WELCOME! My new vintage sewing machine :)

I decided it was time for a new blog header… hope you like it 🙂  The “new to me machine” is a White Rotary 1928 electric…

You see my honey watches “free stuff” on our local Craigslist a LOT!  He likes looking at tools, newly up for sale and other items but his fave spot is what people are giving away FREE and we have found some GREAT DEALS for free in this section over our years together 🙂

Today I want to share our machine from 1928… a White Rotary straight stitch electric machine… that we picked up with the original cabinet.  And it WORKS!

 It took a while to finalize pick up plans on this great deal but all the negotiations were worth it… she isn’t named yet… my honey wants to come up with this one’s name 🙂  Not all clean in this pic… but she will clean up nicely it looks like… more pics to come as we work on her..

With some oiling and running… SHE SEWS!!!  And perfect stitch too 🙂  I adjusted the tension some and could see the bobbin thread (black) showing through the top a bit (green thread) so my honey had adjusted the tensions of the bobbin and the top PERFECT on his first try!  Yippee!

Me and my honey did the straight lines.. and my dd did the “flowers”… she may be the FMQ quilter in the family! lol

The cabinet that she came in has been her lifetime home according to the book and advertisements we have found and is an elongated hexagon shape when closed called a Martha Washington cabinet.  Unfortunately no pics yet as it is all disassembled now and getting a rehab in the “mancave” lol!

Meanwhile I am slow stitching my 16th block on THE MAN quilt…

My inspiration photo is also in the blog header… slow stitching takes patience and me and my honey are both ready for me to be done… alas I am about 63% complete and still have a ways to go… but at least this is the downhill portion now 🙂

Do you sew by hand, vintage, or new???

I love to piece with my vintage machines… but hand quilting is the only way I quilt for now… I just LOVE IT!

Since I am planning to spend my Sunday Slow Stitching on THE MAN quilt I will link this lovely post to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching linky party!  If you are slow stitching something today come join the fun and link up too!

Also linking to Sew Many Ways linky party 🙂

Advertisement

Slow Stitching Sunday!

What a week this has been… are you ready to greet 2014???  I have updated my blog cover with some fave pics that get taken over the Season… sometimes the only time I can get a pic of my grown kids! lol…

Today is about slow stitching… how I plan to spend New Years too!  Slow stitching… this project will keep me busy for at least 2 more months… you see I am hand stitching a queen sized throw for my honey… we call it THE MAN quilt right now..  here it is in flimsy state…

And now I am 6 feathers and 4 cornerstones quilted in here…

I am using Aurifil 28/2 Mako cotton thread in a steel gray and my stitches really show off… my honey likes that 🙂  The back is nice and smooth… and the pins are stabilizing the yet to be quilted blocks.

I am 12% finished with this part of the quilting… still to do when that is finished in a month or so are the blocks and finally the border… 🙂

Slow stitching is my fave part… but there are many parts to quilting.. what is your fave part???

Have a blessed slow stitching Sunday… and my honey is gonna enjoy the FREE score we found on Craigslist while I am slow stitching!

A van full of plywood… about 8 full sheets and several long pieces then some fatter pieces.. just lots to create and build with… maybe new kitchen cabinets??? We shall see!

Linking to:
Kathy’s Slow Stitching Sunday here

Have a blessed Sunday!
 

YLI THREAD giveaway & Craigslist finds :)

Happy Belated Veteran’s Day to any of you reading who is a veteran or active service.  I appreciate and understand WHAT you do to protect out freedoms and I APPRECIATE YOU!

This was my fave graphic on facebook this year.  You see my honey is a veteran.. I thanked him of course 🙂

So instead of slowing down and posting this yesterday I pitched in on a GREAT Craigslist find… do you know what Craigslist is… most major cities or towns have one… every area is a bit different.  I can talk more about Craigslist if you are interested… just leave a comment… for now let me show you what we scored on for my honey to use!

All FREE from one stop!

 That is right… these are PAVERS… concrete pavers in 3 sizes… 537 of them!  It took us 2 trips to haul them all in our van but the giver was generous and didn’t mind!  How nice of him… over $600 of perfect condition pavers can now be used to build paths and edge flower beds front and back!  Yipeee!  Perfect for the sandy dirt here and the running St. Augustine grass that has to be weedeated to stay at bay!

