Quilts for PVQM

I have been working on this first quilt top this weekend, while Louie has been working on his college course. He is very near completing, and hopefully, will have it finished today.  I really enjoyed this quilt top, as I love the bright colors. It is a patriotic quilt top. I love sewing these tops together, because the kit is all ready to sew, and each piece is pinned to the next. They are marked row 1, 2, etc, so once each row is sewn, then you just sew the rows together. The hardest part is matching seams.

I sewed this top together about three weeks ago….

…and I only had to sew the rows to each other on this quilt, as someone had already started this kit, getting each row sewn.

The tops will now go back to the Quilting Ministry, and someone will quilt them, then hand them off to someone else, who will sew the binding on, and finish the quilts. When I make the connection to get these back to the quilters, I will receive more kits to sew together. I love sewing for this group, even though I am not a member of their church, or the quilt group…but they let me help anyway.

Once in awhile, I get to see the quilts completely finished, and sometimes, I even go sew with the girls. That is the most fun.

Important Notice: The Cross in the center is the Quilting Ministry’s trademark. They designed the Cross to be their own design. Please do not copy, sell, or claim it as your own. They are very proud of it, as they should be. Thank you!

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Louie has been studying this weekend, and hopefully today, will finish all his lessons for the college course he is taking. He has been learning about CNC programming, and lathe work. He is very excited, and hopefully soon will be applying what he has learned to start cutting inlay work on pool cues that he would like to build.

Yesterday…

Today…

What have you been doing?

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Update: Louie did finish his lessons early this evening. He just needs to get credit for them from his instructor, and he should get his certificate. He will go down tomorrow evening, which should be his last time. I am so proud of him. I wish learning came as easily to me.

Enough

There is nothing else I NEED. Thank you Jesus.

Karen Peck and New River

We saw Karen Peck and New River last night with friends at Emmanuel Reformed Church in Morrison, Illinois. All I can say, is …..WOW….and Thank You Jesus!

Kenmore 158.15150

Remember THIS post? It’s the post about the Singer 6412 that I picked up for the Park View Quilting Ministry. Well, I’m going to repossess it. It seems it is not going to be a good machine after all. The bobbin case likes to slip around 90*, which makes it impossible to sew with. I don’t want them having a machine that they can’t use, and will give them trouble. I don’t know what I was thinking. I don’t normally buy modern machines, and especially modern (1970’s and newer) Singers.

So instead, Saturday, I picked up this machine! It has all metal parts, and it should never break! I tested it Sunday morning. It sews a straight stitch, and it was very clean, so someone took very good care of it. It has to have a cam to zigzag, which it did not, but my friend Patty had given me a bunch of Kenmore accessories she got at an auction a few months ago, and it had that cam. All the accessories she gave me will work with this machine. I put in the zigzag cam and tested it out. There are lots and lots of design cams and a box full of accessories. The instruction manual is for a different model, but the machine threads the same way, so it will work for this machine.

This one should work out much nicer for them, and I shouldn’t have to worry about it breaking. It will probably outlive me. 

The Singer 6217C That Didn’t Make It

Awhile ago, I picked up a Singer 6217C sewing machine. It did not have a power cord/foot controller, but I knew I did in my spare parts. I put the machine through all the stitches, and it seemed to move in all the stitch formations just by my turning the hand wheel, so I gave it a chance, for $6.38.

This morning I decided to take it out and check it over. I took the top off and the first thing I found was this nylon stitch selector gear. It looks ok.

I don’t know the proper names, but you can see that there are more nylon (plastic parts which get brittle and deteriorate over time) in the moving parts of the sewing machine. They could snap at any time, without warning.

Here you can see a ‘corkscrew’ type of NYLON gear in the back, in the middle of the picture, which rotates and moves the feed dogs back and forth.

…and OOPS! Here is a plastic timing gear which has two big chunks out of it! I had plugged it in before I took the bottom off the machine, and the machine seemed to have a ‘wobble’ to it, and the machine as a whole was pretty loud. I was trying to find the spot to quiet it down, but there is no fixing this, without replacing the gear, which I am not qualified to do, nor would I ever spend the money required to pay someone qualified at their hourly rate to do it. I would much rather go haunt the thrift stores and buy an OLDER, all METAL sewing machine, which could easily outlive me.

