A Good Junkin’ Day!

This weekend has sure been a busy one so far! I worked until noon on Friday, then I came home and did a few chores, and got ready to go to a Casting Crowns concert with Matthew West, Lindsay McCaul, and Royal Tailor. I went to bed at 2:30 this morning, and got back up at 6:30.

We started our day out mid morning, and we headed south to go junkin’. We went to a little flea market in Elvira first, then on to Clinton. While we were in Clinton, my youngest sister texted me and I asked her where she was. She was almost to Davenport, and I said that was where we were heading, so we joined up and had lunch at Red Robin, then we hit the thrift stores!

I found a framed print with this little guy in it. The name of the print is Picky Picky, and the artist is Cynthia Lake. I couldn’t resist it. So cute. It makes me laugh!

I decided to hang it in my west/east hallway with my other black and white items.

I found this little sign and loved it immediately. I had never seen that phrase before. It says, ‘One shoe can change your life.’ It’s signed Cinderella.

I found a place in my hallway to hang it up.

I bought another piece of my childhood today for 49cents. It is a baton. When I was a little girl, I REALLY wanted one. Other girls had batons that were skinny, like this one. When I asked my mom for one and I finally got it, it was ‘fat’ and I did not like it. I wanted the ‘real one’! I think I eventually got one, but I don’t have it now. Hence, this one!

I found a nice square clear container for thread, or something. Couldn’t pass it up and sure didn’t want anyone else to find it!

I found what I thought was a vintage sheet in a nice size for $3.50, and it ends up, it is a duvet cover, so I got double the sheet fabric. I will separate the two sheets and either use it for a quilt back/and or/rip for vintage fat quarters/and or use for fabric in making a quilt.

I found another sheet I liked. It will be used the same as the above duvet cover.

I shopped for my friend Renea today for fleece. She likes to use fleece for the backs of her scrappy flannel quilts. How’s this for less than $10? All pieces are nice large sizes. I think she and her hubby are afraid I’ll have to rent a U-Haul with my over zealous enthusiasm for spending her money! I could have found her plenty more!

I bought four green dish towels today to fold lengthwise and use on my counters under the ‘stuff’ I have sitting on my counters. This picture actually shows two folded together for more length to fit all four items.

This one is the left of the stove.

This one is to the right of the stove.

Louie bought this for Renea’s hubby. It’s a can koozie. He said Renea shouldn’t have all the fun!

Louie also got a pair of athletic shoes. How do they look for $3.16?

We got home a little after 7pm, and Louie turned on the tv, and has been snoring since. I’m heading to bed soon. Hopefully I can get more than four hours of sleep tonight, and hopefully I can convince myself to be lazy tomorrow so I can rest up for work on Monday. Update! I slept 8 hours straight! I never do that! I’d probably still be sleeping, but nothing says ‘Good Morning!’ like a leg cramp!

What’s that? Oh, sewing machines? Nope, none today! I did see some, but they were either too modern, (I stay away from plastic internal gears) or whoever priced them thought they worked in an antique store!

Have a great Sunday everyone!

Michelle

Barn Quilt

Should I really call it a Barn Quilt when it is mounted on a garage? Shouldn’t it be called a Garage Quilt?

I know. It isn’t centered under the attic vent, but the attic vent isn’t centered either. We didn’t cut the hole. The original owners did. We just put a new vent cover over the hole when we sided the house. It’s not our fault! It is centered between the two garage doors though. It’s good enough for me!

Here we have the scaffolding set up so Louie can climb up and do his ‘stuff’.

He attached some J blocks to the siding first to create a flat surface to mount the quilt block to, trimming some corners off the J blocks since we would be mounting the block on point and didn’t want to see any of the J block sticking out. Louie also put a bead of caulk around each side of the surface of the J blocks to create a water tight seal.

The block is 2’ x 2’ and I think is the perfect size for our garage front. Louie confessed to me that he REALLY didn’t think he would like it, but HE DOES.

We also put a metal, powder coated quilt block on the front of our shed. If you click this picture, you will get a better picture of the barn quilt on the shed.

That barn quilt is the same design as the one on my front porch here. My friend Christie gave me the metal barn quilt for Christmas. I liked it so much, I ordered one for the shed.

After the quilt blocks were mounted, we went on a windy motorcycle ride to Lisbon to see my brother and sisterinlove, pulling our trailer behind us so we could deliver a sewing machine and cabinet that I picked up yesterday for her. We visited for a few hours, (she let me play with some of her sewing machines! ) then we went out to eat. By the time we were ready to come home, it was dark, and the wind had died down to practically nothing, so it was a very pleasant ride home. We only saw a couple deer, but they were just standing in the ditch looking at us. We have deer whistles on our Goldwing. We really believe that they help. No deer have crossed in front of us since we added deer whistles to our bike. If we see one coming our way, they always STOP, and just stand, or they take off running in the direction that they came from. We believe in deer whistles!

It was a wonderful weekend. Friday I spent the day with my honey junkin, then we went out for supper with Russ and Amy, Saturday I spent the afternoon with my friend Judy in Fulton, Illinois, and today, I spent it with my honey again. I got my first bike ride of the season, and my barn quilts mounted. I couldn’t have asked for a nicer weekend.

Have a great week everyone!

Michelle

Singer 185J3

Yesterday (Friday) Louie took a vacation day, and we planned to spend the day together. Early in the morning, I found this Singer 185J3 sewing machine on Craigslist in Coralville. We were planning on spending the day in Cedar Rapids anyway, so Coralville wasn’t ‘that’ far out of the way. I contacted the seller and made arrangements to go pick it up. Afterwards, we ran around Iowa City to the thrift shops, but we really didn’t find much. What’s up with that? Anyway, here she is, complete with a buttonholer in a sleek green case, book, attachments and cover.

