My Saturday

Saturdays I try to make my fun days.  After a week of work, I need a fun day.  Don’t we all?  The day was a crazy scramble at first but then slowed down perfectly.

I slept in…for me that’s 6:30am.  Normal up time is 5:30am and I have trouble sleeping past 6am so 6:30am was a treat.  From there is pedal to the metal.  I hit a garage sale in Spillville and got some things for the antique booth…then a garage sale in Decorah for more things for the antique booth.

Then I had a blood draw.  I have an appointment on the 19th.  It’s my bi-annual check to see if I have any returned cancer.  I’m still on the bi-annual stage as my numbers haven’t been coming back as good as my doctor hoped leaving me having to have checks bi-annually vs annually.  Most people at my stage are annual.  We’ll know more how my numbers come back soon enough and I’m not going to borrow trouble worrying about it.  I’ll have an update from the doctor in 10 days and I will share that news.

Enough of that though….My next stop was to meet this girl at an auction!!  It was an hour away and I met up with her at 9:20am.

Kelli loves auctions just as much as I do.  It’s been so long since we got to go together so this was a special treat.  She had planned to go quilting with the church ladies in the afternoon but ended up changing her plans when I told her after the auction we could hit up the NE Iowa Quilt Guild Quilt Show.  It’s been so long since we had a Mom/Kelli day.  I love seeing all of my kids together but I treasure days most with only a few of them or even one on one time best.

So what were we hunting for at the auction??  Me a Featherweight sewing machine and things for the antique booth…her, whatever struck her fancy.

There were two rings at the auction.  The first was selling coins.  I am not a coin girl.  The second was selling the “other stuff”.  I’m an other stuff girl.  I was a little late getting there so Kelli had scoped out things.  She found the Featherweight.  We were both happy with it.  The bobbin was there…the wheel turned easily….the case was in good shape….the cord on the foot was fabulous….I thought I’d be bidding on that for sure.  The machine was the nicest one I’ve ever seen for sale.

But the machine story I’ll tell later.  First I have to tell you the one of the other stories.  Kelli had also found the Little Golden Books.  I had seen that there were some on the sale and I have a collection of them…a pretty nice collection of old ones but the ones I love best…and Kelli loves best and Kayla loves best, are the Eloise Wilken illustrated books.  There were two boxes that had the small books and two that had “other” Eloise Wilken books in them.  We were thrilled.  The boxes all had several in them….One probably had 14 of her books.  I was buying them….PERIOD.

If you aren’t familiar with her, here are a few of her illustrations…

She creates the cutest chubby babies ever.  The books she illustrates are all so perfectly ideal too.  I adore them.

So…after some other things sold they got to the books.  They sold the Little Golden Books off the rack first.  I decided I’d buy them regardless.  I was hoping “regardless” wasn’t too much.  These books are out of print so this was my chance.  I bought the first two boxes for $30 each and the other Little Golden Book box for $20.  I figured as long I was there I might as well add to my collection.

After that they started selling boxes of the rest of the books.  Well there were still two boxes we wanted of “other” books.  The first few boxes went to $35 each that person took all the Zane Gray books….then $30 each- that person took comic books.  When I went again, I started bidding and got the “other” two boxes for $17.50.  Kelli and I plan to get together and split the books up.  We’ll share with Kayla.  I have a lot of them already so I really bought them so Kelli and Kayla would have them.

Kelli was so happy…I was too.

From there we went inside where the Featherweight was.

It took a bit but before long, they were selling it.  Kelli had asked me what my plans were for it.  My plan was to buy it and offer it on the blog for sale to readers.  When I had a couple for sale this summer, I had a HUGE amount of people emailing and asking for a chance to buy them.  I ended up selling those to two of the gals at the retreat.  Both of those machines ran well but both had a few issues.  The latches on the cases were a problem.  The foot feet cords had a ding in them.  The machines ran wonderfully it was the extras that weren’t quite as good.

Then I found another one shortly after that.  I was really happy with that one and ended up contacting someone who had spoken with me earlier and she bought that one.

This one…I wasn’t sure if I would get it.  There was some fast bidding.  I could tell the other person was slowing down.  I decided one more bid and I ended up getting it.  From there it was on to furniture…but I’ll let Kelli tell you all of that.  She bought a few things…but they are in my garage.  Stay tuned for that story on Wednesday afternoon.

From there Kelli and I ate out Mexican in Waukon…YUM.  Their food is so good….then onto the quilt show in Monona.  I’ll tell you about that (lots of pictures included on Friday).

Back to the Featherweight…I got it home.  Aw, she’s a nice one.  She didn’t have a test stitch in her so I got fabric to make one.  I ended up changing the needle and off we went.

The note on her was this….

I hadn’t even looked before I bought her but she’s a Centenial.  WOW!  Score.

I looked up her serial number.  She was made in 1950 but was tagged as 1951 as a Centenial.  I’ve read that it was common for that to happen.  The machines were being made in the factory for the anniversary special and tagged with the badge then shipped out and sold in 1951.

They are just the cutest little machines!!

She was good looking, that’s for sure.

The case was nice too.

All the latches worked and it was clean inside.  No tearing fabric inside.  Five bobbins included.  I was happy with that.

The handle was in excellent shape.  So many cases are damaged.

There was a scuff on the side…no biggie.  It’s almost 70 years old.  What 70 year old doesn’t have a scuff??

These were the accessories that came with…I have no idea if that’s a complete set or not.

There’s the good foot pedal.

The only thing I found “wrong” was this small paint ding.  See it along the bottom about three inches in from the right?

I bought her to sell and happily, she’s already sold.  I went through my list of people who had previously contacted me and were interested in purchasing a machine.  I contacted the next person on my list.  She snapped the machine up right away.  It turns out she’s from Lyle, Minnesota which isn’t too far from me.  I’m meeting her in a couple weeks in Decorah when she’s there visiting.  PERFECT!!

If anyone else is seriously interested in purchasing a machine feel free to email me.  I’m keeping a list of sorts in case I find any other machines…Featherweight or otherwise.  Email me with your name, address and the machine you’re looking for.  Some people are really particular and want only a machine in excellent shape with an excellent case.  Some want a Featherweight from the year they were born.  Others are happy with a good running machine and will slowly make upgrades to get the machine or case sparkling.   I can look for other machines as well.  I could have had a really nice Singer 66 a few weeks ago but I passed it up.  Feel free to email me at rogjok@iowatelecom.net. Only requests sent to my email address will be considered.  Don’t leave a comment here on the blog.  It’s too confusing to keep track of it all if it’s in too many different places.  Also, there is no guarentee I’ll find another machine.  I’ve found five in the last six months but I think that has been luck!!

So my Saturday was a good one…I had lots of fun catching up with Kelli.  She was full of talk about a baby room and fixing the upstairs up.  To date they haven’t set up the upstairs besides Kelli’s sewing room and their bedroom.  It all sounds like a lot of fun.  She’s going to be a good mommy…that I know for sure.  I don’t think I could have had a better day.