iPhone-o-gram! Hello, Fairborn!

I arrived about 1/2 hour ago. Good thing, too--it took me 9 hours to get here, including stops for gas, or to stretch my legs, grab a drink or a bite to eat---

My contact, Merle is on her way to pick me up and take me for a bite of dinner.

In the mean time, I'm unpacking and setting up---here's a tip for you if you want a room with a bit more floor space: Request a room with one bed in the room.

I got a room on the ground floor for ease of hauling in stuff---and one bed with extra floor space to set up a folding table for my featherweight.

The flat screen tv isn't always visible from a desk in a hotel room and often the desk sits too high to be comfortable. I brought my adjustable leg folding table this time because my sew ezi table doesn't have an insert for the featherweight.

It actually gives me more table space too!

We will see if I feel like sewing after I get my belly full---but it will be ready when the itch to stitch strikes!!

iPhone-o-Gram! 100 miles to go!

I'm about 80 miles from Columbus by the last sign I passed.

I've taken highways, byways and some winding hairpin gorgeous over-the-mountain type scenic drives through West Virginia.

Probably not the fastest route, but the beauty is priceless!

So is the stop I just made at Sonic for a vanilla cone and a route 44 diet cherry limeade! Last check on the car thermometer said it was 91 degrees out there!

Next stop? Fairborn, OH!

Sister Apples, circa 1863!

First off, remember THIS POST about the antique signature album quilt with the apple border I was privileged to handle ((WITH WHITE GLOVES ON!)) when I was up in New Paltz, New York at Historic Huguenot Street?

I opened up my email inbox yesterday to find a post from Susan, the director of education at Huguenot Street to tell me a related Album Quilt with the same appliqued apple border has been found!

And I admit it – I skim-read right past most of her description to get to the next email that contained the PHOTOS!!

They DO look like the same apples ((How, ‘bout THEM apples, baby?! *wink wink*!!**)) and I went back to the email to read what she wrote:

Hi Bonnie

It is wonderful to follow you through your blog - Phew!- I get tired just reading about your escapades!!!!

After you left we started to look through our quilt collection again and discovered something amazing. Do you remember the Apple Quilt? Well there was another one, almost identical to it, but solid reds were used for the friendship blocks instead of patterned reds. (See photo)

It was donated to us about 50 years ago, much earlier than the one you saw = the man who donated this one was related to the woman who donated the one you saw (an uncle)- We checked the names written on the quilt and the majority are the same on both. I deduced that both quilts were made in the stone building that is now our town library.

There were five daughters in the family, and I am not sure which girls made the quilts. The family sold their business (a general store) and moved to NYC in 1866, so the girls may have made the quilts to remember their friends in New Paltz. One daughter got married in 1863, so she may have made one or her sisters could have made it for her. So, that may change the date on the quilt to 1863-1866.

I love to do the genealogy on the quilts. I am working with 60 fourth graders on Monday and am using the Apple Quilt to teach about material culture and how we can use quilts to learn about the past.

Oh - We have some women coming up this month for a special tour just to see the quilts. They heard about our collection from your BLOG!!! (thank you again)-

(I am going to post a very big article on Julia's blog about new fashion this week - hope you like it)

Sincerely

Susan

Oh gosh, isn’t that exciting?! I’ll have to flip back and forth between the posts to check closer – but the same people signed both? What a coincidence is that?

This one is all solid red – was that the maker’s preference? And I can’t tell if the embroidery details are the same or not ---

But just like the other quilts – THIS ONE ALSO used a different green to turn the corners! Did she run out of the original green?

And—look closely now – do you notice something else?

This stem and corner are NOT BIAS – they are straight grain…..I can’t tell if it’s just this section of stem/corner – but that is definitely straight grain fabric cut to shape, rather than a piece of bias turning a corner ---

Don’t you just love the things that old quilts can teach us, even without words?

The hard part is – they leave us with more questions that have no way of being answered!

Have you been following along with Julia’s Blog? Susan is actually transcribing Julia Hasbrouck’s diaries from the early 1800s. Painstaking work. There are actual shots of the journal pages on the blog with each entry by date. I find it fascinating! You can check out Julia’s words HERE – unfolding her life, page by page. Can’t wait to see those fashions!

