Happy National Sewing Machine Day #1 (2022)

Today is the first National Sewing Machine Day of 2022!  (the 2nd day is September 10th).  To celebrate, I'm showing you a treadle that I cleaned and serviced for a friend.  This was his grandmother's treadle that had been in his mother's attic for years.  

dirty after sitting in an attic for years

pretty treadle peddle

nice treadle irons

wood cabinet in distressed shape

first photo I received of the treadle

The leather strap that attaches the machine lift to the table extension had snapped and wasn't fixable.  Hubby fixed this by using black paracord, which was much easier to use than trying to find another long, thin piece of leather.  Many machines use metal cord, but this one had used leather.  Hubby tested his idea of using paracord by using some of his yellow paracord first (shown in photos).

yellow is where the leather strap would have been

it took 2 of us to get the paracord 'fitted'

nice knot underneath to hold the paracord in place

Don't worry, we trimmed the ends of the black paracord that we used in the end so that the knot doesn't show (sorry, no photos of that).  

The protective glaze was coming off of the machine (the part that covers and protects the decals) so I had to be very careful when I cleaned the machine.  I think it cleaned up nicely.

nice and clean

showing the bed decals and the leaf tension

Another thing that had to be fixed was the pitman.  It had a broken pitman that was tied on with wire.  Hubby made a new pitman for the treadle.

broken pitman wired in place

broken pitman wired in place

I got to learn new things, too.  I have a machine with leaf tension, but I haven't sewn with it.  I learned about the tension on this type by testing out Doug's grandmother's treadle. 

Here is the treadle in it's new home, all cleaned up and ready to sew.  This is a New Home R treadle made in Orange, Mass around 1910-1911.

ready to sew

Remember those placemats I was working on? Well, the first 8 placemats are finished and in their new home.  I finished stitching the binding down yesterday.

fronts

backs

Guadalupe had asked for spring themed placemats and she loves these!  Almost all of the fabrics are from the Pioneer Woman fabric line (with a few from my stash).  I'll finish the other 14 placemats this fall, since I don't need them until Christmas.

Happy National Sewing Machine Day!

A Cabinet, Stitching and Fun Stuff

I've had a sad plastic cabinet in my sewing room, under my ironing board for several years now.  It was leaning so bad that I couldn't even get in the drawers without lots of trouble.

sad plastic cabinet unloaded

Several months ago, I found some brand new mesh baskets at Salvation Army.  It was only the baskets, no shelving unit to put the baskets in.  I looked online, and the company is no longer in business.  Well, hubby said he'd make me a cabinet to hold the baskets.  Here is the cabinet he made for me.

The cabinet fits well under my ironing board, and it's on wheels, so that I can pull it out, if I need to.  Sew much nicer than that sad plastic cabinet.  I've filled up all but one of the baskets so far.  Now hubby is working on shelves for my sewing room closet.

I have been sewing, but I don't have photos of all the things I've been sewing on (mostly hand work).  I'll be at the Missouri TOGA the end of June, come home for 3 days then head to Texas to help my mother when she has her knee replaced.  I'll probably be gone most of July.  That leaves me 10 days to get everything ready for the TOGA and for Texas (poor hubby & son have to stay in Illinois with the puppies).  I'm rushing around like crazy trying to get everything ready.  I'm doing 3 different demo's at the TOGA, and 2 of them are ready, but I need to get a bit more done on the 3rd demo.  I'm also working on my 'House' block for next year's raffle quilt, which is due at the end of the TOGA.  Of course I chose a block that is almost all hand stitching, so it's taking me a long time.  I'm supposed to make a 'Tree' block too, but I haven't even started on that yet.  

I've been preparing more hand work for when I'm in Texas (waiting during my mother's rehab sessions, etc.).  So far I've got the background blocks finished for the Angels Among Us Calendar quilt.  I got the pattern off of the freebie table at guild last month.

Calendar quilt

January thru April

May thru August

September thru December

 

I've spent the past 2 days tracing all the applique pieces onto fusible, and pulling fabrics for the applique.  So far, I have 4 blocks fused onto the background.  

Remember the portable design walls I made? Well, I also got bags made to hold each of them.  I used some of my sewing themed fabrics that I have lots of.  They will be going with me to the TOGA and to Texas.  I'll have a sewing space set up in my mother's dining room. Westley decided that he needed to be in the photo, too.  He's gotten so big!  He's 7 months old now, and hopefully he is about full size.

portable design walls in carry bags

Last weekend we were invited to a themed graduation party for 2 siblings who both just graduated college.  It was a pirate theme, and everyone was asked to dress like pirates.  Here we are dressed up.

the Parker Pirates

I'm behind again on blog reading, sorry.  I've been so busy in the sewing room that I haven't had time to read blogs, and my computer has been running super slowly for some reason, so it's been hard at times to get things to come up quickly.  I was going to write this up a few days ago, but the computer hasn't been cooperating.  