I took her serial number and went to My Singer Story to find out her age. She was born in 1954. She’s older than me!

I still need to learn how the Singer 185J3 is different from the Singer 185J. I’ll update this if and when I find out. 

Update! I emailed my Singer Hero and asked him about the differences in the 185’s added #3 and the single J’s. This was his reply:

Hi Michelle
In the history of Singer making machines they would make slight changes in the models and would add a number to the model number.
I have seen parts manuals that would say that it covered 66-1,2,3 or 201-1,2 or the like. It would take a serious hunt to find what the change was.
I honestly don't have a clue about the 185. I sold them new but cant answer your question.....sorry
Jim

Miss 185J3 had some problems when I test sewed with her, but I fixed them.

I’m not really sure what Singer was thinking when they put this HEAVY machine inside a plastic base. There are supports that have broken down, and the bobbin slide plate cover was off of the machine, because you couldn’t slide it open to change the bobbin. I put it back on, and stacked some big round washers in the bottom of the case to lift it back up. On the other end, I stacked up a couple short spools of thread to raise it up so the machine would sit nice and level and tight inside the case.

The end cover by the needle bar is a lighter shade of green, and also chrome. The light green needs to be repainted as it is pretty nicked up.

The hand wheel is also very chipped up, so that should be repainted as well. (You know, this green is just light enough I might be able to mask the chips a little bit by lightly dabbing some liquid ‘white out’ on them. Hmmmm…might have to try that.)

When we got back into Cedar Rapids, we stopped to see Amy and park our second car in her driveway while we went junkin’ in Cedar Rapids. We went to a couple of Goodwills, but didn’t really find anything, so we went back to Russ and Amy’s and we went to the Olive Garden for supper. YUM YUM! We enjoyed the visit. Russ and Amy just got a ‘new to them’ Goldwing motorcycle last year, so we are looking forward to doing some riding with them this year, and introducing them to my brother and sisterinlove, who we usually ride with. It will be fun!

Before we knew it, it was after 7pm. We needed to go to Home Depot to get some J blocks for our siding for when Louie mounts my wooden Barn Quilt block, and Louie needed to get going to Waterloo for his pool tournaments which start today(Saturday). We took Russ and Amy home, visited for a few more minutes, then Louie headed for Waterloo, and I headed for home. I got home about 9pm, and Louie pulled into the ramp of the hotel at exactly the same time, so we both made it home safe. Praise the Lord!

It was 85* in Iowa yesterday. That is just CRAZY! It was only March 16th, but we’re not complaining! We’ve broken temperature records for three days now, and we’re supposed to break another one today. I signed up a few months ago for a new city alert system notification deal where I get phone texts and voice messages of weather alerts and important city and county information that is going on. Yesterday I got both a text and a voicemail from the city saying that we were under a burn ban and that NOTHING was to be burned in the COUNTY until further notice. That meant leaves, garbage and fire pits. That is so odd to have dry conditions in Iowa in March. I can’t ever remember a winter like we’ve been having.

I’m going on a sewing machine rescue today from a friend of mine in Fulton, Illinois, and it will go to my sisterinlove who claims she is collecting ‘boat anchors’ now. She warned me when I talked to her, that there were no sewing machines in Cedar Rapids, because she had taken them all, and she was right! Good thing I found this one in Coralville, or there would have been no rescues for me!

I thought another thing was funny too. As she was telling me about the machines she got, she said one of them was a 3/4 size machine that was two tone green, and that the case was plastic and two toned as well. My mouth dropped open, and I asked her if it was very heavy, and if the top of it sloped down like her 500A Rocketeer? She said yes. I said, ‘That is like the machine we are going after right now!’ Then I found a picture of one on Louie’s blackberry and showed it to her and she said, ‘Yes. That’s it!’ Now, how odd/cool is that? BUT, being that she got hers at Goodwill, and I got mine from a private party, I paid over 5 times more than she did for mine! I think she’s joined me in ‘rescuing’ all the orphan sewing machines of the world! Thanks girl! Together we can save them from the landfills! Now I just need to teach her how to service them so her husband doesn’t have a second full time job!

Have a great day everyone!

Michelle

My ‘Singer’ Hero!

I would like you all to meet Jim Sorrell. Jim is an original ‘Singer Man’. He still works on Singers and sells some of the old ones. If you would like to see what he has for sale, or if you ever need a part, Jim’s website, Sew-Rite is HERE.  Jim and I have known each other since I began collecting and working on sewing machines. He has answered many questions and taught me a lot about sewing machines, and he has always come through when I need a part. He is such a wonderful man and has a kind spirit.

He didn’t disappoint me when I emailed him and asked him if he had a stitch control ‘thingy’ for my ‘new to me’ Singer 403A.

I got the part today, and now she is complete.

I went to My Singer Story and found the birth date for this machine. If you have an older (pre-1970) sewing machine and would like to know when it was ‘born’, check it out. It’s fun! (I just put in Singer 403A where it asked for my first name, and left my last name blank to get it to print Singer 403A.)

I found this old Sewing Book last weekend while junkin’.

I think I got it more because it had an old Singer (I believe it looks like a 301) photo on the introduction pages. I certainly won’t be using this book to learn how to sew garments!

Jim is in Oklahoma. If you need anything, give Jim a call, or email him, and tell him Michelle sent you!

Thank you, Jim!!

Be blessed!

Michelle