Featherweight Case

My featherweight case was in pretty good condition for 66 years old.  There were a few scuffs and places where the fabric was tearing.  I saw a video on The Singer Featherweight Shop  about restoring cases, so I decided to try it.   Before:

After:

The case really shines now! It turned out so well, I'm trying to convince my friend to let me do hers, which is in much worse shape.

https://singer-featherweight.com/blogs/schoolhouse/how-to-refurbish-a-singer-featherweight-case

https://singer-featherweight.com/blogs/schoolhouse/how-to-get-rid-of-the-moldy-mildew-smell-in-a-featherweight-case



In other news, our rain of the last several weeks has produced flowers on my hydrangeas.  This may not seem like a big deal to most gardeners, but I do not water often, so I get very few flowers on mine.   This oak leaf hydrangea has been in the ground 2 years and never bloomed.  I haven't had one before, and I didn't even know the white flowers turn a pale pink

The  hydrangea below has been moved around my yard 3 times in the past 13 years, trying to find a spot it liked.  It didn't bloom for the first 8 years!  In the past 3 years, it has produced only 1 or 2 small flowers a season.  This plant is a drama queen, dramatically wilting every summer afternoon, then coming back to life when the day cools off.  

I have been thinking about drying some of these flowers, but they are so pretty on the bush, I don't want to cut them.

Stash Report:
Used this week: 2.5 yards (rabbit moon charity quilt)
Used year to date: 92.125 yards 
Added this week: 10 yards (backing for Claire's quilt, blue, Focus fabric)
Added year to date: 116.125 yards
Net Add: 24.0 yards

PInk Strings For May RSC

I intended to jump back into the Rainbow Scrap Challenge right after the graduation quilts were done.  It has been a half-hearted scrap dive for me.  I got a few yellow string blocks done last month.   This month I did a bit better but only spent one evening scrap diving.  I made some pink string blocks for a piano key border. Here are about 2/3 of the strings I will eventually need.

 I started to lose variety, so I'm going to wait for some more string scraps.  I don't want to cut into my FQs for this project yet.

My Featherweight

I am excited to say that I'm now the owner of a 1952 featherweight!  It belonged to the father-in-law of a good friend. She had had it serviced to undo a 'repair' her father-in-law had made, and now it sews great. She had no interest in it, and it was just sitting in her house, so she gave it to me for the cost of the the repair she had done.  I am thrilled to get this machine! 

My other machines are both Berninas, a 1260 and a 1630.  They are both over 20 years old, and really heavy!  I rarely take classes because I would have to haul them downstairs, down my front steps, out to the car, and into the quilt shop.  I have a rolling case, but that doesn't help with steps or lifting them in and out of the car. I am hoping I will be more motivated to take classes now that I have a compact, lighter machine.

The case could use some restoration.  Of course there is a you tube video that shows how to to that.

The case doesn't have that odor people talk about.  I have some extra feet and a buttonhole attachment I will probably never use. 

I have been watching you tube videos about how and where to oil and grease.  If you have any words of wisdom for me, let me know.  I was able to wind a bobbin the other day with  no problem. The machine itself reminds me of the treadle I learned to sew on. 

Dan's Graduation Quilt Bound!

I have officially completed all 3 high school graduation quilts for my niece and 2 nephews.  I still have the labeling to do, but I should be able to knock that out this weekend.

Here is Dan's quilt:

This is a Twist and Turn Bargello quilt. It may be my favorite quilt of all time!  In person, the orange batik makes the center glow.

The quilting was done by Debbie Cooper.  The design reminds me of a flame.  It adds a lot of texture to the quilt.

The back is a Northcott wide backing.

Linking up:http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/2018/05/fast-four-patch-quilt-top.html

Stash Report:
Used this week: 5.75 yards (T&T backing)
Used year to date: 89.625 yards 
Added this week: 0
Added year to date: 106.125 yards
Net Add: 16.5  yards

Not Much to Show

I have been being productive in a quilting way the past couple of weeks with not much to show for it.  I made a couple of pillowcases, one for a sick friend to let her know I"m thinking about her. This was a kit from an LQS, and I was mildly irritated because the cuff fabric was about 2 1/2 inches shorter than what I would have normally used, but it was a kit, so I'm out of luck.  I chose to leave off the band on this one.

