Hello World!

I am still alive! I have been substitute teaching quite a lot though and haven’t done much of any sewing. Here are a few pics of my daughter’s new room that we redecorated for her after her brother left home:

The fabrics are from IKEA as well as most of the furniture. We bought the bulletin board at a garage sale and recovered it. She also has a book shelf for her books and we are thinking of decoupaging old maps all over it.

I have done some knitting, a few pair of mittens and several sets of baby booties and a pair of socks for myself. I forgot to take picutes of the knitting bags I made for my nieces before I sent them off!

I am back to cleaning out the sewing room in between working and preparing for daughter #2’s graduation in a little over a week. 

If you need any vintage Singer Sewing Machine manuals, check out my for sale page. If you don’t see what you need, ask. I have a lot more manuals than I have listed right now. I would love to find good homes for all of them!

New Stuff on Quilting Sewing Stuff For Sale Page

I mentioned in my last post cleaning out and selling on the Quilters Flea Market Yahoo Group and E-Bay.

I have also just added items to my Quilting/Sewing Stuff for sale page here on my blog. There is a link at the top of this page. Lots of vintage fabrics, blocks etc and more to come so check back! If there is something you are interested in, please e-mail me to see if i is still available. More to come, today is a big cleanout organize day!

Older than dirt Singer buttonhole attachment!

So I am still slowly but surely cleaning stuff out and came across this little gem. I have seen, and in fact own, MANY Singer buttonholers but this is the oldest by far. It says on it that it is for a Singer VS2 machine. 

Anyone ever see one like this? Any chance there are directions out there somewhere? I love gadgets .

BTW, I have found that the Quilters Flea Market Group on Yahoo is a great place to buy or sell quilting related items. I have listed some stuf there with great success and you don’t get charged the e-Bay fees.

Having said that, there are still some items I am still listing on e-Bay just because I am . Mostly vintage Singer related stuff. My goal is to reduce the clutter in my sewing room by at least half by spring. Ambitious I know.

In order to do that, I am trying to take at least one day per week to take pictures and list items either on the Quilters Flea Market site or e-Bay or both. Tonight my goal is to list 5 new auctions. I guess I better get to work!

If anyone knows anything about this attachment, I would appreciate hearing about it.

Corn and Beans

That is the title of this piece. My daughter said I should quilt the yellow parts so they look like corn. Then the title of the old quilt pattern, Corn and Beans came into my head and I haven’t been able to get it out! Turns out this is just what I needed for the Metamorphosis challenge on my Yahoo group, Fiberarts Connection. The idea is to take a traditional quilt block, pattern etc. and take inpisration from it for something totally new. I decided I would quilt this in such a way to represent my interpretation of Corn and Beans.

I still need to finish the edges. There is  one thing I am not happy about with this piece, I have some shadowing of the seam allowances in the upper left corner in the yellow.  You can see what I mean here:

It actually looks worse here than in person. The flash from the camera really emphasizes it. I quilted this section last and never noticed this until I had this area under the light of the machine. In person, it is very faint. So I will likely leave it as is. I learned a big lesson here though about watching those seam allowances!

This is the first time I quilted in “pebbles” or circles. I didnt think it was that much fun to do but I do like the effect. I like heavily quilted pieces and I need to come up with new ways to accomplish that. This is another option for me.

I think I will leave it hanging on the design wall for a few days to see if there is anything I can think of to fix the shadowing before I face it.

Our new furnace is getting installed tomorrow. That means I have to heat up the house real hot before they come as I won’t have any heat until they are finished.I have a small space heater for my sewing room so I think I will use it as an excuse to hang out there all day .  Maybe I will get some more auctions started on e-Bay. I have a bunch ending tomorrow night and I like to have them overlap by a bit. Here is a link in case anyone is interested in some vintage sewing machine stuff:

http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/sweigak

Hope your area of the country is warmer than mine! Stay safe out there.

My Links are gone….

and I don’t know where to find them! In the mean time, here is a link to my e-Bay auctions as some have wondered:

http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/sweigak

Now back to WordPress forum to try to find some answers on widgets.  Hmmmm…..

Which Machines to keep and which to release?

I am downsizing….sounds like something retired people do but I am no where near retirement! I do find it necessary to simplify my life and that includes getting rid of some things. Confession time: I do not even know how many sewing machines I own. I have a collection of old Singers including several Featherweights that I love. I have a couple Berninas, a Singer embroidery machine, several old Singer 128s, 201s, 15s, 301s, 99s, an 1870 something Singer New Family, a Singer 115 with the coolest gold angel wing decals, an assortment of toy sewing machines and a bazillion attachments and gadgets with the Singer name on them. 

I didn’t grow up wanting to collect sewing machines, it just sort of happened. An outgrowth of quilting it seems. I have always loved old things and have a mechanical bent. When I bought my first 1955 Singer Model 99 at an estate sale, I lugged it home  with a grin that would make you think I had won the lottery! She was beautiful and it was love at first sight. I cleaned, oiled, polished and read the manual cover to cover. She sewed like a charm, Much better than the Singer I bought at Sams Club in the early 90s. That was what started this obsession with old machines. It becomes an addiction! A happy one, a fun one, and at least it kept me out of…..well, you know. The concept that they were made to last and did last for 50-100 years and more with only the most basic attention is incredible.

I still love them. The machine I use most of all is a 1950 something Singer 201. It was the Cadillac of the Singer line back then. I paid all of $25 for it. She has some scars but will sew through anything and is never fussy about the threads I use…..my Bernina 155, not so much. I like Berninas, I have owned three but there is nothing like the  old metal gear driven Singers.

But seriously, how many do I really need? A collection takes time to maintain and it is fun to do so  but I want the space and time to make art. So I am back to what to keep and what to sell? Tough question.

To bring this back to quilting, here is a miniature quilt made from vintage fabrics and made on a vintage machine:

This one was made with vintage fabrics from the 30s-40s. It is machine pieced and quilted. Back to cleaning and sorting and selling. Hello e-Bay…….Until next time.

Cleaning out!

I have too much stuff and need more room to actually sew! So it is time to clean out the sewing room.  To that end, I am selling some of my vintage sewing collectibles  and Singer sewing machine items on e-Bay. If anyone is interested, you can find my auctions here:

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZsweigak

I also have a Centennial Singer Featherweight  and card table for sale for pick up in Saginaw, MI. Let me know if you are interested. You can reach me at: KatyQuilts@aol.com

I also need to clear out some of the many quilts I have made so I will set up a sale page here for some of my work in the next day or so.

Here is one just to get things started:

This is bleach discharged using a stencil that I drafted. The border fabric is a Polynesian print purchased in Hawaii. This piece measures 23″ x 23″.  I can attach a sleeve for hanging if desired.  Price is $150 and includes shipping within the US.

Have a great night!