Another New Old Toy

I always wanted a treadle sewing machine, and now I've found one and it's taken up residence in my kitchen. I wanted one because it reminds me of my grandmother's treadle, which we used to keep in the dining room of our flat when I was growing up. A favorite childhood pastimes was making that treadle go, which is why my mother kept the belt off the wheel when she wasn't using it.

I also have a reoccurring fantasy of living someday in My Cabin in the Woods. A quiet retreat with a large garden where I'll live off-grid, sewing and knitting and growing things. The treadle machine is a key component to that dream.

This machine came my way in the same thrift store where I recently bought my Singer 185J. It's a Singer 15, according to the serial number, made circa 1903 in Elizabeth, New Jersey. The decals are sometimes called the Tiffany pattern.

It's in great shape, except that it was a little grimy. I've seen few treadles around here, and most have been real fixer-uppers, but this one is solid, and has all her parts, including the key to the cabinet, and all the extra attachments. I've been cleaning her up, oiling her, and getting to know how she works. There are great web resources for vintage machine fans, including an active Vintage Sewing Machines group on Ravelry, and there are helpful YouTube videos on various aspects of machine repair and operation.

Although this machine appears to have been made in the U.S., the manual that came with her is in German. They did make Singers in Germany, but perhaps a German-speaking sewer acquired a German manual for her machine. Or maybe the serial numbers are wrong, and the machine was made in Germany, and has traveled a very long way in 107 years.


The machine accessories came in these two tins, which to me, are as beautiful as the machine. One is a cigarette tin, and the other is for some kind of stomach tablets, and the labels are in German. I've got a German-speaking colleague I'm going to ask to look at these for clues to the story of the machine.

I'm getting close to an actual sewing test with the machine. I've got to adjust the belt so I can wind some bobbins and thread her up. There's nothing like the sound of a treadle sewing machine.

Summer Knitting

I don't show a lot on knitting-in-progress, though I usually have at least 2 projects going at any one time. I think that looking at unfinished knitting is akin to watching paint dry, but finished knitting is like looking at toys or candy. Here is a display of a few projects I finished over the summer.

The first is Splash, a vest pattern by Wendy Bernard. It has a clever construction--the shoulder is seamless. You make a provisional cast-on, and then knit down the back to the bottom of the arm holes. Then you pick up the stitches from the cast-on edge, and knit down the front to the bottom of the harm holes, join front and back, and knit the body to the hem.

Designers are very big these days on garments that don't need any seaming, and I think a lot of newer knitters have an unreasoned fear of seams that makes these patterns popular. I don't mind seaming, and I think they often lend garments structure, but this was a fairly quick knit and made a cute vest. The body is meant to hang straight from the bust, but I made mine A-line, which suits me better. The yarn was recylced from a thrift store sweater that I unwound. It's 100% wool tweed, and the color is very cheerful.


I also knit a Shalom vest, which is a free pattern by Meghan Mc Farlane. It's also knit seamlessly from the top down. All the yarn for this vest was bought at the thrift store. It's unusual to find sweater quantities of yarn second hand, but I did score this discontinued Patons acrylic-wool blend in a bulky weight in the exact quantity I needed. Some days the recycling gods send you a small gift. Of course the buttons cost me twice as much as the yarn, but that's the way it goes.


I get to knit even in summer because it never gets hot in this coastal climate, and this year has been unusually foggy. Small knit projects are also great for travel, and I knit most of this Feather and Fan Comfort Shawl , a free pattern by Sarah Bradberry, on a trip. I made great progress on this shawl when I got stuck overnight at the San Francisco airport when trying to get home from Albuquerque. Note to self: pack lots of knitting for plane trips.

This shawl was knit from one ball of sock yarn: Deborah Norville's Premier Serenity Sock Yarn, which is a blend of wool, bamboo and nylon. I knit it on a U.S. size 10 needle, and before binding off knitted every stitch twice so the edge would been extra stretchy. I blocked it aggressively to open the lace, after throwing a bit of liquid starch in the rinse water. This shawl went to Michael's daughter for her birthday.

I'm finishing the second sleeve of a cardigan that I hope to show soon, then I think I'm going to cast on a massive shawl and use up some coned wool I've got stashed. There are some nice small shawl patterns I've been eyeing, and I'll probably mix in a few of those too. This will be the Fall of the shawl.

Charmed I'm Sure (70 x 80")

Over the past few months I've cut a lot of my stash (especially the smaller pieces) into 5" squares and into strips of various widths. This quilt top was pieced from some squares I fussy cut. I sashed the blocks with some of the pre-cut strips, and added a piano key border. This top will go to Debra and she'll quilt and donate this top along with others she's making.

I also finally finished piecing this top, which has been a few years in the making. The basic units are 16-patches made of 2" blocks, and 3.5 inch half square triangles.


