Saying Goodbye To Son and Daughter In Law

Haven't done much quilting lately since it's very hot in Texas. Have also been too busy traveling to California to see my sons and then to see my soldier and his wife leave to Germany with the Army. The only thing I have made is a big cotton crocheted market bag for my daughter in law. I figured it might come in handy while shopping in the smallGerman villages they will have access to. Sure have been missing them. I always had a great time with both of them. My son who always makes me laugh and my daughter in law who is so sweet. I the lunches we had together.

Sewing Machine Addition

My sewing machine collection keeps growing. Yikes! Saw an old Kenmore for sale in my local area and decided I would go see it. It was bought in 1988 but it didn't look like it had been used much at all. It was very clean and had lots of accessories. I couldn't pass it up when the owner told me she was selling it for $40. Had to adjust the tension and stitch length and after greasing it and oiling it was running very smooth. It also makes beautiful buttonholes.

I then saw a Janome New Home 23X for sale online. I've heard Janome machines are good and even though this one was old it had lot's of sewing feet, the needle down/up button, the low/high button, a needle threader and an automatic buttonhole maker. I jumped at the chance and bought it for $100 shipping included. Every time I buy a machine online I hope I'm not going to be screwed and receive a broken or no good machine but I just keep positive and know that most people are good people. The machine arrived very well packed and looking it over I was very surprised at how clean it was. Not a dent or scratch on it. But, when I tried to make a buttonhole on a scrap of fabric, it wouldn't and the reverse button wouldn't work. My reaction was,"NO! I've been screwed!" I wasn't going to complain because that's probably why it wasn't more expansive. Anyway, I calmed down and called a local sewing machine serviceman and they were wanting to charge me between $100 and $200. I told my husband, "There's no way I'm paying that much money to have this machine fixed that's highway robbery so you and I are fixing it." We opened up the machine and hubby started tightening up this and that and we greased and oiled the heck out of it and low and behold we freaking fixed it. I knew that once we fixed the reverse part the buttonhole maker would work too and that's exactly what happened. I told my husband, "If you're able to fix $80,000 + Nasa machines you will fix this little machine." Everything is working perfectly now. The foot paddle isn't even dirty and no scratches on it either. I guess some people buy sewing machines and then realize sewing just isn't for them. As for me, I love to sew!

The electronic part of Janome machine

Top guts of the machine.See how clean it is.

In there is where we had to get to fix the reverse button. Had to put all the different screws in marked baggies.

Fixed

Nice compartment for feet. Not too crazy how to the thread sits though. Have to get used to it.

Finished Restoring Mom's Quilt

Finally, finally, finished restoring my mom's quilt. I can now put it away and wait for winter to use it again. It's a thick warm quilt and will be the only quilt needed. Most of the stitches are uneven in length and by no means tiny. I just went over my mom's quilting and she wasn't going to take the time to make tiny stitches. She wasn't patient enough. Love my mama!

handsewn backing to binding

Flannel Backing

Antique Sewing Stool

Antique swivel piano stools, I love them! And I don't even play the piano. Ha! I had been wanting one for a long time and I thought about buying one through eBay but all the ones I was interested in were too expansive or the shipping was just outrageous. Thursday I was bored and decided to go to thrift stores in my local area just for the heck of it not even thinking about piano stools. The first place I went to didn't have anything worth spending money on. The second place I went to is in my area about a mile away and I actually was hoping I would find a rosary since I collect them but instead to my complete shock, I saw an antique piano stool. I swear my eyes almost popped out of my head. I checked it out and set on it and then asked about the prize. Lucky for me the price was perfect at $50.00 since the ones I had seen so far on eBay were like I said too expansive.The ones in good condition are over $200 and the ones in bad shape are between $60 and $100. I was going to think about it and I was walking out the store  I figured the chances of me finding another one at that price in my area were pretty low so I turned back around and said "The heck with it I'm getting it" and just bought it. I still can't believe my luck. I'm actually going to use it as a quilting stool for when I hand quilt using my floor quilting frame. I always use a rolling chair but it's so cumbersome and big and although the stool doesn't have casters it has a swivel seat so I'm pretty happy with that.

