Block Swaps, all sewn!

     I try to participate in at least one block swap per year. It forces me out of a comfort zone and it is neat to get back different blocks. Last year I did bow ties with Barb Vedder. This year, again with Barb,  I made broken dishes blocks. We had to use only solids, one red and another choice. I made two sets of 30. I used my Accuquilt Studio die to cut the triangles. It blunts the points and then there is no trimming. They are going in the mail hopefully tomorrow.

     This year, I made Batik Star blocks with the Treadle on group. We had to make a 12.5" block with batiks, sewn on a treadle (mine is a 1910 Singer 15). I used made fabric as the centers. I did the flying geese with the Easy Angle ruler and the Companion Angle ruler. I love these rulers as there is no trimming when sewn. We had to make 12 for the swap but I made twenty because I am going to make a comfort quilt with the blocks I receive and the extra ones I made. They went in the mail today.

Grandma's 66 hums again

     Finally, I finished restoring Grandma Okie's treadle machine. You can see how much I have done if you look back. It took many, many hours. Lots of pieces were bent, broken, or missing. The paint on the bed was so incredibly dirty it took over a half can of TR3 and bags of cotton balls and a bag of rags. Grandma sewed constantly and sewed anything.
     It is going back to my sister in law to be reunited with its parlor cabinet. It is in my refinished cabinet for the photos because I had to test and adjust it. This machine is why I bought a parlor cabinet after looking for so many years. Mine is a 15 Tiffany which is hiding behind the 66 Red Eye.

Runs flawlessly and strong.

Triumph! Celebrate!

     Yes! I finished the treadle resuscitation! October of 2013, I bought a treadle cabinet that was, um, rough. It had a Lotus in it which I am still trying to rejuvenate. The reason I bought it was to have a zig zag treadle. I bought a Singer 237 from Elizabeth in November of 2013 and serviced that. I loved hers when I visited her in September 2013.
      I could only refinish in warm type weather as I had to do all that work outdoors due to fumes. It was very time intensive and my husband was sanding the garage a good deal of the summer; then rebuilding the patio, limiting my space and depositing much dust. Irons were cleaned and painted. After all the old finish was taken care of (used Formby's Refinisher), I used Minwax Antique Oil finish. Did not like it. Then I used tung oil, glossy finish. Much better, but I learned something: Buy the treadle cabinet in the absolute best condition you can afford. Your time is more precious, especially when you would rather be quilting.
     Finally, my husband had time to screw it together and lug it upstairs. I plopped the machine in, put on the rubber belt, and sewed! I used the zig zag to stitch down many scraps of batik to make art cards with invisible thread, and then freemotioned on it with black Glide. It was flawless. Treadle triumph!! This treadle joins my parlor cabinet Singer 15 Tiffany. They are back to back in my sewing studio, aka old living room.
    Still have a few pieces of trim to glue back on.

With first project done!

The Velveteen Rabbit of sewing machines

     A blast from the past. That is what this machine is. It belonged to my husband's grandmother, Grandma Okie. She was the absolute best. She taught me how to cook out of what was in the house and make it scrumptious. She taught me how to sew on her treadle. She had sewn for a living at M Wile doing piecework for men's suits. She could alter/salvage everything. My sister in law got her treadle and I put sewing on the back burner for too many years. It took Bonnie Hunter's quilt cam and the generosity and friendship of Elizabeth and Andrea to get me back on the right path. I now own a parlor cabinet treadle like Grandma's. I am restoring a second treadle cabinet to put in a Singer 237 so I can zig zag treadle.
   So, my sister in law asked me if I could restore Grandma's machine. Boy, it is in serious need of rejuvenation. So far, I have scraped more gook and lint out the hook area than I have ever seen. All the metal has serious brown varnish encasing it. I am using alcohol and KrudKutter to dislodge it painfully slow. If Elizabeth were closer, I would ask to use her ultrasonic cleaner. It is missing the screw in the handwheel to secure the clutch and it is missing the wheel in the bobbin winder. The paint is rather sad. This machine sewed so much in its time with so much love and care. I just have to get it back into useable condition.

Sweating off the finish

    I have resumed taking the finish off the treadle cabinet I bought last October. I do this outside, so it had to stop for the winter and cold spring. Why I picked one of the hottest days in Buffalo with no breeze, I don't know. I just want it done and the 237 encased inside so I can zig zag treadle. I bought more Formby's Furniture finish remover and more green 3M scratchy pads. I wore through another pair of heavy duty gloves on the right hand. I used over half the Formby's and almost all the scratchies. Previously, I had removed most of the finish from the drawers and side pieces. I had left the top for last. I thought this would be easier since it is flat. Well, the good news is that the wood on the top is in pretty nice shape. The bad news is someone had put another coat or two of finish on real thick and left a lot of brush bristles. It took lots of liquid and elbow grease to get to the wood. What looked beat up turned out to be mostly the finish. I still have to go over everything another time to get all the leftover patches off. So, I did not get it done. Once the finish is off, I will use Minwax Antique Oil finish on the cabinet instead of Poly. The wipe on Poly has tempted me. Today is hot again and humid so I do not think I will attempt the final removal. Things were pretty sticky yesterday. I thought it was ironic that I was stripping the oak cabinet under my oak tree. You had to be there.

