Some finishes and some Apps

Wow, I haven't posted in almost a month.  I have been busy these past few weeks. 

First, I gave up trying to finish the board game quilts for this year's Christmas presents.  There was too much hand work, and I never would have gotten them finished in time.  Too much stress.  I'll finish them in the next few months, and they will be ready for next year instead. 

I am still working on one last Christmas present, but it should be finished either today or Christmas eve.  I'll show it when it's done.

I did get 2 quilts finished!  Both of the Hobbit/Lord of the Rings quilts are done. 

Smaller LOTR/The Hobbit quilt

I made labels for both quilts, telling what the blocks are.

label

The last block on the label is for the 13th block, which is on the back of each quilt.  Don't worry, 13 is a lucky number for our family.

13th block on the back of the quilt

This quilt is now in Alaska with my grandson (who it was made for).

I also finished the larger LOTR/The Hobbit quilt.  This quilt will stay with me for a while, so that I can put it in my quilt guild's quilt show in March 2020.

Larger (2nd) LOTR/The Hobbit quilt

I made some fabric books for my grandkids.  These were fun to make. 

I wanted to share a couple of phone apps with you.  The first one I found out about earlier this morning.  As you know, I collect vintage sewing machines.  I'm always finding machines in thrift stores, etc, but can't check any info on them until I get home, and check my serial number book.  Well, a gentleman made an app using the Singer serial numbers.  If you enter the serial number, his app will tell you what model the machine is, what year, and how many machines of that model were made in that serial number run.  It does NOT tell you where the machine was made, but I have that info in my book at home.  I know I'll use this app a lot.  This app can be found in your Google Play app store.

The second app is one that you may know about already.  The Robert Kaufman Quilting Calculator app.  I use this app all of the time.  It's a great way to figure out how much binding you need.  It also tells you how much fabric you need for a batting/backing. Pieces to yardage, border yardage, square in a square, set-in corner triangles, etc.  This app can be found in almost any of your phone's app stores.

Merry Christmas to Everyone! 

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.

Lyon's Farm Fall Festival 2019

This past weekend was the Lyon's Farm Fall Festival.  I've participated in this festival since 2012.  The first year, I took 4 sewing machines.  This year I took 13 sewing machines.  I had less space this year, so my booth was a bit crowded. (the first year I had the whole building to myself).

One of the vendors sold old jewelry.  She had a (new) sewing machine pin, and I just had to buy it.  It looks like my Willcox & Gibbs chainstich machine.

I wasn't the only one sewing at the festival.  The Quilter's Dozen has been at this event longer than I have.  The ladies were hand quilting their next raffle quilt for the Prairie Fest Quilt Show that they put on.  I'll be trying to win this quilt next Father's Day (always the last day of Prairie Fest).

On Saturday morning, hubby brought me some flowers for my booth.  Thursday was our 32nd Anniversary.

Due to the rain most of the weekend, the crowds were very thin.  Instead of talking about my machines most of the weekend, I got lots of sewing done instead.

1927 Singer 15 hand crank

I finished my Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks for August (light blue) and September (purple).  Sorry, the colors are washed out in the photos.

RSC19 August blocks

RSC19 September blocks

I also got lots stitched on 6 Parcheesi game boards that I'm making, but I didn't take any photos.

Another vendor had a treadle head in his garage, and he asked if I wanted it.  It's rusty, but it turns.  This is the first new machine I've gotten in over a year (I've been being really good).

1915 Singer 66 with Red Eye decals

I'll try to start getting this cleaned up this weekend. 

Catching Up

I had a pin cushion exchange with my Treadle On group.  Here is what I got from Stephanie.

Owl pin cushion and mini pin cushion

needle keeper

needle keeper

zipper bag

Thanks Stephanie for the lovely goodies.  I've used the Owl pin cushion several times already.

I finished both of the Hobbit/Lord of the Rings quilt tops.  These are for our new grandson, Korin.  The first one is HUGE for a baby quilt (54"x72").  Korin will get to use it on his big boy bed one day.

Lord of the Rings/ The Hobbit quilt top

I'd already made the sashings for both quilts, but, since the first quilt was so large, I decided to cut the sashings down.  The second quilt finishes at 44x59.  Perfect for another wall hanging for the babies room.

2nd top with thinner sashing

This photo shows the difference in sizes (one top on top of the other top).

both quilt tops

I have no clue when these will be quilted, since they really need to be long arm quilted.  I can't free motion quilt, and I don't think straight line quilting will look very good on either of these tops. 

With all the flip corner sashings on both of these quilts, I ended up with a stack of 96 bonus half square triangles.  I'm getting a good sized collection of bonus HST's from different projects.

96 bonus HST's

I did finally finish the 3 baby quilts I designed back in June.  A friend asked me to make a baby quilt for her niece, who was having a baby girl.  It has pink minkee on the back.

first baby quilt

The second quilt is for a young lady who used to be in our Venturing Crew several years ago.  She just had a baby girl.  I decided to use faux piping binding for her quilt, and made the piping larger than I normally do.  I love how it turned out. I just taught this technique (again) to my little quilt guild. (I promise the pink isn't nearly as bright as the photo shows).

2nd baby quilt

faux piping binding with larger flange

The last quilt is for our grandbaby, Korin.  Since his Hobbit/LOTR quilt will be a wall hanging (at least the smaller one will), he needs something that can be thrown on the floor and used.  I added his name to the edge of the binding.

Korin's quilt

Korin Josiah

I decided that Korin needed a satin/flannel blanket, since his big sister has one.   I made two of them.  Korin will get the Spiderman blanket and the 2nd one (Winnie the Pooh) will be used as a baby gift in the future. 

satin/flannel blankets

Way back on August 20th (the day Korin was born), I finished the last of the Vintage Miniature Sewing Machine blocks. 

Muller 15 toy sewing  machine

I'm really missing my embroidery each day. 


A friend gave me a lovely vintage quilt top a couple of weeks ago.  I don't know what the block is called.  If you do, please let me know.  The top is in great shape.

top Carrie gave me

I'm sorry I haven't commented on any of your blogs.  I'm almost a month behind on my blog reading.  I've been really busy, and will stay that way until October.  Our oldest son will be coming home from Alaska (where he has spent the summer with his younger brother, his wife and our grandkids).  Our inlaws are coming for a visit (yipee) and I also have another Lyon's Farm Fall Festival coming up (booth/demo of vintage sewing machines).

If  you are near the western suburbs of Chicago, come visit me at the Lyon's Farm Festival the last weekend of Sept.  Info at this link.