Stitching! Stitching! Stitching!

I've been stitching up a storm the past 2 days.  I was celebrating National Sewing Machine Day on Wednesday.

I prepped Triangulations papers and fabrics for Half Square Triangles.  Triangulations is my favorite way to make HST's.  I made 180 different HST's.  These are for 2 different projects.

Triangulations HST's

I was bad, and didn't close my rotary blade cover.  I barely touched the blade to my hand and cut myself (not bad, thank goodness).

rotary cutter slice

Put your rotary cutter down, and close the blade EACH time.  I didn't put the rotary cutter down, when I tried to move something with that same hand, and I also didn't close the blade.  The cut kept bleeding and I was working with white fabrics, so, since it was National Sewing Machine Day, this is the bandage I chose to use.

I love to stitch my Triangulations on my hand cranks.

1927 Singer 15 hand crank

I spent the day stitching, cutting, ironing and pulling papers off the backs of 180 HST's.

180 hst's

Those pinwheels are now stitched together, and I'm working on adding corners to all of them. 

I'm heading out to the Prairie Fest Quilt Show shortly.  There is also an ugly fabric quilt contest at the church where my little quilt guild meets.  If my camera will charge, I'll try to take pictures.  Since Picassa was taken over by Google, I can't upload pictures from my camera easily to Google photos.  I don't like taking pictures with my phone, but, that is the only easy way at the moment.  I wish Google wouldn't keep changing things.  They are making things MUCH HARDER, not easier.  *(I also wish that they would bring back our comments to our inboxes).

Saturday I have a sew in with my large quilt guild.  It will be a nice (HOT) quilting weekend.  

Happy National Sewing Machine Day!

Today is the first of 2 different days of National Sewing Machine Day!  Our sewing machines are sew great that we get TWO days to celebrate them (the 2nd day is September 10th).

Here are a few of my favorite sewing machines in my collection.

This is my oldest sewing machine.

1880 Willcox & Gibbs chainstitch hand crank

This is my oldest treadle.

1881 Singer 12 treadle

My 'brightest' sewing machine.

Post WWII Japanese machine that I turned into a hand crank

Yes, I do sew on a few electric machines.  This is my favorite electric machine.

'Betty Sue' my 1939 Singer 221 Featherweight

This is my favorite treadle to sew on.

'Victor' a Post WWII Japanese sewing machine

parlor style treadle cabinet

And this is the machine that I do most of my stitching on (at the moment). 

1927 Singer 15 hand crank

What is 'your' favorite sewing machine?

Cook Book Shelf

Hubby finished my new cook book shelf this afternoon. 

new shelf hubby built

The old shelf didn't really hold all of my cookbooks very well.  They were jammed in, to get them off the floor.

old shelf

The old shelf was built especially for me.  It has my name and the year across the top curved piece.  My mother in law has one just like it, but, her's has her name on it.  Hubby's uncle Bill made them for us in 1996.  We are auditioning places to put the shelf, since it is too precious to store in the basement.

Thanks hubby for my new bookcase!

My Week

Last week was not normal.  I was supposed to go sew with friends on Tuesday, but, I was sick.   Sick enough to not only cancel on sewing, but, I didn't sew, or even do anything else for most of 2 days. 

On Thursday, one of my bridesmaids came to town for work.  She only had a couple of hours to spend with us, but, we had fun catching up. 

hubby, me and Sheila

Sheila mentioned wanting to see some of the wedding photos, so, after we dropped her off at her hotel, I took some pictures of the photos.  Our wedding was 30 years ago.

wedding party

my bridesmaids and flower girl

Sheila and me

Sheila catching the bouquet

I did get to sew some the next day.  I worked on my crazy quilt.

stitching down the doily

Saturday morning, we drove to Wisconsin to see friends.  The weather was great (59-63 degrees for the high).