I also made a pillowcase to wrap a graduation quilt.  This quilt was made for a family friend, who should have graduated in 2015.  In fact, I had the quilt made in time for her original graduation, with the date embroidered on the front.  Last week I had to pick out my hand embroidery and recross stitch 2018 on the quilt.  This wasn't easy since the quilt had been longarmed already.  I hope the stitches stay in!  Here's the quilt (I forgot to photograph the pillowcase):

It has been a long road for her, and we are thrilled that this girl graduated!  We are so proud that she has a full time job, and it supporting herself now!  After opening the quilt she said she now had everything she wanted except for a Tamagotchi.  Do you remember those?  They were little electronic 'pets' kids played with about 15 years ago.  I don't know why she wants one, but this week I found a pink Tamagotchi in one of our toy bins.  It need a new battery, and I don't know if it will work, but it is hers if she wants it!

I also got one graduation quilt bound and a lot of scraps cut into usable sizes.   This week I want to bind a quilt and get labels on another four.  

Stash Report:
Used this week: 2.5 yards ( 2 pillowcases, binding on bargello quilt)
Used year to date: 83.875 yards 
Added this week: 3 yards (sale FQs)
Added year to date: 106.125 yards
Net Added: 22.25 yards

Tuffet

Quilt shops all over are offering tuffet classes.  Because I work at the shop, there are no instruction fees for any classes I take there.  I still had to buy the tuffet kit, but I wouldn't have otherwise been able to afford this class.

Here's my tuffet:

The construction of the tuffet wasn't hard.  The most time consuming part was the sewing of all the wedges.  If I could do it over, I might have made wider wedges to reduce the amount of sewing.

I hand embroidered a label for the bottom.  This tuffet will be for my son for Christmas. I am taking a chance that he might see it online, but in the 7 years I have been blogging, he has never read my blog.  I don't even think he knows that I blog.

I think it will fit right into his apartment!

Linking up:  http://www.joscountryjunction.com/whatever-wednesday-4/

Stash Report:
Used this week: 2.75 yards (tuffet)
Used year to dat 81.375 yards 
Added this week: 0
Added year to date: 103.125 yards
Net Add: 21.75   yards

On My Design Wall: Vegas Wedding Quilt

I saw Pen+Paper's Vegas Wedding Quilt pattern in the store a few weeks ago.  We hadn't sold any, and I thought it was because the quilt on the cover of the pattern was so blah:  white, light pink, light gray and brown, all solids.  I liked the pattern, but not the fabrics, and it was not something that would have caught my eye if I were a shopper.

I decided to try making the quilt in some brighter fabrics.  I get tired of plain white backgrounds, and use something else whenever possible.  I chose this fabric as the background:

This is Paintbrush Studio Fabrics' 'The Moon Rabbit'.  This is not a fabric I would normally use:  it is  too cute and the colors are not ones I am attracted to.  It has what one of my son calls 'the ugliest color in the world', a kind of light coral pinks that he hates.  Maybe that is why I chose this fabric.  I'm always up for a challenge!

A co-worker at the quilt shop helped me pick the other colors for the quilt.  And I think we did a good job of picking colors.  They just didn't work very well in this pattern.    

Here is my progress so far:

The blocks are all made, just not sewn together.  Here is where I went wrong colorwise:  the blue and coral fabrics take over the quilt.  I should have used fabrics that were lighter for those sections.  I don't have enough light/dark contrast between my rings and background.  Ironically, this is the same problem I think the original quilt had, mine is just in medium tones, not light.  The quilt also would have probably worked better if my yellow blocks were the blue print.  I will finish this quilt and give it to someone, but it is not one I would want hanging in the shop as an example of my work.

If I had a lot of quilting time, I would try again using the blue print and red print as the rings and maybe the blue blender as the background.  I would probably leave out the coral and yellow.  Maybe I'll do it later this summer.  

Linking up: http://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/2018/05/design-wall-monday-may-7-2018.html

Stash Report:
Used this week: 6.625 yards (backing for On Ringo Lake)
Used year to date: 78.625 yards 
Added this week: 7.0 (fabric for Vegas Wedding Quilt plus sale FQs)
Added year to date: 103.125 yards
Net Add:  24.5 yards