This top was done except for one of the long outer borders. I must've gotten completely sick of making these blocks, so I just folded it up and put it in the Closet of Doom. Once I had my new Singer 185 installed on the kitchen table, I decided to make up the remaining blocks and finish the border on this poor quilt. Of course it came together very quickly. I think this one will likely go to Debra too because I can't foresee a specific need/ recipient for this quilt. I just needed to make it, and now that it's done, I can let it go.


With some of the remaining 2" strips I made 4-patches for these blocks. Debra shared the link to this great method for making half-square triangles. Scroll down until you find the short tutorial for Fast and Easy Pinwheels on the right of the page, and your approach to the hst will be revolutionized. To get 4 of these 3.5" half square triangles, start with 2- 5.5" squares.

It looks like another scrappy donation quilt is in the works.

Vintage Baby Saque

I've been straightening the stash, and I came across this baby saque. I've had it so long, I don't remember where it came from. It's pre-printed with a design for embroidery, and it had little holes around the edges of the finished garment. Michael's son and and daughter-in-law are expecting their second baby, and it's a girl, so it seemed time for this project to get made.

I think these little projects were once widely available. They seem like the kind of think you could have once bought at the 5 and 10 and embroidered for your baby. I imagine that this one is from the 50s or 60s, but maybe someone has a better memory of this than me.

I quickly embroidered the front, but then I had to figure out how those holes figured into the finished saque. After surfing the net, I saw a photo of a similar garment. The holes are for crocheting an edging.

It's almost scary that I had the right size crochet hook (I think a 7) and some DMC cotton in the exact color I needed. After giving the piece a much-needed wash, which removed the markings, I trimmed a narrow hem around the edge and added a row of single crochet. I was planning to do a picot edge, but I like the plain look.

I remember that these baby gowns used to come with ribbon ties, which to me are totally impractical. I added buttons and added a row of button holes to the crochet.

Voila! Finished at last.

Beautiful Flower, Bountiful Garden (41 x 41)

I put the binding on a quilt Debra and I made in a round-robin. "Beautiful Flower, Bountiful Garden" or, as we usually call it, the pink madonna, is our first joint madonna quilt collaboration, though we've been bouncing ideas off each other on this series of quilts for years. If you haven't seen it, we have a blog The Madonna Idea, which includes the bulk of the madonna quilts we've made.



The center of the quilt is a pre-printed panel flanked by some of Debra's machine embroidered blocks. She gave these blocks to me when we met at IPQF in Long Beach a couple of years ago, and I immediately knew they were meant somehow to go with the panel. From there we went back and forth a few times, each of us adding a round of blocks. Debra came up with the text for the embroidered ribbon: "Oh holy mother, beautiful flower of our life's bountiful garden." The results are, I think, seamless.

The quit is the center of my newly-decorated home office. With all that color and pattern, the rest of the room is quite subdued: a calm palatte for this and some of my other favorite quilts.

On the opposite wall, I've put two chairs and I've hung some of my favorite small quilts. For hangers in this room I bought some tall bamboo poles (found at the garden center), and I painted them black. They hang on some single coat hooks that I screwed into the wall.

The rocking chair was my grandmother's. I recovered some pillows I had around the house with black and cream fabric.

I bought this wing chair and the footstool at two different used furniture stores. The cats like this room a lot, and I can see that I'm going to have to fight them for the chairs.


At the entrance to the room, I hung I my St. Theresa piece. The room has a very peaceful vibe.

Green Hornet

Last weekend Michael and I were walking back from the movies when we did our usual dialogue:

--Should we stop at the thrift store?

--I don't know, do you want to stop?

--I don't know, I was just there...

I'm sure you have these conversations too. But it was my lucky day, because we stopped and I spied this distinctive small green case,

and sure enough, there was a pristine Singer 185 J. Because it was half price day, it was $10.00.


This machine is 3/4 size, so in addition to being green, it's cute. It was made in 1954, and my machine was made in Canada. The 185 Js are Canadian, and the 185 Ks are American made.


Although it's diminutive, it weighs 30 lbs, and can double as a boat anchor, so I had to come back with the car to pick it up. I've been very lucky with my Singer collection (I've got a 127, a 201, a 301 and a featherweight) to find machines that have been little used and that have spent their years in someone's nice dry hall closet, as opposed to the damp garage, or even in the shed or barn. Greenie wasn't at all dirty. I just wiped her down, oiled her up, changed the needle, and she was almost ready to go. I had to get her a new belt. The Singer repair man saw me come into his store with the green case and right away exclaimed: it's a 185! She inspires excitement.

I've got Greenie parked on my kitchen table, which she matches, so you know how much I like this color. I'm piecing some strip sets to finish the border on a UFO. She makes the happiest sound.