     On the subject of treadles, I bought a necklace from Nancy Cornwell, who sells on Etsy, landedesignco.etsy.com, with a custom treadle photo. She is making necklaces to earn money to finalize their adoption of a Chinese deaf boy. They already have a deaf daughter. Nancy is the daughter of Sarah Craig, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, who has an awesome quilt ministry. Nancy's story is on there; she has lots of designs, and made a custom one for me, as I had to have some finished treadle. She was great to deal with and it shipped so fast! If you need a gift, Nancy would be grateful for your business. Here is mine:

All kinds of bits and pieces

      I have not made significant progress in any one area. In the crumbs, I have now 40, 6.5" crumb blocks. I don't want to do just a sashing (boring) or another attic window pane. I don't know what to do. Someone at the WNY Modern Quilt Guild meeting mentioned doing skinny strips of black like stained glass and offset the rows. Hmm, I am not sure.
     The other crumb strips are 2.5" by 8.5", paper pieced on newsprint. Bonnie Hunter showed them on her quilt cam, showed a block made out of four, and then I never heard mention of it again. I jumped on it because I can use all the tiny pieces left over on these. So, now I have these nice strips and no ideas. I don't want to set them all against each other because it would be too jumbled to the eye.

6.5" Block pile all done on the Singer Treadle

2.5" x 8.5" Strips, 2 whole blocks, sewed on the treadle.Where do I go from here?

 

This is all I have left after my crumb blocks. I don't throw anything out bigger than this.

     I am also continuing on my wonky quarter log cabins. I finished another 4 quarters. I did not sew any of them together yet, so I can rearrange when I get all of them done. I am planning on 3 complete big blocks wide by 4 blocks long to make it a comfort lap quilt. These also sewed on the Singer 15 treadle. I am telling you, the treadle is real relaxing and comforting to sew on.

Two big blocks arranged, the quarters are 8.5" unfinished,
so the big blocks will finish 16"

First big block trimmed

     Finally, I took the plunge and am cutting out my daughter's wedding present quilt. It is going to be loosely based on Circle Dance by Elisa from Backporch Designs. A little while ago, I bought the 7" template and thought I could make the 3.5" one. Nope, I broke down and ordered it yesterday. I did start cutting out the batiks that Ria picked out. I am going to have to at least make 70 sets of the quarter circles and about 35 sets of the small circles. Well, at least I started. I am planning to sew them together with my Curvemaster foot that I bought.

Cut with the 7" Crazy Curves template

Top done, new ideas

    Due to the weather, I stayed in and finished the Rubiks crush top. Now, I have to decide, Does it need a border? The blocks are 12" each. What do you think?

Top on design wall

    I love piecing the scrap blocks on my treadle. I have been making the 6.5" blocks. I was thinking of trying something else. I found a quarter log cabin bento box type online, filminthefridge.com and tried it yesterday with my scraps. I was going to make them each 8.5" and they are not there yet. All sewn on the 100 yr old treadle without a blip. What about a whole quilt with them? Three 16" complete blocks across?  Four blocks down would be 64", and three blocks acrosswould be 48". I usually try to keep lap quilts under 60" for batting size sake, as I split a king batt into four. Or should I make it four by four? Is a square lap quilt 64 X 64 manageable?
 

Not yet the full 8.5" each

    Another block I like is the wonky cross. I saw this on a number of sites, sewmamasew, being one of them. I bought some batik layer cakes from Connecting Threads at the end of the year that these would be perfect for I think. I made a sample to see how it sewed. I think I would make the cross arms thinner. Have to think about this for a lap quilt. Anyone made this? 

Blizzard, New Top, Crumbs

      Parts of the Western New York area has been through a blizzard. Well, I live just a block north of the city of Buffalo and did experience high winds, incredible wind chills, and whiteouts, but this was nothing like the Blizzard of 77, my gold standard of blizzards. Because so many highways were closed, there was little stranding or drama. Actually, today, I have had more snow than during the blizzard. I think the other snow blew into some other county. Because of the weather, most things I had to do were cancelled, so I was "forced" to sew, sure, right. 

My backyard today

   When I looked through my projects, I decided to sew Rubik's crush, a free pattern from Quilting Arts (it was in a free ebook). I bought the fabric  over a year ago and cut the large floral blocks them. Just love the fabric. I needed to sew the 17 blocks that are the small 2 1/2" blocks with teeny sashing, not my favorite. I would not sew it the way they said again. I would not sew 1" sashing to 2 1/2" squares again. It is almost impossible for me to keep them straight. I would sew 2 1/2" strips to a strip of sashing, and then trim them into sets. You can see that even though I tried hard, the blocks are not precise. I decided just to keep going and sew all of them. Today, I put them on the design wall where I will label the block rows and numbers so I can sew them. I struggled sewing them on the tempermental 201 and switched to a trusty 301 near the end for the sashing. 

