Cathedral Stars in Albany, GA!

When you gather 28 quilters together for a workshop ---it’s a lot of fun to see what machines come to class. 

Of course I love to spy the familiar black boxes of the featherweights – and I know the green/cream box will hold a white one with a faint green tinge to it ---

As I left the rest room to walk back to the classroom, I spotted the case for an ATLAS against the wall!

It turns out this is a replacement case for a student’s hand crank machine shown to the left!  The case was in fairly good condition, and made a good base for the class 15 singer machine.

we had a few featherweightes, but I can honestly say that I had never seen THIS KIND before ---

Remember back, in July I wrote about the “Black Side” 128 I found in Pennsylvania? Click the link to see the photos :)

I actually had a student with a blackside Featherweight!




This machine was made in 1941, and during this time there was a shortage of nickel and chromium, and the normally shiny chorme parts were replaced with flat matte black parts. 

SingerSewingInfo.Co.UK states: 

‘Blackside’ Machines: 

During the period 1941 to 1953 Singer occasionally produced what are known as ‘Blackside’ models. Unlike the standard machines, many of the normally bright plated parts utilised a chemically blacked finish instead. This is thought to have been in response to shortages of nickel and chromium. 

It is a characteristic of these machines that there seems to have been no hard and fast rule as to which ‘Blackside’ parts were fitted. Generally needle plates, bobbin covers and faceplates etc. would all be Blackside, but various knobs, levers, screws etc could be either bright or black. At the same time Singer also produced a range of accessories, tools etc and even bobbins that were blackside. Generally blackside components had the same Simanco part numbers as their bright plated counterparts.

Along with the “Blackside” face plate – it had a blackside foot:
 

 

The foot is original to the machine!  I have come across black bobbins along my journey as well --- I’ve got a couple featherweight bobbins that are black instead of chrome.  Just a very interesting piece of history!

 

Our class was held at a church with a large social hall.  The lighting was great, and the space was ENORMOUS!  They had moveable walls that we could pin blocks to, and it was fun to see the blocks taking shape hanging on the walls!

		Cathedral Stars, Albany GA 2012 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

If you look close enough, you’ll see the Leader/Ender spools in progress too!

I’m out early this morning on my way back to North Carolina!  It’s about a 388 mile drive ---I’m eager to get home as quickly as possible so that I can wash what’s in the suitcase and repack it for Michigan tomorrow.  To go from 82 degrees in Albany to 17 degrees in Lansing doesn’t sound like a picnic to me!  Time to pull out my Ugg boots!