I bought this fabric in July in preparation for the next quilt we are going to make. I mentioned earlier that we were searching for pattern ideas to make a quilt for N’s brother for his wedding — we finally settled on a modified version of “Drunk Love Two-Tone” from the Denyse Schmidt Quilts book. Instead of two colors we are going with 3 (two blues and a green) and some patterned/colored highlights.
Making this quilt with more than two colors has really complicated things. Since the pieces have to be cut individually I had to plan out ahead of time how many of each color I would need. I laid the quilt pattern out in Adobe Illustrator (image above) to get a good balance of the three colors and then made spreadsheets to keep track of what had been cut. Cutting pieces seemed to take forever but we have *mostly* finished (I still need to cut the highlights) and I am finally on to the sewing.
Can you see it? There is a pile of sewn pieces on my desk and a pile of cut pieces on my work table. I’ve done a fair amount of crafting this summer but I haven’t written much about it. I think I can attribute this largely due to the lack of good lighting in my apartment. With N’s new job and long commute our evenings are more condensed and progress on the quilt primarily happens after 9pm (which doesn’t help the lighting situation either).
Even in the dim evening lighting (and less than perfect focus) I still love my desk. I can’t get over how cute the sewing machine is. Apparently other people agree with me, they put the same machine on the cover of ReadyMade for the August/September issue! It is working like a champ too which is good because my singer 301 is skipping stitches. I don’t know if I need to find someone to take a look at it but all of my attempts to modify tension controls and change needles and thread have failed to solve the problem. I’m not sure what we are going to do when we get to quilting everything together because there is no way the whole quilt is going to pass under the arm of my tiny featherweight! Does anyone have thoughts or suggestions for my ailing machine?
First there was one
then there were twins
and now a whole family!
Ive been keeping a bit of a secret from you… In November after a tip-off from Karrie I went to the East Bay Depot and adopted a twin of my singer 301 sewing machine. The new 301 looks pretty, has a nice box and all of its attachments, but it also looks as if someone poured motor oil everywhere inside and then let it sit for 30 years. It was completely seized when I took it home but after some elbow grease and a good dose of advising from my dad the gears are all turning. With enough time spraying solvent into it I think I can get it running again.
Fast forward to January 2008 and an unanticipated craigslist find. Ive been looking on craigslist for the table which goes with the singer 301. I’ve seen them on there before and I’m not in a hurry so I figure that if I look long enough I’ll find one. My RSS feed picks up a lot of other sewing machines though and yesterday I saw a little featherweight listed for $100 (they usually go for $200-$400). I couldn’t resist and drove down to Mountain View to pick it up last night.
Its not in perfect condition - it looks well used - and thats the way I like it. I dont want a machine that cant be used! It runs and all the parts and attachments are there - even the original manual!
Look how tiny it is!
Just about everyone I talked to said I was crazy. 3 sewing machines in a studio apartment?
Well there is another bit of news I have yet to share…. We are moving. Our new place is still in Berkeley about 2.5 miles south of where we are now. It will have walls. More on that later…
Here she is… My new sewing machine. Born 1951 in Anderson SC she now comes to me after the best craigslist experience Ive ever had.
She weighs in at ~16lbs while my previous sewing machine, a 1913 White rotary (the bottom photo), probably weighs 50.
The woman who gave me the machine said it needed a name–thats right, a really nice woman I met on craigslist GAVE me this machine in return for me working to “save the earth from the ill effects of humanity” (which is really what I do already, right?). Anyone have a good suggestion?
The bottom picture is my old(er) machine. It was my grandmothers which she had converted to an electric. It still runs like a champ, but after sewing on the Singer 301 there is really no comparison. In fact I think that due to lack of apartment space the white will be put out to pasture at my Mom’s house. It still amazes me that a machine made in 1913 is still perfectly functional. I think we might have to throw a 100th birthday party for it or something.
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