Table talk for quilters and sewists

I'm packing up for a retreat this weekend 

and my Singer Featherweight and matching table

 is coming with me.

I wanted to protect the top during transit,

so I made a quick cover for it

from some bottom weight cotton.

It has a couple of good features --

including the long pocket with a velcro closure

for my 24 by 6 inch ruler

I sewed fitted corners

and sewed elastic around the bottom

Here it is folded up.

Originally I had thought of making a bag to carry it,

but since the table is 30 inches square,

it would be hard to carry that way.

I'm going to carry it by the edges.

And here is the front, with the long ruler safely 

inside the pocket on the right.

This table is slightly lower than those plastic folding tables 

we sew on at retreats

and the Featherweight sits right in the cutout.

If I don't have good ergonomics at a retreat,

I'm done long before it is time to go home.

This way, my machine is at a good height,

and my leg isn't super-extended.

I love quilt retreats, but I have to watch my posture

and how long I stay in one position,

or I pay for it with back and neck pain later.

Featherweights on my work table

I've got four Singer Featherweights on my table today -- three 221s and one 222K.

One  221 belongs to a friend,
 another  221 was rescued by my 18-year-old son,
and the other two are mine.

I'm cleaning and oiling and lubing them assembly-line fashion.

They are all older machines from the 1940s and 1950s

and they all make a beautiful stitch

even if some of the machines look a little rough.

Bunch of Friday finishes

Last weekend a friend came over to play with my Juki.

We each made a "placemat with benefits" for our Singer Featherweights

from my Kaffe scraps.

Here's mine, with a few other bits thrown in.

I dug through the binding bag for leftover purples to finish this.

I quilted the back using the prints on top as inspiration.

When I was learning to fmq, I made several of these mats as practice.

Here it is underneath my FW 222K.

In preparation for T's visit, I cleaned up my sewing room

and found a bunch of nearly finished needle books underneath the clutter.

So I finished them, and made the four on the bottom

from bits and pieces.

See the Kaffe pencils on the bottom row?

This is the inside of one -- pockets for thimbles or thread

and several pages of wool for pins and needles.

I'm giving away two of these to celebrate seven years of blogging.

I'm linking up with TGIFF and Sarah and Crazy Mom Quilts.

New feet!

It sounds like a riddle:

What has seven feet and purrs like a kitten?

My 222K Singer Featherweight,

which now has a quarter inch foot, a walking foot

and five new rubber feet underneath to balance on.

Thanks to April at april1930s.com

for the great accessories and parts for these vintage machines.

I have two sewing days with friends coming up this weekend

and now I'm ready.

Tag team!

Using the free arm of my Singer Featherweight 222K

and the power of my Juki

to finish some Christmas gifts!

Two small Friday finishes

Groovy doll blankets, 15 by 20

I'm off to a retreat this weekend,

celebrating the treats that come from hanging with friends

and playing with fabric.

I tested out my retreat machine with these two doll blankets

made for a pair of sisters.

I use my Singer Featherweight mostly out of home,

so I tested out my tensions

and my hopping foot.

Everything checked out great,

and my FW is packed in the car ready to go.

I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts

and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Small finishes on Friday

I'm finally getting my creative mojo back, 

with the help of bits and pieces from others.

I used string-pieced bits from L. to make three of these potholders

and some of the yardage for the windmill one.

Part of the package included a bunch of 1.5 inch strips

in Christmas colours,

which I used to make a table runner.

And here's the back, using an autumn print 

from the same pile of goodies from L,

making this a two-season table runner.

This lonely card trick block is now a Christmas centrepiece.

And in other small finishes, I replaced the lights on my Singer Featherweights

with LED lights from Brad Slaughter.

I made the switch after burning my hand on the incandescent light

after only a few minutes of sewing.

These are great little machines, but the light was always a problem.

I'm taking this  beauty and her table to an upcoming retreat

and now I don't have to worry about injuries from a hot light.

I'm linking up with  other Friday finishers

over at Sarah's and Amanda's blogs.

Am I becoming a sewing machine hoarder?

Or just a collector?

Yesterday, this two-tone Singer 301A

came to live with me.

For $35, I purchased the machine in great condition

along with a cabinet and sewing chair.

This full-sized portable Singer was born in 1956

and was designed to fit in a cabinet or be portable.

It came in short and long bed options,

but only the short bed fit into a cabinet.

I'm dubbing her Susie after the granddaughter of the original owner,

who sold it to me yesterday.

She said something about whether this was my first sewing machine

and I admitted it wasn't.

I was hoping to find a 301 in a case as a take along machine,

but the cabinet is so lovely I'm going to keep it in there for now.

Here it is folded away into its cabinet, which measures 18 by 24.

