In The Land of Eatonia ---

Once upon a time in a land not so far, far away --((In Canada!))

There was a department store named Eatons.

Eaton's grew to become a retail and social institution in Canada, with stores across the country, buying offices across the globe, and a catalogue that was found in the homes of most Canadians.

Eaton’s purchased sewing machines manufactured by the National Sewing Machine Company, and had them badged with their own brand, Eatonia!

Where is this leading?

Well, Yesterday --- did you really think I could just go in that mall and pick up the quilt and walk out with it THAT FAST?!  If so, you should know me better by now!

Let’s just say it was you ---and you found yourself wandering.  And you spied this box:

Heavy Green hand crafted ((probably)) box.

And this tag was on it:

Would YOU lift the lid?

OF COURSE!

Oh! Goodness!

At the time, I’d never HEARD of this brand (And it was hard to read with that danged light in front of the name  ----but for $30, I was going to take a chance on it.

Before you buy any machine ---check a couple of things especially if it is a machine brand you are not sure that parts will be available for.  Are the slide plates there? Yes.  Is the shuttle inside?  Yes!

Upon getting my treasure home I removed the machine from the box to give it a closer look ---

Pulley driven friction motor.  Jerry-rigged with a spring and a green wire.  Not so attractive!

I also noticed that the pulley tire was FLAT on one side…probably because it had been sitting against the balance wheel for all of eternity since this thing had been sewn on last.  My first desire was to turn this cutie pie onto a hand crank machine.  I thought I could simply purchase a hand crank mechanism and away I’d go.  But not so easy.  The reproduction handcranks fit singers ---of which this is NOT ONE.  It’s a National, so the mounting places and screw holes are all in the wrong place.

Still, DH and I worked to remove the old motor ---the wiring was suspect anyway, and a plan emerged.  Of course, it meant that one of my other machines would become a temporary organ ((motor)) donor….

Here she is!

A close look at her bobbin tension --- the top thread doesn’t really show on the fabric I was using…..pretty good!

Spartan motor mounted from behind.  My broken fuscia featherweight was a donor for the screw that mounted the motor to the side of the machine.  She keeps on giving too!

This was before cleaning last night…there is some gunk yet to be gone here – but this is the serial number. 3199907  I’m hoping to find more about her age today.  My guess is somewhere in the 1930s ---and that is guessing by the wiring to the old motor.  But we will see!

She sounds like a tank when she runs.  The base is hollow, so it echoes something fierce beneath her. I might see if I can do some simple strip piecing on her tonight for Quilt-Cam ---are you up for it? 9pm Eastern!