This machine would probably sew the way it is, but I’m not going to go any further. It is loud, and in my eyes, with the nylon parts, unreliable. I would never give it to anyone, because I would not trust when it would give out, and I would not want to disappoint someone who thought they had a good sewing machine when they did not.

All is not lost though! My hubby has a coworker who makes the cutest little motorcycle squirrel feeders, and he likes to go through my rejected machines for little parts he can use for his feeders and other little projects. One thing he will take for sure, is the notched timing belt, which will make a ‘chain’ for the ‘feeder’ bike. I think the belt from the motor to the hand wheel is notched too, so he will get two belts.

There are parts I will save too, like the snap in extension table, throat plate, slide plate, light bulb, needle clamp, rubber feet, knobs, bobbin case, bobbin tire, and whatever I think I might need someday for a machine that might be missing something…and maybe the motor. The foot control can go back in my parts box for another day.

I like HEAVY machines from the 60’s and before. Singer started using nylon gears in the early 70’s, and that’s when sewing machines started becoming disposable. The modern ones are ‘cute’ and lighter, and all that, but not meant to last long. Kenmore waited about another 10 years before they started using plastic.

Featherweight Birthday

Happy Birthday to me, Happy birthday to me….

My hubby bought me a Singer Featherweight last Friday, for my birthday, today. I found it on Craigslist in Cedar Rapids, and we went to pick it up. It is in pristine condition, as is the case. It’s serial number is AM407258, which means that it was born on February 27, 1956, which makes it older than I am. . It just amazes me at how small it is. Here is sits in front of one of my semi-industrial Juki TL98E’s, which has a 9” space from needle to arm and 6” height from the bed to the body.

Here is sits in front of my 3/4 size Singer Spartan….

…and along side a full size iron. Amazingly small and cute.

Sew Sew Weekend!

Yesterday was quilting, and we had a great time. I made this quilt top after we made our group block. I love the rich colors.

Today, my friend Patty came over to sew with me. I sewed the other quilt kit I had for the Park View Quilting Ministry……

…and I taught Patty how to make thread catcher bags. She made the three on the far right, and I sewed the yellow and blue one together for her while she worked on another project.

It was a chilly somewhat dreary day, so it was perfect for sewing. I don’t rarely sew all weekend. It was nice.

What did you do?

This Is How I Shop!

Yesterday afternoon after quilting, Louie and I did a little junkin’. We didn’t find much, but I brought home TWO  homemade drapery panels made from regular cotton fabric because I especially liked the fabric on the back.

I threw both panels in the washing machine, and this morning, I removed them from the dryer, unstitched the gathering, cut below the sewing line, unstitched the hem, turned it inside out, and cut the serging off all the way around. This was all the waste I got, and if I worked a little bit harder, I could make this into less waste yet.

I have only taken apart one panel this morning. How much fabric did I get? 3 yards plus a few more inches of EACH fabric x 43”.  When I get the other one apart, I will have 6+ yards of each fabric. Total: 12 yards of fabric.

How much? $4. Pretty good, eh?

Have a wonderful Sunday. I’m going to be sewing!

October Quilting~Rock Island Campfires

Our quilt group met today for October, and Margaret’s name was chosen to teach a quilt block.

She chose a pattern by Marianne Fons called Rock Island Campfires. The pattern can be found in the July/August 2013 issue of Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting magazine.

Here are the blocks that our group made today. Aren’t they cute? They were quick, easy, and fun!

She also got to choose which fabric we would exchange in Fat Quarters. She chose Home Spun fabrics.

We had a great time, celebrated a couple birthdays, and laughed a lot. What could be better than that?

Hope your Saturday was fun too. Have a great rest of the weekend.

Lavender

HELP! I can’t stop! I’m having too much fun.

I made another bag tonight. Actually, this morning before work, I went downstairs to fold a load of laundry, but instead, I cut out a bag. The outer bag used to be a quilted valance, and the inside used to be a fabric shower curtain.

I cut the strap out into two pieces rather than on the fold, because my strip of fabric wasn’t long enough, so the strap has a stripe on one side….

…and one side does not!

The back looks the same as the front, without the pocket. This bag is actually just a little bit smaller, because the valance was not quite wide enough for the pieces that I usually cut, so I went with what I had, and shortened the length a little too.

Shhhh! Don’t tell anyone, but I still have not folded the laundry I went down to fold this morning. Maybe tomorrow!