And with that – I’m off to Ohio! I don’t know if any antique malls will be open up through West Virginia or Ohio on a Sunday. That might make my trip shorter, and my bank account a bit happier – but I’ll still be on the look-out!

Have a great day everyone!

Dinner with Michelle!

A reader’s question posted as Anonymous reminded me that I didn’t post anything about our dinner with Michelle and her parents!

It had been a few months since I had seen her – time passes quickly for me, but BOY has she grown!

Look at this adorable face!

She’s got the world on a string ---and she’s wrapped herself around everyone’s fingers.

Not only that --- she doesn’t just walk – this girl RUNS!

We could hardly get her to stand still enough to take a photo…I had to catch her mid-motion-blur!

Hold Still, Michelle, smile at me, let me take your picture!

Zoom zoom, NO WAY!!

Not only is Michelle quite the character, but she is Mama’s side-kick, always busy and into everything as most one year olds are.

She loves to dance with her “Ba-Ba” ((Daddy)) too!

((Ya’ll, are you catching that batik skirt fashion statement? She’s got it rockin!))

She wasn’t all too fired up about me holding her – she wanted DOWN and to go play --- NOW!

But the funniest of all --- this is what happens any time DH picks her up:

SHE HOWLS! LOL!!!!

I don’t blame you, Michelle, he scares me sometimes too…LOL!

And for the commenter who asked….I’m happy to say that when Michael and Harriet moved to a new rental house a few months ago – Michelle got her own room, and has slept through the night since! A change of venue, a new routine, a room to herself – and she is out for the count, which makes for some very happy parents. I hope their move to Texas goes smoothly and they settle right in again into their new digs.

We will definitely miss you, our friends, the Gutoh Family!

Help Me Pack!!

This is my route up through NC, into VA, across parts of WV and into Ohio where I’ll be in Fairborn, near Dayton! From there I go up to the tippy top corner of Ohio over to Ashtabula, and then finally into North East ((Yes, there is a town called North East!)) Pennsylvania.

It’s gonna put LOADS of miles on Shamu! But I’m ready…

I’m packing up the car, but I’m still undecided on a couple of things.

I’ve got room for 4 or 5 of the quilts as a preview of String Fling for my trunk shows. I can’t narrow them down. I love them all!

Would you mind helping me out?

Click THIS post, check them over..and come back here and leave me a comment on what you’d like to see up close and personal if you could, okay?

For instance, I am really torn between bringing Orca Bay, or Jamestown Landing?! I want a good variety --- but I can’t take it ALL.

In the mean time – laundry is going, and the suitcase is getting packed and projects are finding their way into the tote bags for evening sewing my hotel…..

Here we go, on the road again!

Bonnie

A Bit of Desk Distraction!

I made it to Lynn’s and picked up my featherweight case! It’s in great shape--- missing the inner tray, but both latches work, and that’s all I care about.

I have three featherweights – the white one was bought in an antique mall in Twin Falls, Idaho and came in a plastic file box! The black one came without a case at all ---it was also another antique mall find, back mid 1990s before the prices on featherweights skyrocketed ---I still paid a pretty penny for it compared to what I’ve paid for other machines, but I love her. And of course, the magenta one that travels with me the most often --- it DID come with a case.

Lynn had a wonderful collection of vintage machines, but was uncomfortable letting me just come in and photograph them, so you’ll just have to know that I drooled--- a lot!!! Very sweet lady and we have SEW MUCH in common! I did resist purchasing anything else…I’m feeling rather saturated, and mostly I just want to SEW on the ones I’ve got!

So since I can’t share Lynn’s collection with you, how about a Down-Under alternative?

Margo sent me this email:

Hi Bonnie
I love all your machines. In Australia we have a sewing machine museum.
Here is the link
http://www.maryboroughflourmillgallery.com.au/
It is about 3 hours away from me and they are also on Facebook. It's a long weekend this week so I hope to get there. I thought you might like to share the site on your blog.
Margo Hendy
Who wishes she was coming to Bali

Thanks for the heads up, Margo! I wish you were coming to Bali too! OH! That’s less than 2 months away! I am getting SO excited over this trip I can hardly stand it!

And that said – I hope to make it to Australia some day, because I’d LOVE to come explore the sewing machine museum!