A Finish and a Quilty Gift

 My mother sent me a cute quilty mug.

My friend Marilyn made me a cute gift for my birthday, back in February, that holds the little cutting mats and rotary cutters you can get at Dollar Tree.

I'm going to be teaching how to make these for the Missouri TOGA, so I made another one as a sample.

showing the cutting mat & tools inside

I also got the placemats quilted last night while my son and I watched a movie.  I just did some straight line quilting on them.  Now to get the binding stitched on (it's cut).

Sewing and a New Design Wall

I was asked to make some placemats for a friend.  She wanted something that looked like Spring/Flowers.  I'd seen something online years ago (can't remember where), and decided to do something similar.

I made 4 different blocks, using fabrics from the Pioneer Woman collection.

Then I cut each block into quarters, and stitched a quarter of each block into a center square block.

I then used some of the extra strips I'd cut to make side pieces.

placemats

I finished 8 of these placemat tops.  I have the center squares stitched to make another set of 8 placemats and a set of 6 placemats.  I need to cut more strips for the 2nd & 3rd sets.  Meanwhile, I spray basted the first set just before supper.  Hopefully I'll get them quilted in the next few days.  

At my little quilt guild's sew-in last Thursday, Sharon showed us a portable design wall that she had made.  She'd gotten the idea online.  Well, I copied her idea, and made me 2 of the portable design walls.

To make the portable design walls, you need one of the folding cardboard sewing mats, 2 curtain rods (48"-84" adjustable) and 10 large binder clips.  You also need some batting and some packing tape.

I already had several different folding cardboard sewing mats that I've picked up at thrift stores and garage sales over the years (they are great for protecting my dining room table when I spray baste small quilts).  These come in two different sizes.  I pulled out two of the larger sizes (72" long instead of 60" long).

2 sizes of folding cardboard sewing mats

I cut batting to cover these, and folded the extra batting around the back and taped it.

batting taped to the back of the folding cardboard mat

Next, you take your adjustable curtain rod and lay it along the edge of the mat, on the back, and attach it with the binder clips.

front of portable design wall

back, showing the curtain rods

I made two of these.

2nd wall is folded

Now I need to make some bags to store these in.  These will be great to take to sew-ins, etc.

Another lady at my sew-in, had a different portable design wall.  She'd bought a folding display board, then covered the front of it with batting, and taped the batting to it.  Her portable design board sits on her table by her sewing machine.  Both are great ideas for portable design walls.

Some Stitching This Week

 I've gotten some stitching done this week.  I finished some accessories for my black Featherweight that was given to me.  I made a bag for it, to protect it when it is in the rolling sewing machine case, and a cover for the fold down extension tray, to keep the screw from further damaging the tray.  I also made a bag to hold the foot pedal, so that it doesn't rub on the bed of the machine while it is stored.

extension cover and sitting in bag

in the closed bag

foot pedal and cords in the bag

This machine was missing the bobbin case when I got it.  I got a bobbin case for it at the Texarkana TOGA (Thanks Floyd) and she is running great now.  Her name is Carrie, after the lady who gave her to me.

At the TOGA, there was a demo on how to make a Tea Bag Wallet.  Missy cut out the pieces for me, from her material, and I finally got a chance to make mine.  I didn't have any tea bags in my sewing room, so I show it with Post-It notes and Post-It flags.

open

closed

My little quilt guild had a sew-in Thursday.  I got several blocks stitched (below).

Treadle On, my hand crank and treadle group, is having an Advanced Block Exchange.  We are making blocks for the Radiant Suns quilt in batiks.  I've finished 6 of the blocks so far (only 42 more to go).

Radiant Suns blocks

I made one block with my regular 1/4" foot with a metal guide on the edge, and then I pulled out my Curve Master presser foot to see if it worked better.  The Curve Master adapter was a very tight fit on my machine, but I got it on.  I don't know if it was any better, but it worked for me (with some ripping out and re-stitching on some seams).  I got better after several curved seams.  I'll make a few of these blocks at a time.

stitching Radiant Suns curves

Curve Master presser foot, stitching a curve

I also finished 5 blocks using Pioneer Woman fabrics.

Pioneer Woman fabric blocks

When I finish the other 3 sets of blocks, I'll sub-cut these blocks into 4 pieces.  These will be turned into placemats.

Last night was my large quilt guild's meeting (Pride of the Prairie).  A new member brought several vintage quilt tops that he had been given.  He was given these quilt tops to find them new homes.  I got one of the vintage quilt tops.  Several of us are thinking that this is from the 1940's, and it is all hand stitched.

vintage quilt top

I don't think this will ever lay flat, so I won't get it quilted, unfortunately, but I can use it when I have my vintage sewing machine demo's.  

I have another sew-in Saturday, but I'll just be taking hand work.  I need to finish more sewing kits, so that I'll have one for the Sewing Kit Exchange at the Missouri TOGA in June.