Once put together this gorgeous fountain makes the most lovely sound… the top is supposed to be for a flower the giver said… but he said the dirt falls down into the water if you do… not sure what we will do with that top area… but I bet my honey will figure it out 🙂

We have had a really good experience with Craigslist finds but we have learned over the last couple years how to LOOK better before we jump and call or run out on a curb alert across town to waste gas and find the item gone 😦  But those are the exceptions.  We have found free 2 X 4’s … and recently scored here on a great cabinet that is ALL WOOD for the garage!  And it had some local history to it as well so even cooler!

Through all that I have been working on my 2nd table topper… this is my progress thus far 🙂

Just the center piece is done but it is going so much better now that I have an idea of the pattern AND what I am doing! lol  Read about my adventures and the finished product of the first one here!

I did change the thread I used on this one … and I want YOU to have a spool of my fave thread of the too!

You see… I am having to wax the color thread I have that is the right color… I only use ALL cotton thread when sewing… I figured if I love the YLI 40 wt thread… hand stitching with the Coats & Clark machine sewing thread that is 30 wt would be EASY too!  WRONG… the C & C is flimsy and knots… so time to try something I have never done but only heard of and WAX MY THREAD…

Just slide it through the slot into the wax and s-l-o-w-l-y run the piece through then thread and away you go… or so I had heard… guess what!  That is how it does work!  I haven’t had ANY problems since I started the waxing but the thread just isn’t the same… so in straightening I found an extra roll of:

YLI WHITE 40 wt hand quilting thread for you to win!

To win this thread… I will ship to wherever you are… on this cute wooden spool… from RED ROCK THREADS…. you must:

1. Be a follower via email or google or bloglovin to my blog (if you are already a follower leave 2 comments for 2 entries)
2. Leave a comment on this blog post of what you want to see more of in my blog
3. Explain a project you have that this thread might work for you on :)… but this last one isn’t necessary… I am just interested 🙂

That is it!  So get in your entries and look forward to hearing from you…

This giveaway will happen via random number generator if entries are over 20 and random draw out of a hat if less than 20 on Friday, November 22 at 8 am!  I can catch the mail if I can get ahold of you so make sure you leave me a way to contact you if you are anonymous or a no reply blogger… if I can’t reach you I will do a second drawing from the remaining entries and you will have lost out 😦

Hope you play along.. you will LOVE this thread!

Have a blessed week 🙂

Kathi

Happy November!

We have been very productive here for November 🙂

I got the sweet buzz on Sugar Bee crafts for my Hammock Quilt Finish… check them both out!

 We cleaned the Florida room out and pressure washed it and reorganized it as we filled it back up.

 Where I am set up for hand piecing now… is the part of the table I set my quilted item on for hand quilting… keeps the dirt and my sweet animals off until they are ready 🙂

Behind me is the design board my honey made me 🙂

We found shelving on Craigslist for free and some for cheap that has really helped us reorganize the garage 🙂

Don’t look at the unorganized shelf… my honey say 🙂

The cabinet is actually one we got for FREE and was originally used at a local city fire hall… it is really heavy and all wood with magnets to hold the doors closed!

 So check your local Craigslist for finds!  I even found some quilting fabric there a couple weeks ago… more on that when I use it though 🙂

My daughter has been busy… greeting Halloween

Getting an eye check up

And hanging with friends 🙂

She also needed a chest so we found this great one … on Craigslist… for $40.00 and it is HEAVY and all wood!

And in her room… the thank you pic we sent to the people that sold it to us for so cheap 🙂

And in doing so she cleaned her room for the first time this month! lol  Okay first time in SEVERAL months… but it was clean that day!  Give thanks for what we can right?!!

Daisy has been frolicking and enjoying the fall sunny day we had today for a bit before the overcast skies returned…. check out the aloe in the top left of this pic too!

My honey made a hangar for the hammock to be stored when we aren’t using it… very cool!

And when we are using it I just finished a quilt to abate the windy days and cooler nights that will be greeting us more and more into winter time for the east coast of Florida!

Doesn’t that look inviting???  I love how “quilty” the quilt turned out!  I will be sharing the blog post about it linked at the beginning of this post to several linky parties!  This is my fave finish so far!  We have slept under it a few nights already… just cuz! lol

When we moved the hammock from it “storage spot” we found a friend finding refuge behind it… can you tell what it is???

a sleeping froggy!

 And finally… I have taken a stab at hand piecing… this is what I have done so far… it will be bigger and better… learning with every stitch.  For the record I started this on November 3, 2013.  I have given myself a month to hand piece and hand quilt what will be table toppers for family Christmas presents… Do you hand piece???  Do you hand quilt???  Would you be interested in classes if you knew someone locally???

Hope you have a completely crafty November and don’t forget to share it all on your blog so we can see what you are up to too!  It is fun to share 🙂

Kathi