I hope you enjoy the link everyone, I could spend a lot of time in there, but I’m printing everything out for my trip tomorrow – time is a wasting, and it’s not being spent on fun stuff like sewing!

It’s a Jubilee Morning!

My last day at home, and I’ve been up EARLY and on the go.

I went to an estate sale already this morning – it started at 7, and I was there at 7, but by the time I got there, everything I was interested in was gone – so I left and came back home for breakfast ---feeling happy about the weight of my wallet still in my pocket. Money saved there, means money to spend later, right??

I’m headed over to meet the lady with the featherweight case this morning – I just might NEED my wallet when I see what else she’s got!

So in between the estate sale that was a bust, and time to leave for Lynn’s house --- I’ve been working on my jubilee blocks! Randy released 2 more on Wednesday, are you keeping up? Check out her post HERE.

The first thing I want to say is how HAPPY I am with the scotch removable mounting strips as seam guides. Mary was spot on with these. I took two strips, stuck them together, and then sliced down the length of both of them, so it gives me two guides, double thick. It’s easy to remove, easy to re-stick. The package even tells you that if it gets linty and loses its stick to wash it and let it dry and it will become tacky again.

Yes, you have to leave the top layer of film on, or it is sticky too, because it's sticky both sides, but that doesn't bother me. It beats that purple strip stuff that is only sticky on ONE side, and doesn't stay sticky for very long at all and then is worthless.

I still like my screw on seam guide for many things, but when doing diagonal corners like this – using the mounting strip guide means I don’t have to un-screw and swing that guide out of the way to do diagonal corners. Just let the extra bit ride on top of the strip. I’m liking this!

Lots of diagonal corners! These units finish at 2” each, so needless to say, the bonus triangles from underneath these snowball corners are TOO SMALL to save! ;c)

The next block used 2” finished pinwheels! TINY!! But oh, so fun!

This red print was from one of MY favorite shirts – I’m down to just the end of it now – I’ll miss this fabric when its gone!

The blocks are Exquisite, and Flutter Wheel. And look, 5 bonus bow-ties made during the making of these blocks. They really DO add up! I love the silly one with the ant fabric – that scrap was just big enough for ONE bow-tie!

The design wall has been refilled! And blocks are not in the same place they were, but at least are now PINNED to the wall! It’s coming along! I like it!

I hope you enjoy your Saturday however you spend it! There will be more running around going on over here getting ready to leave tomorrow ----Wish I could spend it all sewing, but this is probably the last time my butt will hit a sewing machine chair until I get to Ohio tomorrow evening--

Evening Edition, Free Kindle Book!

I love plays on words, so when I came across this one, it sounded funny enough for me to want to delve into it. I am in a mood for FUNNY and light hearted right now….

I’ll get this out here quick because my to-do list is long and time is getting short for me to do it all – I’ve squeezed every spare minute out of this 2 weeks home….and tomorrow is LOAD THE CAR day – because I’m headed to Ohio on Sunday!

So here we go:

Silenced by the Yams by Karen Cantwell is free in the Amazon Kindle Store.

((Play on Silence of the Lambs, get it? HA!))

Genre: Mystery/Humor

Book Description:

What’s more chaotic than a house with a canary, two hungry cats, and a yappy poodle with elimination issues? Answer: Barbara Marr on a murder investigation. That’s right, when Barb attends her first movie review screening, film director Kurt Baugh dies within twenty minutes of meeting her.

If that isn’t bad enough, her friend, ex-Mafioso, Frankie Romano, is arrested for the murder. In usual Barbara Marr fashion, a whole load of trouble ensues when she seeks to vindicate Frankie of the crime. More laughs, more fun, more Barbara Marr!

This third book in the popular Barbara Marr Murder Mystery Series brings Barb out of the suburbs and into the slimy, urban world of bright lights, nightly news, and drive-by shootings. Luckily, she never loses her sense of humor or her ability to befriend some decidedly quirky characters.

It sounds very fun. Much more fun than packing up a trunk show and getting Shamu loaded! I’ve also dowloaded a bunch of mp3 books from my library to my mp3 player, so that will be ready for car listening.

I don’t know how long it will be free, so please double check before clicking that it still is for you.

And OH! Look what came today?!?

The quilts from String Fling are home! I’ll be taking a few of these on the road with me this week ---I just wish I had the books to go with them, but I hope to whet some appetites!

