Quilt-Cam 9/30/2013

It’s the LAST DAY OF SEPTEMBER!  How did that happen? 

Since I only spend about half the month at home, it seems my months are always coming in short of what I think they should be…September should be savored and enjoyed, not rushed through, don’t you think?

This is a photo that Patsy sent in – she was watching archived episodes of Quilt-Cam and working on her Lone Star quilt --- don’t you love the colors? So vibrant!  Her comment was: “Watching Quilt-Cam while working on my UFO's today!”

It’s my hope that we can encourage each other to keep working on those long term projects and see progress happening! 

I certainly don’t mind keeping you company!  You can find the archived episodes of Quilt-Cam by clicking the Quilt-Cam tab at the top of the blog….Each post will show you what I’m working on during that episode, and share a bit about another Quilt-friend who is joining in and has something to share.

If you’d like to send a picture of your set up while YOU watch Quilt-Cam, just email me at Quiltville@gmail.com and include your photo.

Tonight I’m going back in time. 

To 1885 to be exact!

It’s a good thing that treadle cabinets have wheels and are easy to move.  There is a machine I have been severely neglecting.  It’s my Singer Improved Family, a fiddle base machine with a coffin top in a smaller table.

I wrote about her in this post HERE.   What a life she must have had!

The reason for my delay?  Though she came with a leather belt, it was very slippy and I hate adjusting leather belts.  I wanted to switch that out for a tubing belt.  So today I did:

The tubing belt is so easy, and it grips the wheel so it runs smoothly.

The other problem?  I had to order in new bobbins.  I only had ONE original bobbin. They look like this:

And they really have no bobbin case….they are held in a trap door under the machine like this:

That little door swings open and the bobbin drops out….and the thread has to be caught in that little eye thingy..

I don’t know if you can tell but I threaded with two different colors of thread, pink on top, blue on the bottom so I could see what thread was doing what when I was adjusting tension.

Yes, I know – this machine needs a DEEP CLEANING…but right now I just want it functional so I know it is worth my effort to get the 128 year old gunk off!

What you see here is disintegrating clear coat and places where floral decals USED to be.  This is why I have to be careful with whatever I use to clean her with.  I think it is safer just to leave her be….I don’t want to cause any further damage.

As for how she stitches??

GREAT!!

She makes a delightful little ticka-ticka-ticka-ticka sound when you treadle her.  And her pedaling is smooth!  She has an old style wooden pitman rod ----the rod is attached to the fly wheel and when the wheel turns, that is what moves the foot pedal.

I’m working on string pieced sashings tonight – these are for my Cheddar Sampler.  I’m covering pieces of paper that are 5.5” X 6.5”.  The pieces are scrap papers that were originally 5.5” X 8” and I trimmed them down.  From these covered papers I can get TWO sashings that measure 2.5” X 6.5”.  This will help use up shorter recycled shirt strings and build my variety since there will only be two identical sashings in the quilt ---twice as fast as doing them one at a time, yet is the best use of the sizes of fabric I have, and ease of construction!

Ready to sew with me?  Click the arrow on the screen below to start the feed!  Let’s go!

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