1950 Singer Featherweight....letting her go....maybe...

 So I recently acquired another Featherweight!!!  Don't you just love these little machines?  I've had her for a couple of weeks now and these photos are from when I was cleaning and oiling her up.  She is a 1950 Singer Featherweight with the serial # AJ927023.  

She sews like a dream!  Very smooth and her decals are very nice too.  They are not as worn as the ones on my other Featherweight.  

As much as I love her, I'm thinking that after I sew on her for a few weeks, I might just put her up for adoption!  Why?  Because I already have another one and I just can't see keeping two of them right now so I will probably sell her.  

 Isn't she pretty?  

 Right now I have her on my dining table so I will probably sew on her a lot over the next few days. 

 I just couldn't wait to share photos of her with you all....  :)
Kristie

Living on the edge...

 So I'm sure you are wondering where the title, "Living on the edge" comes from.  Well, everyday when Richard comes in the house, he always asks me how my day was.  The other day he asked, and I started running off at the mouth about quilting stuff and excitedly told him that I had sewn on 3 different sewing machines that day.  He laughed at me and told me that I was living on the edge.  I think he was really making fun of me but it was a little funny because I was really excited.  :)  You can see all three of the machines in the photo, my Kenmore, Singer 404, and my Featherweight.  

As I mentioned this was a couple days ago, but I used my Kenmore to sew on binding, used my Featherweight to work on some blocks for my Rocky Road to Kansas quilt, and then used my Singer 404 to make some string blocks that will be used for pot holders.  The wood crate in the photo holds my strings.  Anyway, I made a mess but it was fun.  

Here are the 10 string blocks that I made that day.  

This evening I brought out one of my White machines and pieced a few more string blocks.  As of right now I need a total of 20 string blocks to be used for pot holders.  I love all of these machines and I figure if I get them and just put them away then they will eventually be in the same shape they were when I got them....locked up or close to it.  So I plan on using them all!  

Late yesterday evening, I loaded a quilt on the frame.  It is not mine but belongs to a friend of mine.  I was really shocked when I saw the quilt because she usually uses more subdued fabrics.  This one measures 88x88.  Here it is as I was loading it on.  

A quick photo as I was quilting on it.  It is still on the frame with very little quilting done to it.  It was driving me crazy today.  It's been a while since I have used Signature thread on my machine but when I did, it sewed just fine.  She sent some Signature varigated thread to use on this quilt and my bobbin thread keeps breaking.  I've adjusted and adjusted and for the life of me, I can't figure out why it is breaking every few inches or so.  I just stopped on it until I can figure it out.  I haven't been back up there to check but now I'm wondering if maybe the thread is old or something....I don't know...any ideas?  

 Hopefully in the morning, I can get back upstairs to the sewing room and figure this out.  Stuff like this drives me crazy, I know I will lay in the bed tonight thinking about it and trying to figure it out.  :(  

I posted my Rocky Road to Kansas quilt top that I finished yesterday.  I am really pleased with how it turned out and sorta glad that it is finished.  It seemed like it took me forever even though I had only worked on it for a month.  It's almost bittersweet.  I'm glad that it is done but I'll kinda miss working on it.  I'm sure everyone feels like that sometimes when they finish a quilt.  Now I feel a little lost on what to work on.  LOL!  I know I have a million UFO's, a BOW that I need to get caught up on, pot holders to make, quilts that need quilted, and Bonnie's mystery coming up.  So I know that I have plenty to work on but I'm still feeling a bit lost.  

Hunter has his Thanksgiving Dinner at school tomorrow so I will be going over and having dinner with him.  They do this every year and it is nice that the parents get to have dinner with their kids, just wish the food was a little better.  :)  
Kristie

Quilt Top Completed!

 It's finished!  Or at least the top is finished.  I'll throw it in the pile to be quilted.  The lighting wasn't the best this morning, I think I had too much sunlight coming through the front door glass.  

It feels great to have it finished.  It seemed like I worked on it forever.  

A total of 30 blocks and a little over 1200 pieces, which really isn't a whole lot when you are talking about a whole quilt.  I know a few of the seems look a little crooked in the photo below but they are not, there is a big picture hanging on the wall behind it and it makes the quilt crooked.  :)

This was a great use of scraps and strings of all sizes.  It was completely pieced on my "baby girl" my 1933 Featherweight!  I love her more than ever now.  This was my first complete quilt that I have pieced with her and she did a wonderful job.  I hope to do more sewing on her soon.  

 On to other news...Hunter had a program for the Veteran's yesterday at school.  He is in the front with the blue shirt and microphone singing.  I was so proud of him.  He wouldn't look at me because he was afraid he would mess up.  He did a great job, they all did.  He loves to sing, his favorites are country and gospel.  I'll have to sneak and record him singing sometime.  :)

 It is only 8:35am so I think I will clean the house up and load a quilt on the frame....

Oh BTW...I think a lot of you have already noticed that I have a tab at the top of my blog that takes you to all of my vintage machines.  Well, it's not like I have a ton of them but I am just starting.  I noticed this morning that I don't have my featherweight on there yet, I'll have to do that sometime today.
Kristie

Sorting the sweatshop

Today Richard worked on my kitchen cabinets! This a slow process and he is completely making them himself. He sure is handy to have around! LOL! Anyway...I know that when building or hanging cabinets you usually do the top cabinets first, but the money just isn't there to do all of the cabinets at once. So I would rather start with my bottom cabinets until we get moved in and finish the top ones as we can. Like I told him if he wants me to cook then I at least have to have a countertop! LOL! Anyway, I didn't get any photos of them yet, not a lot to show as of yet but they are coming along nicely.