Another Vintage Sewing Machine

My birthday is coming up and when my hubby asked what I would like I told him all I really wanted was to add to my sewing machine collection. I'm sure he didn't understand why but he just said OK.
I had been wanting a sewing machine attached to a table with drawers for a long time and when I would see one online and I would inquire about it they would already be sold. This time I saw one on a FB garage sale and I immediately said I was interested. This past Saturday husband and I drove 45 minutes away to see it at a resale shop and I made sure we got there before they opened. I saw it and fell in love with it. It's a Singer 403A built in 1958 and it's all metal inside and out/ It has a zig zag stitch plus it comes with 10 other different very nice stitches. I never use fancy stitches really.  it doesn't even have a scratch on it and neither does the table. Not a scratch nor water marks from glasses. Oh, yes it even came with a sewing stool. I already reupholstered it and looks great. The machine is sewing beautifully after I oiled it, greased it, and put a new needle in it. This metal machines should last for many many more years as long as I oil them on a regular basis. There was still lot's of old thread spools and a very old heart pin cushion with lot's of needles on it. Kept the needles and thread but threw out the old dirty pin cushion. I got such a good deal.

Still Quilting

I'm still quilting on my mom's quilt but it won't be long before I'm done. Never mind, after that I have to sew the backing around all the binding. Still haven't decided if I'm going to hand or machine sew that part down.

Quilt Books And Patterns

Lately, I've been buying a lot of patterns on line from some really nice women from FB sewing groups. I've also hit some resale shops and have found some new clothing patterns for 50 cents. I even found the Kaffee Fassett Romance quilt book for 75 cents. I thought I was dreaming when I saw it. LOL! Heck I even found some beautiful brand new fabric for at least two blouses along with the thread. I like going on Fridays because the linens including fabric is 50% off. I only buy from a thrift store who donates all their money to a women's shelter.
First and second pictures are some patterns I bought from a sewing group. I don't think these weren't that cheap since I paid $6 a piece but I really liked them especially the large doll block quilt pattern.  I also love me a strip quilt and the 12 block quilt reminds me of Sunbonnet Sue but in a primitive style.
The cottage quilt pattern I bought cause I've never made a house quilt before and my plan is to make several houses in the colors of the houses my husband and  I lived as a children. One of the books I just bought today. It's full of scrap quilt patterns and the older looking book I bought at half price books and that one has lot's of strip pieced patterns. I've got to use up all the scraps I have. Believe me I have tons of scraps! The pattern in the middle is a large angel wall hanging pattern. That pattern was lost for a couple of years and I had already given up on it until I found it cleaning out my fabric cutting table drawer. I've got rulers and scissors and lot's of other quilting stuff in it and the pattern was under all the rulers and cutting matts. I'll have to hand applique that to the front of a quilt top.

Umbrella Girls Quilt Top

I bought this top from a girl I use to work with. We were talking quilts one time and she said she had an old top that her aunt had made a long time ago but that she herself wasn't into quilts so I told her I would buy it. I made her $30 and I think it was worth every penny. I'll be quilting this beauty some time this summer. The blocks are 16 inches and they have embroidered shoes. I love it. I think it's from the 50's.

Restoring My Mother's Quilt

Some thirty years ago my mom made a quilt out from clothes I wore in junior high, high school, and when I was pregnant with my boys. It's not an artistic quilt it's just a very utilitarian quilt made out of squares she cut out of fabric from my old clothes. It also has some squares from some of her clothes. After being used and washed throughout the years it got some holes here and there and the backing became very thin and the batting was exposed. I finally decided to restore it so I cut out some squares from some clothes that my mom use to wear.  I made her new clothes every summer and boy did she look forward to that. After she died I kept some of her clothes with the intention of making a quilt. I am instead restoring this quilt. I didn't remove any squares I just sewed newer squares over the

squares that had holes and I put new thin batting on top of the very thin and torn batting and backing. I am now in the process of going over my moms quilting by hand. My mom didn't make tiny stitches so I'm not either.  It sure is a lot thicker and warmer and hopefully this quilt can last another 20 years.

Original Front

Old Backing

New Backing With Some Basting

Quilting after restoring

Can't do without these two thimbles.

Quilting 2018

Wow, haven't blogged in two years. I got away from it and before long life got in the way of my blogging. I hadn't sewn for about two years because my sewing room turned into storage room and my sewing things including sewing machines were in boxes. I reclaimed my space back in Dec. ni time to make  Christmas gifts. I made some quilts and pj's for my grandsons. Quilts were made with two pieces of fleece so they turned out super warm. They both looked so darn cute with the pj's.

Had to stop quilting to make some almond cookies for my son who is stationed in Korea. Must send them off today!

