come join us.  The link above will take you to our MOTOGA page (easy to join).  We will be meeting in Ava, MO June 19-21, 2025.  If you search my blog, you can find out more about TOGA's.