Trish Got a New Car!

A few months ago, we bought a new car SUV for my wife.  She was driving a mini van that was 12 years old and had a lot of miles.  We decided to trade it in and get her something a little smaller, as two of our kids have moved out of the house and we really don't need room to seat seven anymore.

So, we got her a Ford Escape.  She loves it.  The only time I've driven it was to test drive it for about 10 minutes before we bought it.  It's hers and she drives it, and frankly, that's fine by me.  She cares for two young boys during the day and she has a few car seats in it.

We usually drive my car when we go places, but back around Christmas we took her vehicle to her dad's house and when I was taking out the car seats I noticed this...

Dried gunk from the bottom of little feet!

My first reaction, I'll be honest, was to say, "You need to tell those boys to keep their feet OFF of the seat backs!"  But as I was taking the car seat out, I realized that it was nearly impossible for them to keep their feet off of the seat back in front of them.  Their car seats have a "lean" that puts their feet out in front of them in such a way that it would be impossible for them to put their feet "down".

So, I decided to fix the problem.  (That is something us guys do, you know, we FIX things... HooRaa!)

So, I dug out an old Jelly Roll of Blues to match the new Car!!!  

Some of the Blues in the Jelly Roll... I forgot to take a photo of the Jelly Roll!

And this is what I did... 

Sewing on my FW.

Panel all sewn, and ready to be cut again!

This was the first project I did completely on my Vintage Sewing Machines.  I used my 221 Featherweight, and part way through the project, I bought a 401A and another 221 (which I had to "test drive").

So.  After a lot of trial and error, I finally finished them, and installed them in Trish's new ride last night...

          

Now that I have that project off my board, I can focus on a few others... I have Bonnie's GIMQ to work on, Jonathon's graduation quilt (can you believe he is graduating and going to college!), one project which shall remain a secret and I have to make some blocks for my Exchange Group.

Thanks for reading!!

Until His work in me is complete,
Paul

Adelle... Stradivaro Blues

Look what the UPS Man brought me today!

A Box... That says, "FRAGILE".

The UPS man delivered today...

And INSIDE that box... An ugly case that has been made even uglier by adding wood print contact paper!

Wood cases are nice.  Fake wood cases are... Well... Not so nice.

She was well packed, all tied down with industrial plastic wrap, trust me she wasn't going to move in there.  Having an old machine shipped to me made me a little nervous, but they packed her well and she made it in one piece!

Tied down with industrial plastic wrap and bubble wrap.

Upon seeing this machine, I knew I wanted her.  She was lonely in the midst of a bunch of old Singers that were drawing all the bidding action, nobody wanted the blue Stradivaro, so I got her for $5.95.  Yep, SIX Dollars!!  It cost me more than three times that to ship her, so all in, her total cost was $28.98.  I have paid more than that for paintings that adorn my walls, so even if she never sewed a stitch for me, she's a nice piece of art for a shelf, so how could I say no!?

All unwrapped and ready for inspection.

"Stradivaro" must be Japanese for "Singer" because she looks just like a Singer 15-88.  If she were black and the badges removed, I guarantee people would think she was a Singer 15-88 with an odd faceplate and back gear cover.  Her faceplate is striped, not scrolled like the 15-88, as is her back gear cover.  (I can't believe how blatantly companies will copy another company's product!)

Her faceplate is striped, not scrolled, but
in shape and size, it is identical to a 15-88!

I will need to build her a table in which to sit so she can be used, and her wiring needs to be completely redone.  I almost didn't even plug her in to test her functioning, but curiosity got the better of me, though I was a bit nervous about the possibility of electrical shock.

Bare wires in places, tape over wires in many places.  This was just
not pretty.  Not the worst I've seen, but pretty darn bad!!

But, she runs great, she sews, and I have done nothing to her yet.  Once I clean her up a bit, put a new needle in her, and make some adjustments, I am sure she will sew a fine stitch.

She is clean as a whistle!! Even her undercarriage is clean!

Light is nice and bright, though I will likely replace it with an LED version.

The only real messy part about her is the motor.  I'll take it apart when I
rewire her, but for now, she'll be shelf decoration.

I have decided to call her "Adelle" because every time I see the badge, "Stradivaro" I think of the famous Stradivarius Violins, and music.  Adelle sings the blues, and this little gem is most definitely blue, so she shall be christened, "Adelle".

I will clean her up and polish her soon and I'll post some photos when I do.  The rewire job will be fun... I hope!

Until His work in me is complete,
Paul

Quilt for my Niece... We finally celebrated Christmas!!

About a week after Thanksgiving my Sister in Law called and asked if I would sew a quilt for my niece if she bought the fabric.  I, of course, said I would love to.  About an hour later I got a call from my Brother in Law... They were at the store and were picking out fabric... The next day, I had their fabric in hand and it was time to design a quilt that would work with what I had to work with!

I am normally NOT a pre-washer, but this fabric needed to be pre-washed.  So, I had a new experience...  I read a few posts on pre-washing and tossed the material into the washing machine in a zipped pillow case with Color Catchers.  This is what I had after that washing!

After washing the fabrics in Pillow cases with color catchers!

After untangling and pressing those fabrics!
They look so much better this way!

I had three colors to work with, so I went with a simple diagonal step pattern.  I did some quick calculations and grabbed some markers, some graph paper and started to sketch. 

After sketching the pattern, I identified how many of each piece size and
color I would need.  10 8"x4" and 20 4"x4" pieces.

Once the pieces were cut, the pattern made sewing them together a breeze.  This is a very quick and simple quilt to put together.  Just what I needed for a short order Christmas gift!

With only three colors and two shapes, assembly was a breeze.
Yellow to Pink, Pink to Blue, Blue to Yellow and start again.

String piecing at it's finest.  The top half of every block,
done in one long string!  Gotta like that!

After pressing the first pieces open, it was just a matter
of matching the next top in line to the next bottom in line.
Again, Easy Peasy.

This is how I keep pieces organized when I am working on several projects
at once.  Each project, or each portion of a project gets its own clear bin.
I like the clear because I can see what's inside.  (Mikaila's Quilt on the left,
Step one of the GIMQ in the middle and Step two of GIMQ on the right.)

The next day I retrieved the blocks from their box and pressed them open.
NOTE the iron... Do you "Set Your Seams" before pressing open?
I was taught to do this and you will always get a MUCH
cleaner seam when you do!

Once pressed open, they all get layed out
on the floor to insure I got 'em all right.
Looks like I did!

This is how I organize my assembly.  Those little pieces of paper are
marked A1 to A7 (Left Row), B1 to B7 (Center Row) and C1 to C7 (Right Row).
I carefully pick them up in reverse order, C7 to A1.

Then I sew that label right into the seam
and then I can fully assemble the quilt
without ever laying it all out again.

Assembling the quilt, and you can see the tags, helping me stay organized.
After the entire flimsy is complete, I remove them.

So, another reason I am so far behind on the Mystery Quilt this year, but it was so worth it.  I had to wait until now because we couldn't celebrate Christmas until January 3 because of sickness.  So here it is... And here she is...

All smiles... LOVE to see this!

And this.  Cuddling with her Mom while
snuggled in her quilt!

She has Thanked me for it several times already.

I'm Glad you like it Mikaila!

Now to get to work on posts about what I have been doing with GIMQ...

Until His work in me is complete,
Paul