Monday, June 24, 2013

Just the binding left!

I can't believe the wedding quilt is almost done..and ahead of time! I need to do the binding and wash it. I'm pleased with how it turned out overall. My usual problem is with the back and this one is no different. No matter how well it seems I pin I end up with at least one pucker......But hopefully they will look past that pucker and just see the quilt and the love put into it. oh and excuse my very rough looking chair......that was intended to be my summer project...restoring the whole set but with two weddings this summer it seems those may be pushed off until fall!

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

TOGA is over for another year....

It was a great weekend if a little  hectic. We got to the church Friday and got set up. Our first class was t-shirt scarves. Guess what I will be making for Christmas gifts this year? Then of course lunch. There always has to be food!
In the afternoon we made thread catchers. Those things are awesome! Do you use one? I'd looked at them  and looked at them and just never took the time to make one. Why did I wait so long?
Then before we knew it it was time to leave for the day. Since we were done with the machines we loaded them up. Now comes the really genius move I made......I left my purse there! We got all the way to the motel to check in before we realized it too. So a mad rush back to the church hoping and praying someone was still there. Thankfully someone was! Needless to say by the time we checked in, ate supper and got back we were tired. We watched some tv and went to bed.
Saturday morning we made the fabric flowers to go on top of the thread catchers. They're really cute! My daughter though did a MUCH better job at making them than I did though! Mine looked kind of windblown.  Then it was time to clean up and head home.
We made it home safely only to discover we had left something.....again! My camera! Thankfully a couple that lives nearby found it and emailed me. I'll be meeting them later this week to get it back.
So no TOGA pictures till then!

But here's one of Miss Calikat this morning.....she was spellchecking for me! Taken with the webcam so not great...but see those earrings at the bottom of the pic? I got those last year at TOGA and wore them all weekend this year!


Monday, June 3, 2013

Camper time!

We're at the camper part of this week. That's what we will be doing most of the summer......going back and forth between weddings and showers and such.
It's rainy today so there is lots of quilting in my plans. Tomorrow is a trip with the camprground owner, her daughter and kids to go gold mining! Kids should love that!

Saturday, June 1, 2013

Wish List Machine!

4 years ago I had no idea that there was any other "old" machine besides a Singer. I definitely had no idea there were such beautiful "old" machines. It just wasn't something I thought about.

But now is a different story! I fell head over heels in love with the "old" machines! They are absolutely amazing to me. The fact that many have survived years of abuse and neglect and still sew a perfect stitch is just amazing. Not to mention the fact that they were (and some still are) things of beauty. When I look at the decals on them it makes me wonder why they ever started making plain sewing machines!

My first old machine was a Singer 127 with the shuttle bobbin. Many thanks to some wonderful ladies at TOGA who helped me get her sewing. That machine was promptly named Sally.....don't ask me why but for some reason it reminded me of something my Grannie used to say about "long legged Sally". That is still my favorite machine. I absolutely love to sew on her.

This past week I got a new to me machine. It's one I've been wanting for a couple years but everytime I've seen one for sale it's been more than my "frugal" self was willing to pay. Okay, okay my "cheap" self!  Then I saw the ad on Craigslist......I emailed. No response. I figured it was already sold. Oh well that's normal for me.....a day short and a dollar late. Three days later though the ad showed up again. I emailed again and got a response immediately! So plans were made to make the trip to go get it. I loaded up acouple of the kids and off we went!

When I got there it looked worse than in the pictures. I figured the decals were shot....cabinet definitely was. The cabinet wasn't important though as it would be going in my homemade multi-treadle table.

I brought her home and started cleaning. Three days later and I see decals! Well on the front at least. She actually looks pretty darn good! There is nothing but bare metal beside the shuttle cover which shows she was well loved. I like that.....the lady I bought her from said she belonged to her grandmother. I wonder what she made on this machine to wear the finish off? Did she make clothes or quilts?

I've got about a month to finish getting her cleaned up and then she gets to make her first quilt for me.


If you look close you can see the gunk still on her.......hours and hours of elbow grease still needed!