Block centers

On the design wall, blocks are 12.5"

    When the wind was really howling, I could not concentrate, so I treadled my crumbs on my Singer 15 treadle, which is soothing therapy for me. I sew the scraps, and then trim them to 6.5" blocks for another crumb quilt. I have not decided how to set these. The last one I did in attic windows (not quilted yet). 

Crumbs being assembled

6.5" crumb blocks, each one a little composition

Wonder-full times

     As a chronic migraine sufferer, days when I have no headache are super terrific and wonderful. As a quilter, from pieces of fabric, to complete, textural quilts is awesome and wonderful. As a vintage sewing machine tinkerer, removing filth, rust, and disuse and having a quality object purring better than its new counterparts is awesome and full of wonder. My grandchildren have entered into the wonder-full spot with fabric. The 20 month old discovered a bag of my teeny tiny scraps given to me and not yet sorted. With great glee she kept tossing them over herself and the floor...for 30 minutes. My three year old grandson joined in also. Another day this week, my grandson asked me what was ouchy on my machines, and I said just the needle. "So where is it, Grandma Linda?", he asked. When I showed him, he aked, "What does it do?". I had him pick out two scraps and put it under the treadle's needle and had him turn the spoked wheel until the fabric feed through. When I took out the fabric, and showed him the two pieces were now one, his eyes opened wide and mouth fell open. And then he said, "My arm hurts, that's enough." So I told him next time we will get out the handcrank. Does it get any better than this? Two grandchildren who think grandma's entire room filled with vintage sewing machines and fabric are cool and no big deal? Many adults ask me questions like, "So how many do you have?" and I ask them how many shoes they have. Or, "You can't afford a new one?" or a whole room for sewing? People don't think anything of a whole huge room for a TV/Home theater. 

Grandson's seam

Two pieces into one!

Tiny piece they found in the scraps and were fighting over. I promised them I would make an ornament for them.

More Cleaning

   Besides the 301, I also have been working on a Singer 237 I bought that will go into the treadle stand that is not completed refinished. This machine was made in Italy, so now I have the US, Great Britain, and Italy represented in my sewing colony. It was not terribly dirty, but surprising, inside, it had a lot of surface rust. This machine is from the 70s, and all the older machines I have, have never had rust like this one. The casting is a lot rougher than my other Singers. A green scratchie and rubbing alcohol got rid of most of the rust. The needle plate was stuck to the insides with rust, yet the outside of the machine is pristine. I wonder if the quality of the steel was just not as good? I remember Fiats and Alpha Romeos from the 70s and they were a joke of a rustbucket- great interiors, lousy steel. Anyways, I coated all the metal with Tri-flow and hope that will arrest the problem. I am going to disengage the motor for use on a treadle so I can zig zag on a treadle. The belt that was on there was so stiff, that the motor wouldn't turn the machine, so I put on one of those rubber band types to see how it sews. The zig zags looked perfect. I had done a lot of digging out of old gunk in the zig zag gears with wooden sticks and alcohol and regreased with Tri-flow grease, so it paid off. Now, I have the refinish job on the treadle top to contend with and I can't work out in the garage anymore.

Before cleaning

Cleaning out the surface rust

The zig zag gears

All shined up, ready to sew

Deciding Placement

    I have all the crumb Attic Window blocks done. I have them on the design wall. They are 8 1/2" blocks. I have to make up my mind about the placement and then tape label the rows so I can stitch them together. All the crumbs were made on the treadle, the strips were sewn on with the 301.

Crumb blocks, attic window

    I finally treadled enough crumb blocks, 6 1/2" squares to make a lap quilt. I love crumb blocks, they are like mini paintings, each one different and fun. I already did one with sashing. I decided to use attic windows because it will show off the blocks. I looked for some tutorials, and did not find one that was real clear. I don't want to do the simplified, put a half square triangle in the corner, because I already have enough seams. I can't get a clear idea how to add the second piece without starting to sew at the 1/4" mark which is harder than on the open end.
   I am sewing on the 301 because the treadle does not have reverse. When I get my new machine, the 237, I can treadle the strips on also. Any ideas how to sew attic window strips easier, I would love to know. I have 7 done on the wall. 

On the wall

Crumb block pile waiting for its sashing

More refinishing on treadle cabinet

   Still working on removing/cleaning the old finish on the cabinet. Now it is too cold to do this outside in the garage, not sure how to continue. The side pieces still need work, especially the scroll work. The drawers are so hard to do, to get in where the handle indent is. Counting down the days until I get the 237. Need more Formby's Refinisher and some more green scratchie pads. 

Side getting there

A ways to go, much tougher.

 3 Drawers almost done, the indents are still bad

Drawers before refinisher applied

   The tiger oak when exposed is just fabulous. I am going to use Minwax antique oil finish when all clean.