On Monday, I finally got my crazy quilt blocks stitched together, and the basting removed.  I still need to applique 3 of the Victorian ladies onto the cream colored blocks.

blocks stitched together

Yes, I'm going to keep the quilt this shape.  I'm calling it my Crazy Victorian Ladies quilt, so, I like the crazy shape, too.  This quilt is serving 2 purposes, for my 'Library Book Challenge' with my little quilt guild, and also my 'Crazy Quilt Challenge' with the Camp Tuckabatchee quilters.  The finished quilt isn't due until next March, so, it will be put aside for a couple of months, while I work on some other projects.  I needed to get it this far, since the 'Library Book Challenge' was due last night, at guild. 

I turned in 5 quilt blocks at guild last night.  The guild is making quilts for both a boys home and a girls home.  We are trying to get 14 quilts made before Christmas.  I handed out kits, to make blocks for a quilt last night.  I'll show the blocks when I get them back, in July and August.  Here are the blocks I made for some of the other  quilts.

for a girls quilt

for a boys quilt

for another boys quilt

More than 40 blocks were turned in last night for the 'space' quilt and for the 'eyeball's quilt and also for the 'sports' quilt (I turned in my sports blocks last month).

2018 Chocolate 9 Patch Exchange

My Treadle On group has several different block exchanges each year.  All of the blocks must be made on a treadle or hand crank sewing machine.  Not a problem for me.

I am the hostess for 2 of the exchanges this year, the Spring Basic, and the Chocolate 9 patch  The rules for the Chocolate 9 patch exchange are on this blog post. 

Sorting for the Chocolate 9 patch took much longer than the Spring Basic.  There were 11 participants (from 9 different states), with 30 sets of blocks, made on 12 different (people powered) sewing machines.  Below are the blocks that I've spent the afternoon sorting.  Hmm... I think I need some chocolate for dessert ;)

Kay C's blocks

Diana K's blocks

Sharon's blocks

Linda's blocks

Kay P's blocks

James' blocks

my blocks (the bottom right is white, not pale green)

Denise's blocks

Marta's blocks

April's blocks

Kathleen's blocks

Don't they just make you hungry???

I did the sorting in my kitchen.  Here are the tables I used, during the sorting.

part way thru the sorting

part way thru the sorting

Being hostess has it's benefits.  Here are the goodies that were sent to me.  Goodies are NOT required or even expected, but, they sure are appreciated. 

hostess goodies

Remember the hole in my kitchen wall, where our old TV was?  We took the old TV out April 23rd.  Well, today, I finally have a TV in the kitchen again.

new TV is mounted

Shortly after the new TV was mounted, hubby started building my new bookshelf, that will be larger than the one in the picture.  He has already started staining the boards.  Woohoo!  Those cookbooks will soon be neat, with room left over for new cookbooks.  

Progress on the Crazy Quilt Blocks

I've been working on the Crazy Quilt blocks.  I finished the first 8 blocks, with the lace added.

stitching down the lace

finished block, with lace

The next blocks were just neutrals, no lace.  I'll be appliqueing things onto these blocks.   Here are the blocks, so far.

setting, so far

I didn't like the top, neutral block, so, I added a different neutral, with texture to the bottom part of that block (no picture).  Here is an idea of what I'll be adding to the neutral blocks.

Victorian ladies

The center Victorian lady will have to be hand embroidered onto the quilt top after the blocks are stitched together, since she overlaps the blocks next to her.  The top Victorian lady has another Victorian lady on the other end of that piece.  These are all vintage pieces that I've found over the years. 

I started on the setting triangle blocks last night.  I'm making 4 over-sized crazy blocks, then I'll cut them in half, to make the setting triangles. 

All the fabrics are 'slippery' and don't want to 'stay in place', especially on the corners.  I think I need to baste the edges before I trim them down to size.  It will be much easier to sew them together that way. 

This is for 2 different 'challenges' that I'm participating in. The first one is due June 4th.  We'll see if it is finished by then, or just a quilt top.  I also have 5 different blocks to make, also due that night, for the quilts that we are making for the boys/girls homes.  My kits for blocks are also due that night, and I haven't even started cutting any of the fabric.  Busy, busy!  "Too much time, and not enough to do!  Stop, reverse that....."  (from Willy Wonka). 

