FOUR LEFT BEHIND

Steven and I took a little trip to Vermont yesterday to visit family.  On the way we stopped at the Re-Store in Burlington.  There were four sewing machines there.  A Singer of some sort.  I did not look past the horizontal spool pin, a White Rotary (just lovely, adorable and in very good shape);  another White zz blue and white gorgeous machine (I have one) and a Singer Touchtronic.  They all stayed behind.

I would have bought the White zz end loader but we did not have room in the car for it and for the table.  It had a lovely table.

Steven was enthusiastically helping me look.  He knew right where to go in the store. He moved the microfiche reader off of the top of the White so I could see it.  He was willing to move stuff around in the car so that we could bring any one of them home.  I made the decision to leave them behind.
I would have loved that cabinet, though....But where would I put it?

Don't Tell Steven

BUSTED!  SEearchingn eBAY for Marrow bones.

I was trying to get something done on the computer today.  Wrigley tried so hard to interrupt.  First he whined.  Then he put his head on my lap.  Then he climbed onto my lap.  He gave up for a bit, then he came back and climbed up behind me and sat down.  I was on the edge of the seat, so there was room, barely.

I thought it was so cute.  Steven would not.  I wanted to get a photo but couldn't find my camera.  I used his.  I did not see Wilson there until I had downloaded the photo.   I deleted these from the card.  He will never know.  Ever.  He never reads the blog.

Poor Wrigs.  He looks rather ratty with his hair cut. We tried.  But with my broken thumb it was a mess.  The poods will get honest to goodness, paid for haircuts on Monday.  Wrigley will just have to accept his status in this household.  He's the Mixed Breed.

Creativity

I am trying to use up some scraps by making little wallets for gifts.  I have three more wallets to make tomorrow. My goal was to make twelve tonight so that I could deliver them tomorrow to my co-workers.  I got too tired.  We all know what that means.  MISKATES !

The nice thing about restricting my choices to my scrap stash is that I have to go through all of it to match up fabrics.  I reminisce over past projects ( mostly quilts).  Some of this I have had since I started quilting 12 years ago.  It also limits my choices to what I have in the scrap pile.  So I get creative.   It is a fun project and I finally sewed today.  FINALLY.  It is hard to sew with only one working thumb.  The splint is cumbersome.  I cannot easily cut fabric but I have learned how to thread the machine one handed.  Still I nurtured that creative spark today.  It felt good.

I also nurtured the tidy spark.  Well, I was trying to discipline my messy self, really.  I cleared off the cutting table.  It had gotten out of hand.  It took me most of the morning.  I had vowed to pick up after myself from now on.  I didn't do so tonight.  I just left things as they were.  Tomorrow after I finish the wallets I will tidy up.  Promise.  I don't want it to get this bad again. 

The Free for free

I was given this machine and I have not had any time for it.

It is a Free Westinghouse straight stitch machine.  It had a drive pulley. The motor powers up but I don't know how the machine  stitches.  I posted it on the local Freecycle group.  I have had lots of interest.  No one has come for it yet.  I do have someone committed to it. 

I won't even look at it any more.  It is boxed up, wrapped in bubble wrap and ready to go.  I need the room and the sanity.

If it doesn't go via Freecycle I will take it to Sal's.

ORGANIZE !!!

Since I can't work on machines and since I can hardly sew (it still hurts to do too much with my left thumb) I have decided this would be a good time to organize my photos.

I have taken many, many, many photos since I started this hobby in September 2010.    They are mostly stored chronologically on the Apple.  It is a slow process, organizing.  I don't have that gene so it is harder for me.  I get distracted easily. 

In the process of organizing I found some photos of machines rather forgotten.  This one, in particular, reminds me of where I was when I first started this insanity.

I bought this machine in Eastern New York State in September 2010.  Steven and his son, along with our neighbor and his son rode their bicycles to Vermont.

Sonja and I were on our way to fetch them a week later. (we didn't want to make them ride home, too.  260 miles is a long way)

It was a really nice day in September and we stopped at some yard sales in Saratoga Springs (We were disappointed.  We thought rich people in Saratoga would have good stuff....not so.  I mean who is going to buy a pair of beat up old, size 12 Dansko clogs that need new soles?)

I had lined up a sewing machine to look at on Craigs List and we had picked it up just south of Saratoga.  When I bought it, it was complete.  This photo is one I took after I had taken much of it apart trying to rescue it.  I know better now.

 Sonja was gracious and kind.  She drove (we had to transport three men and three bicycles back from Vermont.  Her Highlander was bigger than anything Steven and I owned at the time).  We stopped along the route at several yard sales.  We saw no sewing machines.  Finally we had decided that we were just going to head north when we passed a sale.  Sonja turned around. 

I saw the Riccar.  It was 20 bucks.  I was looking it over and trying to figure it out.  "After you bought that last machine,  are you really going to haggle over 20 bucks?"   Honest, I was not going to haggle.  But I certainly had understandable buyer's remorse over that 128.  I was tryig to decide if I should buy it or not. 

Of course, we know the ending.  I bought it  and I am glad that I did.  It is a good strong end loader ZZ machine.  It is sturdy and will sew through pretty thick stuff. Looking at the photo of it now, I wonder if it could be treadled.  I guess, when my thumb is better, I could check that out.  The sucker weighs about 35 pounds, maybe 40. No way can I try lifting it now.  I wonder.......maybe Steven could help?...

Singer 237 Treadle

I do like this machine.  It finally has a belt and I tried it out this morning.  I can barely thread the needle since I have no use of my left thumb and the needle threads left to right.  I really MUST find those needle threaders I have somewhere.

It makes quite a lovely stitch and the treadle action is very smooth.  I am pleased with that since I took this whole stupid thing apart this summer.

I think this could be my new favorite machine

Skipped stitches

Well, I can't produce new stories for the blog while my thumb is splinted.  (I really am surprised at how much it hurts today,  four days post injury).  Instead I will tell the story of the Singer 222.

 We had two machines to service on Saturday.  One was a White Jeans Machine.  The other was the 222.  We started on the Jeans machine.  When we got that pretty clean but had more tension work to do, we gave it a rest and went to the 222.

It was pretty dirty.  The feed dogs were "all stoved up"

And had  a really impressive thread lock