Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Quote of the Day

Since it is forbidden to discuss what is going on at my church, I shall merely post this:

"For this you should always bear in mind, that God’s word and grace are a passing shower that goes, never
to return. And do not, my German brothers, indulge in the delusive dream that it will abide with you forever. For an ungrateful and a scornful spirit will drive it away."


--- Martin Luther,

“To the Councilmen of All Cities of the German Nation, That They Establish and Maintain Christian Schools"


Wednesday, September 7, 2011

New Sewing Machines!

... OK, so they're new to me.

Yes, it's been a long time since I posted, but it's hard to post when there's no new machines to talk about!

A couple weeks ago, another Onion and I headed off to the wilds of northern Illinois to do a little treadle shopping. (And it was a beautiful trip, in spite of the rain.) This is what I came home with:


This is a ca 1880 New Home, made by Gold Medal (according to the patent), in a Home cabinet. It's a lovely machine and was signed on a drawer by Chesley T. Sabine of Maine in 1887.

This dates to 1883-1885 and is only the 2nd mother of pearl New Home machine I've ever seen. It was a "package deal" so I couldn't say no..... OK, so that's not totally honest. I couldn't say no because it was so lovely!!
This lovely New National by New Home sews as well as she looks! She's not as perfect as the picture makes her look, but I prefer a machine with dings and scratches because then I'm not afraid to use it.
This lovely little gal wasn't what I thought she was, but that's OK. She turns out to be an Elsa made in Germany for the English market. At first a kind Onion ID'd her as a Gladys A, but then the man I got her from looked in his notes and had her as an Elsa. They're the same machine, either way. Ca 1890. I have the base which has to be repaired, but she's still a sweet gal. One of the boys has taken a shine to her. The other boy decided he wants a black Singer 301 (thanks Michelle!)

Now this lovely New Home came from nearby a month ago. Ca 1885. Her former owner told me that it was his great-Aunt Clara's, and so she just had to come home with me. This makes 3 sewing machines I have that I know were owned by ladies named Clara. She also was tempting because of her attachments.

And that should be enough to keep me busy for a while, you'd think! But oh, no, I've got one coming from next door to live with me. I never posted about the two machines I got from the Treadle Fairy one Sunday, either, or the Davis NVF that I saved from the barn. However, the green beans are in and can't wait any longer, so I'm headed off to freeze some beans.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

I'm off the Island!!!

...Triangle Island, that is.

Yup, that's right, I finally finished Triangle Island Feb 5th.

These are the two quilts I ended up with:

These were a joint effort between my ca 1915 Davis New Vertical Feed, 1893 White VS III, and 1906 Singer 15-30. Oddly enough, it was the Singer 15-30 which gave me the most problems. I don't blame the machine, it's me. For some reason, I seem to get along better with my vibrating shuttle machines. I had a much easier time doing free-motion quilting on my White than with the Singer.

They aren't professional work, but I like them, and more importantly, so do my kids. However, I don't want to see another triangle for a long time!

Monday, January 10, 2011

Down in the dumps

Well, here it is January 10th, and I'm still not finished with the Triangle Island quilt. I'm almost done with the quilting, but my brother passed away Nov 28th and I haven't had the heart to pick it back up again. Well, and then there's the church issues.

I've been trying to get myself interested in sewing again, so I spent a day last week at my aunt's "taking" a pattern from my great-grandma's 1915 confirmation dress. I was successful in making a mockup of the bodice so I could fit it to me, and now I'm working on increasing the pattern. If I wanted to, I could really get moving on it, but I'm just having a hard time getting back into anything fun. Maybe if I wasn't watching my church self-destruct I would feel more up to some fun. Anyway, the Mid-Mitten TOGA (Treadle On Gathering and Academy) is Saturday, so D.V., there's no snow and I can see some friends in Ovid. There's a bright spot in this week.