How is YOUR week going????

Sewing and a bit of cleaning

I've been sewing this week, but, it's been slow.  Here is one of my finished blocks (haven't taken pictures of the others, yet).

Crazy Quilt block

Instead of doing all of the embroidery work on a regular crazy quilt block, I'm adding decorative laces instead.  It is MUCH quicker.  It still takes a long time to make each block.  I made this one first, to see if I liked this method or not.  I did, so, the next 7 blocks are almost finished. 

These blocks are foundation pieced, kinda like paper piecing, so, I have to trim, iron, then I can add the next piece.  I have to add the lace before I can add more fabric.  I'm stitching the lace down by machine.

Stitching the lace down

stitching down both sides of the lace

These blocks are for 2 projects in one, a Crazy quilt challenge, and also a 'Book' challenge with my little quilt guild.  Hey, if I can kill two birds with one stone....

I couldn't work on the new sewing machine this week, since I needed a third hand to get the wiring removed, so that I could get the machine removed from the cabinet. Hubby has had meetings every night this week, so, I finally snagged him this evening.  The machine is out of the cabinet.

Singer 15-91

I've learned a lot since I last posted about this machine.  It's sub model is 15-91.  It has to do with how the motor is mounted.  I also found out that it CAN be turned into a hand crank.  Woohoo!  If I remove this piece (where the screwdriver is), then it exposes the motor mount.

place where the wiring was held in place, motor mount is under this piece

I'd  have to change out the solid hand wheel for a spoked hand wheel, but, that is easy to do.  I've done that several times on other machines.  There is a drawback, though.  If I take the motor off the machine, then I also lose the bobbin winder, since it is connected to the motor.

see how the bobbin winder is connected to the motor?

That really isn't a problem for me, since I usually use a sidewinder bobbin winder to wind all my bobbins. 

I'm still thinking of getting this machine rewired, so that it can be electric.  When I clean the machine (and remove the motor), I'll see how hard it would be to switch back and forth, from electric to hand crank.  I might be able to have the best of both worlds.  We'll see.

The machine and cabinet were stored in a barn for quite some time.  Lots of dust, etc.  It didn't help the woodwork any.  The veneer is coming off on the back and one of the sides.

veneer coming off the back of the cabinet

Hubby is going to try to glue this back on.  It will take some time and patience.  We need to find a long syringe, to pump the glue thru. 

The dirt is in every crevice of this cabinet.  This bracket is where the wiring went down into the cabinet.  See how much dirt has collected?

dirty!

I did a good wipe down of the entire cabinet with Murphey's Wood Soap.  It really helped, but, it still needs lots of cleaning.

before cleaning

after first cleaning

The bobbin and thread holder on the other door is rusty and pitted. 

before cleaning

I soaked it in Evaporust, then dried it and used the rust eraser on half of it.  Can you see which side I worked on?

half rusty, half cleaned

I used the rust eraser on the dirty side, and then put it back in the Evaporust.  With all the pitting on the metal, I'm hoping this helps.  I'll use the rust eraser again, and get this shinier.  It won't ever look really nice, since it is so pitted, but, it will look so much better than it was. 

A member of Treadle On has the hinges I need for the cabinet lid.

missing a hinge

I found out that the front and back hinges are different.  The back hinge has a spring, that controls the support arm on the cabinet.  Without that spring and hinge, the support arm won't stay inside the cabinet.  I want the support to stay in the cabinet when the lid is closed.  Kay had all the parts, and she's already mailed them.  This project is getting started!  It will take time, with all the woodwork that needs to be done, plus cleaning the machine before I can get it rewired.  I even know who can rewire it for me.  I had him work on another machine for me, a few years ago (I don't mess with zig zag gears). 

Have a fun weekend!  I am so far.