I spent a good part of today working on a top from those leader/ender 4 patches --- Still haven’t made near big enough of a dent in that huge bag of them….but I’m making a go of it!

Can you tell that Sadie was wishing I’d stop sewing and pay HER some attention?

Awww, poor neglected girl!

Have a super evening everyone – it’s officially THE WEEKEND!! Whoowhooo!

They’re At It Again!

I got so busy with other things I forgot to mention what I found when I went IN to the Chiropractor’s office yesterday --

See, they are closed from noon til 2pm – and if I am there early, which I often am, I enjoy sitting on the bench on the wrap around porch while I wait for them to come back from lunch.

The office is in a converted house from the early 1900s ---that’s where the pictures of the cone flowers and other garden beds came from in yesterday’s post.

So I had hit SEND on that post from the comfy relaxing bench on the porch – and then they opened the front door to start letting clients in.

I go to the desk to sign in and what do I see?

YAY!! It’s another “GUESS THE NUMBER OF :::Fill in the blank::” for Father’s Day!

((No donuts this time – good thing, I don’t need them!))

This time it’s GUESS THE NUMBER OF NAILS.

Hmmmm..that jar doesn’t look like it could hold THAT many, does it? But nails can be tricky because they are long and narrow. Anyone want to venture a guess? I guessed something like 472 but we’ll have to wait until the contest is over to find out. I think I over guessed.

And no, the winner doesn’t just win a jar full of NAILS…

It’s a BBQ extravaganza!

Okay, so I really liked my winnings from Easter with the garden tote full of goodies AND the super humongo jar of jelly beans --- but this is some cool stuff too.

Let the guessing begin!

Welcoming Ken Home!

Okay, I’m almost ALMOST embarrassed to admit this!

But I bet you were guessing it anyway ---

I can’t help myself!

It’s almost as bad as the other night when we were driving home from Michael & Harriet’s house after dinner ---There was a kitten in the middle of the intersection!

I only saw it because of the headlights of a passing car.

I made DH pull over and I went out to get it…it came right to me, just mewing up a storm.

It was well fed. It smelled “clean”. It had a full belly. I thought it might live somewhere close ---- I don’t think it had been dumped.

But DH said “No WAY!” and all we could do was drive to the next house away from the intersection in the direction we think it came from and let it out on the side of the road. And it tore my heart out! But he was right, it was late at night, and I could not bring it home.

And for Lynda who commented so harshly -- here is my reply:

I could NOT bring it home late at night -- I have two other cats and a dog and family to think of who were against it. I did all I could in that situation and it broke my heart to have to do it. I am an animal lover also, but I have a FULL HOUSE.

So, this story goes like this:

Sherry and I walk into the Antique Mall and greet the old guy at the counter. He asks if we are looking for anything in particular that he could help us with. I tell him “Why yes, we are looking for old sewing machines!” And he scratches his head, thinks a bit and says “I honestly don’t think we have any ---“ and I feel like I have dodged a possible bullet, and we go on our merry way to inspect the quilts we saw hanging over the bannisters.

I had no more than walked about 12 feet --- and there on top of a dresser ---was KEN!

My biggest concern was if he would run or not – things were pretty tight in his movements ---but we carried him to the counter and asked if we could plug him in.

He ran. Barely – grindingly ---and BOY was he dirty!

But he came home --- for a whopping $40.00.

I paid $30.00 for my pedicure – plus the price of lunch ---when you think of things in terms of what other things cost, it doesn’t seem so bad does it?

Ken had been stored a long time --- you can see it on his foot – little rust flecks – and his undercarriage was COVERED in grime and spiderwebs. I set about to cleaning him up. Upon opening his feed dog cover – OY!! What a MESS! Out came the Q-tips and machine oil! I worked and worked and worked on him, inside and out….

He’s a 1950s singer clone basically, sold under the name KENMORE. What I love is the RED in his decals!

Pretty flashy, eh? And you can see he really cleaned up nice!

The one thing I needed for him though, was a base…..and I found myself cannibalizing the base for one of my Singer handcranks…in fact, this has me wondering if Barbie would fit in here too? The hand crank was in a bent wood case, but the base is a standard full size.

Oh Ken, you are looking smashing!