Here's a view of the cradle for the 301.

It unsnaps at the right side and lifts out -- no unbolting necessary.

The foot pedal is mounted into the cabinet with clips

and there's a knee feed in the cabinet.

So, do I need to justify another sewing machine?

No, because I'm giving it a good home,

and I'm going to teach a young woman to quilt this year,

and this will be a perfect machine for that.

Did I say it sews beautifully? 

It made a lovely lock stitch after years of being folded away.

I've since oiled it and cleaned it and changed the needle.

How many machines do I have?

I'll tell if you tell!

Elna SU (zig zag and free arm) --40 years old

Juki TL98q for piecing and quilting 

Singer FW 222K for taking with me

Singer FW 221 given to me this spring

Singer 66 (I think) in a treadle cabinet, used as a table

unknown fiddle base hand crank, also mostly decorative

23-year-old Pfaff serger, which paid for itself when I made baby and children's clothing

and one red Little Queen toy sewing machine.

Let's go sew!

New on the sewing table

Last week, a Featherweight 221 (top) came to live at my house.

My neighbour offered it to me when she saw me carrying 

my 222K from the car to the house after a sewing day.

We made plans for me to come by and see the machine,

but for one reason or another, that meeting only happened last week.

Now I'm the proud owner of this 1948 221 Singer Featherweight.

It's in lovely shape, with only a few scratches.

It had lived in its case for 40 straight years,

but sewed a beautiful seam right out of the box.

I dusted and oiled it yesterday and it runs fine,

although it's a bit noisy.

Here's the Egyptian scroll faceplate.

My 222K (at left) has the striated face plate

The 222K has a free arm and the feed dogs can be lowered.

Here's the machines side by side, with the 222K at left.

It is slightly taller.

At right on the bottom is the accessories tray for the 221.

It came only with one foot, and a few bobbins,

but I already have several boxes of  Singer attachments,

so I'm fine with that.

Here's the difference in the cases.

The 222K is slightly taller than the 221.

Did I mention how much I paid?

My neighbour wouldn't take any money,

since she says she didn't pay for it.

She's happy to have found a good home for her mother's machine,

and I'm happy to give it a good home.

I'm linking up with Judy's Design Wall Mondays.

Instead of having something new on the design wall,

this week I have something new on the sewing table.

I'm also linking up with Stitch by Stitch's Anything Goes Mondays.

Celebrating International Quilting Day

I celebrated International Quilting Day yesterday by hauling out my oldest flimsy.

I made this trip around the world top nearly a decade ago.

I decided yesterday to take it in a different direction.

I machine quilted it in the pumpkin seed pattern.

Here's the back.

And then I cut it up.

These are the bits leftover

and these are the two shapes I cut out

Here are the results:

Two bags to cover up the bed of a

Singer Featherweight when it is in the case,

like this:

Or to use as a thread catcher.

One for me, and one for a friend.

I'm happy to have made something useful

out of an old flimsy.

 

Hope you had a great day.

Birthday sewing

I scored this Singer Featherweight Three-Way Table

 for $10 at an estate sale recently.

It has a beautiful wooden top in great condition

and wooden folding legs.

When it was originally manufactured,

it was advertized as good for sewing, dining, or playing cards.

It's designed for a Featherweight 221 to sit flush in it.

My 222K (with the free arm) sits a bit higher, but its all good.

I'm celebrating my birthday today by sewing with a friend.

Here she is machine quilting on my Juki in one corner of my dining room

while I have the FW set up in another corner.

K. brought me fabric goodies from her stash

and the local secondhand market in Iraq,

where she lives half the year.

Monday mysteries solved and a cute baby on a quilt

My guild had a mystery evening last night, where we brought a

set of precut coordinating fabrics

and then made these weighted pincushion organizers.

(The reason the two at the right are matching is

that I cut two from my set of fabrics

and brought one to share.)

Here they are lined up at the end of the evening.

The black or green stripes in the middle

is wool felt for needles instead of pins.

Cheryl brought her new Singer Featherweight 222K

which is a twin sister to mine at the right.

We even took off the removable tables to use the free arms for this project.

Just a note to FW lovers out there: in our guild of 12, we have

four of these little machines between us.

Meanwhile, this little future quilter enjoyed lying on a baby quilt

made by my mother in the log cabin quilt-as-you-go method.

This batik beauty will be donated to charity

as part of our Year of the Baby Quilt challenge.

Anne spent the evening tying a denim picnic blanket for

 her daughter's upcoming wedding social.

If you have no idea what a wedding social is,

it's a particular Manitoba custom.

Thanks to Heather for planning this mystery and to Karen for letting us transform

her house into a sewing studio for the evening.