Kitty Quilt Finished

I finished the kitty quilt for one of the twins. I love ❤ how it turned out. I was going to make the binding from the same sock monkey 🐒 fabric I used for the backing but Joannes was out of that fabric. Big bummer! I did manage to fine some frog 🐸 fabric with the same colors as the sock monkey 🐒 backing though. I wasn't too sure if frogs fabric would look good but its not bad at all. It actually looks really cute. This is the first time I machine sew the binding. Saved myself  about a day. Woohoo!

Meandering Kitty Quilt

There's no time to hand quilt so I decided to just machine quilt meander style. I've decided to use flannel for the binding as well. I'll finish the quilting tomorrow and hopefully the binding won't take to long. Then I'll start on the other one for the other grandson. His will be a puppy theme quilt. 

Quilts For The Grands

About to machine quilt this kitty quilt for one of my grandsons. He loves his family cat.

Good Reasons To Quilt

I haven't done much quilting due to my son and his wife having twins 16 months ago. It was all about the twins after they were born so all my hobbies pretty much went out the window. We were all living in the same town so I was spending a lot of time with my grandbabies. Due to my son's job they moved to California 5 months ago so I am slowly getting back to my quilting, painting,drawing and crocheting.  My son and his family will be visiting us the end of Dec. so I'm going to try and make them each a crib size quilt. I'm aiming for bug theme quilts. I would appreciate any suggestions.

 

Sunbonnet UFO

Finally, making more Sunbonnet Sue blocks. Been working on this UFO for about 4 years now and I will not start another new project until this one is finished . The lighting was very bad which makes the white block look like it has yellow edges.

Quilting Again

I managed to make a quillow for my DIL. I had been saving that cat fabric for something special and it's what I used since she loves cats. I just machine quilted around each cat. My arm was hurting quite a bit the next day ,but I have to use it to make it strong again. She's so happy to have a quillow.

New York Wedding, Dislocated Elbow and Crocheting

Wow, this post is way overdue!  The reason I stopped posting was due to the preparation of my son's wedding which took place in June of this past year. Anyway, my family and I drove to New York and I enjoyed every minute of that trip. I prefer driving rather than flying because I get to see different parts of this beautiful country of ours.  Here is the lovely couple. I have three sons so you can imagine how happy I am to finally have a daughter. We get along great and luckily for me they are moving to Texas and will be living 20 minutes away from us.

In July my husband and I were leaving the mall and when we were just feet away from our car I fell and landed on my side. All I know is that I look at my forearm and it looks deformed and the pain is a pain I have never experienced before. Hubby drives me to the hospital where it takes about two hours for me to get checked by a doctor and that finally happened because I yelled out to the nursed that I could feel my bones moving in my forearm. Well, x-rays showed nothing was broken and the nurse said it was just a bad sprain.  I went to an orthopedic Dr. three days later and my arm was so swollen and bruised he didn't even touch it but again he checked the hospital x-rays and says nothing was broken. He tells me to see him again  two weeks later. He sees it again in two weeks and he sends me to get an xray right away. Well, it turned out my elbow had been dislocated the whole time. You just can't imagine all the pain I went through. I was put under anesthesia when he relocated the elbow . I came out of the hospital with my arm totally wrapped up and in a sling. Wore it like that for three weeks then that came off and I wore a hard cast for two weeks. After that I wore a mechanical sling that was very expansive for three more weeks. After that I was sent to therapy and after three months doctor said I was o.k and that I just had to use my arm in order of it to get strong. Dr. told me my arm would never be the same as before and that it might not ever be able to straighten completely like the other arm. In November I was feeling desperate to use my hands again doing some kind of craft. I couldn't try quilting because it was still very painful to turn my palm up. I decided to try crocheting thinking it would be good hand exercise. I learned how and managed to make a bunch of baby hats and booties. Just what I needed another hobby. I have to say crocheting is excellent hand and . I decided finger exercise. I'm just so grateful and thank God this didn't happen right before the wedding.

This is a DynaSling and it's set to a certain degree and that's how much it stretches the muscles and ligaments and let me tell you it hurts.
I decided to try crocheting thinking it would be good hand exercise. I learned how and managed to make a bunch of baby hats and booties. Just what I needed another hobby. I have to say crocheting is excellent hand and . I decided finger exercise. I'm just so grateful and thank God this didn't happen right before the wedding.Some of my crocheting.