And you guys can laugh all you want at my pink Ikea light --- but a girl has got to have a bit of pink in her life, and this way I know no one else in this household will be caught dead stealing a pink lamp from me!

I put my Sew Adjustable table around two sides giving me the perfect L workspace. If I’m sewing with a regular machine, like my Bernina, I can put the back section on, but find it easiest just to have the two sections when working with vintage machines.

Ken and I got very busy yesterday, digging into that pile of leader/ender 4 patches! I can’t show you what it’s going to be – it’s for the next book in the pipeline, but never fear ---you WILL love this one! And of course, I’m sewing leader/ender cheddar bowties at the end of my rows –Win/Win!

I also just met the NICEST lady via her ad on Craigslist. I’ve been looking for 2 featherweight cases. I have 3 featherweights, only one has a case. She had an ad for one for $35.00 Turns out she is a machine hoarder lover too, and is down-sizing! OH NO!! This could be VERY BAD!! But we had a very enjoyable chat on the phone this morning talking about this machine, that machine, and we will be meeting up tomorrow for me to pick up the featherweight case. Isn’t it fun when other quilters/sewists cross our paths and we find we have much in common?

And that’s it for my confession. It’s a load off my chest!

But this machine insanity just has to STOP at some point, doesn’t it? :cD

A Pain in the Necchi ((Neck!))

I’ve been searching high and low for a walking foot that will fit my Necchi Supernova Ultra, Sophia. So far, no avail.

I hate having to return parts that I’ve ordered online – they usually have such things as “re-stocking” fees, even though the website states it WILL fit your model of machine. SIGH --- not so!!

This is the foot I was so looking for…..

It was specifically recommended on THIS PAGE that “The professional high shank walking foot will fit the needle stroke of the Supernova without modification. “

It doesn’t.

I emailed the company, and they said that it fit on “their” Supernova, so I went over to check their video and see that their set up looked like.

It definitely fits THEIR Supernova, so why doesn’t it fit MINE?!

Let’s take a look:

My nekkid needle bar minus any foot.

My push-button needle release sits at front…my thread threads from left to right…that post on the right hand side of the needle clamp? TOO WIDE! It won’t let the fork fit over it. And that extra oil? That came from tipping the machine back to get it out of its case to put it into my Janome table – more on that below!

Here I am struggling to get the foot on, and getting the fork over the screw thingy… ((which doesn’t have a screw, because the needle release is push-button in front.

It DOES fit if the fork is in the down position…so it’s not the height of the shank…that part is a good fit.

It just ain’t gonna go over that bar, folks!

I’m writing this post mostly for the benefit of the yahoo necchi group ---I wanted to be able to direct them to this post to see what I was dealing with – pictures are worth a thousand words, right? I hope someone has an answer for me on what to do.

I am afraid to bend the fork….I need to be able to return it in its "original condition" if need be. What I want to know is if there is a different needle clamp assembly that has a regular needle screw. That might solve the problem.

Oh, and for those on the Necchi group who wondered about a low shank walking foot with a low-to-high shank adapter added -- that doesn't work either. Putting the adapter on a low shank walking foot meant that the fork was in NO WAY going to reach over that needle bar that high up either. Rats.

And another thing ---I’ve wanted a table for this machine, but Necchis are a lot longer-bodied than any standard Singer size…so it wouldn’t fit my Singer cabinets. I turned around and looked at my empty Janome table just sitting there and wondered --- what if…..

Aha!!!!

I had to put a 3/4” thick board across the brackets on the underside of the table to lift the machine flush with the table top. And that gap to the right? Not a problem!

A basket covers the hole and becomes a great place for keeping – well---more STUFF!!

I find a machine that threads from the side NEEDS a good old-fashioned needle threader for me to be able to thread the dang things….bending around the side of a machine like a pretzel to thread a needle just isn’t working for me. I could KISS the engineer who finally got machines to thread from the FRONT!

I also pulled out my old not-very-often-used Sidewinder --- I can’t get the bobbins to fit the bobbin winder on this machine, nor can figure out the right way to wind them, even WITH studying the manual. I need to keep it simple. Often!

And that’s the story of Sophia, the Walking Foot Cunundrum, and how she came to live in my Janome 6500 table!

I’ll deal with where to put the Janome when I get her home, but she is just going to have to learn to SHARE!