Micro Fiber Laptop Case from a Women's Suit

I needed a laptop case, and decided to use a micro fiber women's suit I picked up for $1 at the thrift store. It's a nice soft yellow, though it photographed a little paler than it is in real life.

Actually, I started out making a messenger bag like I did here, but you know, sometimes projects have a life of their own.

Micro fiber looks and feels like suede, but it's polyester, so it's machine washable. It also doesn't fray. It sometimes is labeled Ultrasuede. The skirt has a lot of usable fabric.


And the jacket had these nice pin tucks that I cut across for some interesting textured strips.



It's the simplest sewing: you make a big rectangular envelope. Since the skirt was lined, I didn't need to add lining, though I did add a big pocket cut from the suit fabric. I used the strips like bias binding to hold all the layers together. The cool buttons are dollar store finds.

I could have used this laptop case on some of my summer trips. In May I was at the Getty Museum in Malibu, which has spectacular grounds

I fell in love with the windows in the parking garage.

And earlier this month I was in Albuquerque. Here are some shots of the National Hispanic Cultural Center.


They know how to do skies in New Mexico.


Now that I'm back home, I can take my laptop case into the redwood forest.

Starts and Finishes

I finished piecing the Bee Quilt top. This has been a slow quilting year for me. I've been looking at this top in progress all year it seems. I settled on borders, sewed the whole thing together, and was glad to get it off my design wall.


I'm not thrilled with the border, but done is done and I used up almost all of these fabrics.

So now on to something new. While dawdling about finishing Bee, I've been combing through my fabric stash and cutting up everything smaller than a FQ into strips (3", 2.5" and 1.5") and squares (5"), some of which are fussy cuts of charm fabrics. I'm freeing up a lot of storage space, and I've got lots of nice piles of scraps to play with.

It was very freeing to come up with this:


...and then this:

I'm sewing together the individual blocks. There will be sashing. Maybe black...with skeletons.

Empty Nest

I knew it was coming, but I didn't imagine that I would have an empty nest in one fell swoop. Both my kids moved out together into an apartment. They have fairly grown up lives with two jobs each and school, and living at home with mom gets old after 20 or 22 years.

They found a cute apartment together, and except for my daily calls and inquiries into what they're eating, they're doing great. It's hard for me sometimes not to imagine them as these two little ones perched on the love seat. This is one of my favorite photos of them, as it shows how close and how protective of each other they've always been. When Alex barely had begun to talk he wanted to hit a kid on the playground who had thrown sand at his sister. And Allie has always been the cool big sister, even when, a kindergartner, she used toilet paper to make "casts" and "bandages" for Alex, her cooperative patient.

When Allie and I were making the sweep of the local thrift stores looking for a sofa, we found a love seat identical to the one in this picture, and in great shape despite the years. We snapped it up, and when Alex saw it later, he was amazed that we had found this replica of their childhood love seat.


I still had some of the old pillows to that set of furniture, so I recovered them with swatches of upholstery fabric that I had stashed. They create continuity between the old life and the new.

I covered some other old pillows with a piece of chenille that I had put away, lord knows why, but it does make nice pillow covers.


For good measure, I made some pot holders. What else is a mother to do?

Busy Bee

I've been a Busy Bee. Even though I was really tired after the end of the school year, I've since taken two trips and had my old friend Bernadette and her husband Adrian as house guests over Memorial Day weekend.


Bernie and I have been friends since college, when we lived in the same residence hall. After graduation, we shared a house for about a year when she was in law school. She is a very loyal friend, someone who makes the effort to keep in touch across distances and time. It was fun to show her the sights around town. We had a break in the wet weather just for her visit.

It's been interesting for me to realize how the core of people stays the same across the course of their lives. That old familiar essence--and the connection we have with old friends-- is always there unchanged.

In my sewing room I've been looking at this quilt in the making for months. I embroidered these blocks a couple of years ago. The patterns are vintage outline embroidery patterns from the Flickr site Hoop Love Vintage Transfers. You have to join to access the patterns, but once you do, you can enjoy an amazing array of old patterns. It will leave you wanting to embroider dishcloths.



For some reason these busy bees struck my fancy.



The collection of patterns could be titled Advice for Life, or Mother's Wisdom.


I embroidered them in black cotton floss on white cotton, not really knowing what I'd do with the blocks.


When I saw this stretched churn dash block, I knew I'd found the setting.


Since I alternated the colors in each block, it makes a nice secondary pattern in the corners.


I'm making this quilt in a very controlled (for me) selection of fabrics. I've got the border designed, but I'm still making the pieces. Then this one will be done. It makes me smile every time I see it. It's a lap or large baby quilt size. I haven't quite decided what I'll do with it.

Enjoy your weekend. My plan is to have a blissful, quiet and slow couple of days.