Quilting

String Challenge and More

April 16, 2018 by Jo 10 Comments

I had so hoped that when I was off last week that each night I would go to the living room and sew a few of my string blocks. That did not happen. It did not happen at all. My cleaning mood is still here and that kicked in instead….more on that in this coming Wednesday’s post.

I did my first blocks on the treadle loving it and then mid sewing it hit me that the machine should be oiled ….then I realized I need to oil in the under carriage. I couldn’t loosen the screws and needed Hubby….figured I better put in a new needle and then all I had was problems. I’m sure you who have sewn on vintage machines understand. I had put in one kind of needle…only to have problem after problem with fraying thread. I ended up going upstairs and digging and digging until I found some Singer sewing machine needles and tried that. Finally I got up and going again. Can you believe that sucked up over an hour’s worth of sewing time.

With things going like that, it was easy to ignore the machine and just do something else instead. I didn’t get back to it until Saturday. At that point I knew it would soon be time to clean up my mess and get back to normal work life…so I treadled like mad wanting to get as much done as I could before it was time to pack it all away.

I have found that I really do enjoy treadling. Strings are the perfect thing for to practice with at this point. I know there would be an accuracy learning curve for me should I venture out and try something beyond treadling with strings.

I was really intimidated by the shuttle bobbin at first but I’m getting over that. I sure wish I had more than one bobbin for the machine. Does anyone know where to get more from?

Through the digging through strings I managed to get 13 more string block done. Here they are… [Read more…] about String Challenge and More

Stash Report

April 15, 2018 by Jo 5 Comments

I added fabric to the stash…not cotton though…WOOL! Remember a bit ago when Kalissa and I went and saw Kayla. Well we stopped at Kayla’s thrift store and look what I got….

I didn’t open it to see what it was…I didn’t count the pieces…I didn’t even make particular note of the fabrics or colors of the fabrics. I just grabbed the bag!! I was going to buy it!

Once home, this is what I discovered….. [Read more…] about Stash Report

String Challenge and What I’m Working On…

April 9, 2018 by Jo 14 Comments

I have no childcare for the next week….so, I’m playing as much as I possibly can, that is in between driving to appointments in Lacrosse for the prep for my thyroid cancer recheck.

So what did I do…

I started sewing my churn dash blocks together only to discover that I cut about a quarter of the alternate blocks at 5″ rather than at 5 1/2″. UGH!

So in between some other things I was doing in the kitchen, I started cutting new blocks. I was a little sad at first and then decided to “get over it”. At least the 5″ blocks are a size I can use later down the road. They’ll be perfect in a charm square quilt pattern….in fact, I’ll likely cut more and plan a project with them.

What else I’m doing on my play days….THIS!!!
[Read more…] about String Challenge and What I’m Working On…

Our Featherweight Class

March 28, 2018 by Jo 10 Comments

If you read the blog on Monday you know I took the day off to learn more about my Featherweight sewing machine. My daughter Kayla and my friend Connie both went with me. The class we went to was Nova Montgomery’s class.

It was a long weekend but loads of fun. Friday Connie came in the late afternoon. She was in time to meet the childcare kiddos. Kelli ended up coming that evening. The three of us sewing all day Saturday. I got a project finished that I’ll be showing you soon. Sunday we were up and off to Cedar Rapids. Our granddaughter and grandson got baptized (more on that in another post too). We had church and then went to Buck and Lora’s for a meal. Then we loaded up. Kayla, Connie and me and made our way to Bettendorf, Iowa via thrift stores, Joann’s and Michael’s.

Once at the hotel…these two were busy crocheting. Me. I did NOTHING!! It was fabulous.

While we were relaxing Connie made a bet. She said someone at class would know who I was. I laughed and said no way. Kayla thought if she was there rather than Kelli someone would recognize me…or if we introduced ourselves, someone might recognize me. I thought no on would….I said if they did, I’d buy lunch.

Once morning hit, we were off and running. Here are our Featherweights in tow. Connie made these cute velcro handle covers so we could easily tell who’s machine was who’s.

We quick set up and class was underway. It’s a fairly fast paced class lead by Nova Montgomery. Find her website here.

We were each set up with our own machine and were put to task to clean, oil and lubricate the entire thing. I can comfortably say that I don’t think I will ever have to take my machine in to a repair shop to be cleaned. I feel as I can do a good job all on my own. That was a great comfort.

We learned what to touch and what not to touch…that was a big one for me. I was so intimidated by it all so I touched NOTHING!

The class is a powerpoint presentation LOADED with pictures. Nova will have a slide on the screen of what our next task was. She completely talked up through it with pictures to follow along. It was do-able for most everyone.

My machine had been serviced by a repair shop in Decorah two month previous to this. I hadn’t used it except for Saturday for part of the day when Connie was here so my machine was pretty clean. I did run into a problem though. The repair shop didn’t have a belt for it so they put an o-ring on it instead of a belt AND there was a thread jam in the the back behind the bobbin. I spend at least a half hour dealing with that. I am sure the jam was there before…UGH. He didn’t clean it but I did!! I don’t need to take my machine away for any of that anymore. YAHOO!

Remember our little bet? At the first break someone did recognize me. This is Jennifer from Champagne, IL. We both drove 3 hours-ish to get there. She came from the east…me from the north. She was so nice and pleasant. I didn’t realize at the time but I might have come off a little rude at first. She said “Hi Jo” and referenced the blog….and what did I say, “Dang it! I lost the bet”. I don’t even think I said hello first. UGH. I think I redeemed myself later. This is Jennifer…. [Read more…] about Our Featherweight Class

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