While he worked in the kitchen I sorted some stuff up in the sweatshop. I'm sure I will move everything around up there once I actually start using it to sew in. But I took a few photos, I'm sure you all are probably tired of sewing them.

This is just an old stool that I love to sit on and I dumped several hundred yo-yo's in that Longaberger basket. I'm slowly working on Hunter a yo-yo quilt and need at least 2,000 yo-yo's. I made mom and Andrew each one several years ago. Mom's has 2,500 yo-yo's and Andrew's has 2,000 in it. I enjoy working on them a little at a time.

My bookshelf again. Sorry for all of the dust but it is hard to keep it dust free with all of the drywall sanding. I brought my featherweight out and set it up on my antique ironing board/chair/ladder. Mom bought the ironing board for me years ago for $10. I didn't recover it, just left it as it was but it is tattered and dirty. I put my featherweight case under it, but I may move it later. It has the pedal and all the attachments. I bought is a couple of years ago for $5, cleaned it up and it works perfectly. Love those junk stores! Oh...and as you can see, I still need to finish painting the walls. My floor still isn't down and it will probably be a while on that. Richard is making our own wide plank hardwood flooring and we will start with the downstairs first. They are 10 inch wide oak planks with tongue and groove. The ceilings up here will be oak too they are not dried out enough yet to install either. On around from the old ironing board starts the 20ft wall of closets....but they are only about 5.5 to 6 foot tall. But at least it is storage. These will also have doors on them so that I can hide the stuff. To the left of the small self is several hundred romance novels in boxes. Those will be moved after some of the other rooms are finished. The bookshelf holds my quilting pantos and rulers. The tubs are precut scraps and strips sorted into different sizes. A box of misc. quilting stuff and the two boxes on the bottom are yardage. On the other side of the boxes is where I will put my drawers of fabric that I posted the other day. Starting left to right here. On the bottom is the tile for bathroom #3. On top of those is a tote of yardage. The other 3 larger totes on the bottom are just bits and pieces of backings, sheets, batting, and stuff like that. The small clear totes are UFO's/WIP's. The boxes have the same thing UFO's/WIP's and scrap batiks and odds and ends. I had my sister to save boxes for me from her work so that I could box up some of my stuff for the move. I do plan on buying more clear tubs so that it will look neater and I can see what is in them. Oh and I have some batting and stuff stuck over in the corner. Richard still has to build shelving in the closets too.

As you can see, I haven't even started to paint this wall. I still need to paint/stain my table that Richard made for me too. My machine will sit here along with my ironing board and iron. The big basket in the back has scrap fabrics in it. The 3 smaller ones are actually "mangers" that I bought at the Dollar Store. They are wood and I thought they would make good little baskets so store leaders and enders in or something like that. The other small basket just has paper and pens in it. And my pin cushion... Oh and I plan on changing that chair out too, it was just upstairs.

I still need move in my cutting table which is an antique round kitchen table but it is still in the storage building and I can't get to it yet. :( I still have some fabric and a huge tote of UFO's to move and .....about 6 more sewing machines!!! Not even sure where they will go yet.

And my frame/machine sits in front of my closets as you have seen in past photos. He is installing lighting over my frame too.

Tonight I will start working on my strings again. I would love to get those finished soon.

Kristie

Making Progress

Hope everyone had a great New Year! We all stayed home and had some family time, it was great! I did a little sewing, moved my machine into the living room and sat in the big comfy chair while I sewed! Richard told me not to get to comfy because I was only sewing in there because he new that I did not feel good and did not feel like sitting in the hard chair! :) Whatever! :) I worked on my string blocks! Is it a bad sign when you dream about scraps and strings? hehehe! I never thought I would like working with strings like that! Over the past few days I have sewn several more blocks. I now have 58 blocks done, still need 66 more!

Do you remember the tops that I posted the other day that still needed borders on them? I think I had 4 of them. I got two of them done. I know the photos don't really show the borders very well, but I promise they are on there! hehehe! I actually forgot what the name of this first one is, but I have it written down in my book, so I will look it up later. I added a green print border on it.
This is my scrappy bargello that I made a while back. I really like this design, and I just remembered that I have a green scrappy one in the works somewhere! I will have to dig it out, I think I have about half of it done. On this one I added a dark red print border.

Just wanted to show a couple of photos of my new/old little baby. I know it still needs some cleaning done on it, but here it is....A 1933 Singer Featherweight!!! I checked the serial number and this is the first year that the 221 was manufactured. She sews like a dream!!! Don't know yet if I will keep her or sell her.You can see the case in the photo above but here is a photo of the attachments and manual. Even has the needles and lubricant! I used her sewing some of the borders on tops tops!

I have slept most of the day today! I feel like CRAP! :( Anyway, I'll stop complaining now! :) Mom is home, she came home today!!! I haven't seen her yet, but she sounds very tired!

It is almost 10 pm, so I will probably go to bed soon and hopefully tomorrow will be a better day!

Kristie