6 years blogging y’all & still so much to share!

Happy Sunday… lots to share including a 6 year Anniversary Celebration here too!

So above are 6 candles on my celebration cake!!! lol

This has been a crazy busy week… yet I still made headway with my slow stitching progress….

 Above is my frame this morning when I woke… and a close up of that is below with the legend of my progress…

 Below is that same area completed for you 🙂  60% done now!!!!

 Here is the t-shirt I recently got… I love it!!!

It says “Live well ~ Laugh Loud ~ Quilt often”  !!!  It is very cozy cotton fabric 😍

I am linking on this fun quilty progress to Kathy’s Slow Stitching Sunday post HERE!  Come and see what others are linking on this happy Sunday!!!

I also woke this morning to confirmation my bestie is coming for a visit for our birthday’s in July!!! I am mega excited!!!

I told you this week was very busy… well we also have been getting used to a new addition in the house…

Wednesday we went to LOOK but then came home with a new vehicle!  We have named her Cassie as she is Caspian Blue color… it is a deep metallic blue with silver trim… but occasionally she really looks a deep purple too! Totally love at first drive for us both!!!

My honey got an N scale train on eBay last week and finally felt good enough to try it all out this week…

This scale is small but so cute and ornate… it also came with some buildings but since he is currently on medications for his cold that are making him jittery… those will have to wait to be added to the decor of this train 🙂

Here is my honey driving Cassie down the beach with the tide out quite a bit too!

We also went shopping for a couple other things we needed and found very cool place to keep our oil can collection…

 A wood shadow box with glass front we can now hang on the wall!!!

 And here is Francis our White sewing machine from the early 1900’s in a Martha Washington case…

She is now closed back up and decorated with a clone of a Willcox & Gibbs machine and a cool old Singer chain stitch childs toy machine also from the early 1900’s…

Change can be nice…. progress is good… funny when I reflect though on my first blog posts… they are about eBay sales… well we still sell on eBay but now instead of clothes and misc… we are selling vintage sewing parts and supplies 🙂  HERE is the link to some cards we are selling on eBay.  From there you can view other items if you are interested… we don’t have a store there…

eBay has gotten harder to deal with and more expensive for selling while PayPal has become more central and handy to use! lol
For our Singer Featherweight sales we use Facebook primarily with PayPal for invoicing and security!

Thanks for stopping in … thanks for celebrating with me and us… and hope you have a blessed day today!!!

Make time today to show you …

😚

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Weekend Hodge Podge ~ April 2014

Welcome to my corner of blogland… today I have lots to share! 

So I am calling it a Hodge Podge… I have a bloggy friend who follows someone that does this on Wednesdays… answers misc. questions for fun and to share more of herself with her bloggy friends… so I am gonna do my version this weekend!

What are you passionate about?

Currently I am hand quilting ~ my major passion IS hand quilting right now! I am making my honey a quilt that will be a queen throw size… very large! lol

You can see a snippet of what I am currently working on by viewing my blog on it’s own page instead of in a reader!  My blog header changes every month or so with a pic of what I am working on featured somewhere on it 🙂

Here is block #10 on my count down…

I am now about 3/4 done with this block!  WhOOP!!!

I am also passionate about vintage sewing machines and own 3…

not one Singer in the bunch either 🙂  You can see 2 of my vintage machines in my header… sweet Fiona and reliable Francis… I recently added a zig zagger Japanese class 15 clone I named Nelly to my little group of machines… I only sew to repair things or to piece/bind quilts.. so these machines do all I need!  Check out my post on how easy vintage is to care for by yourself HERE!

Prefer a modern machine??? Check out the Janome I am selling on Ebay here…

gently used and ready to go!

What is your favorite form of social media?

I like facebook best.  You can find me on Patchwork Friends (my own fb quilty friends group) here to request entry as it is closed to quilty folks only… both machine and hand quilting happens there and no advertising or sharing sales stuff… currently doing a QAL:

for which I have these 6 spool blocks done…

I am also a member of other quilt groups on facebook and have chosen to make my facebook page a quilty place to be… so many of my previous fb friends have slowly gone away to make room for current and more appropriate friends to fit the no political stuff policy I am adopting for facebook 🙂

My fave place is a place just for hand quilters called Celebrate Hand Quilting group.  You can request entry here… and Caron or Janet will grant you access if you are a quilty person and this sounds like something you would like go for it because the eye candy and knowledge shared there for hand quilting techniques is nothing short of AMAZING!

I Pinterest for remembering ideas and keep a running page each year of ideas…. here is 2014’s page 🙂

I don’t tweet, or instagram or anything else… I am almost 50 so I feel pretty hip as I am 🙂 HA!

So that was only 2 questions… but I hope this gives you a better feel of who I am… would love to hear any questions you have for me!  I can answer them in next weekends Hodge Podge… and I haven’t even shown you the back yard yet!!!!  So subscribe if you haven’t and come back to visit!

I blog about twice a week usually and cover all aspects of quilting, home reno, beautiful outdoor shots I take from my own back yard, funny moments in our lives, and whatever I need written down to remember… my blog is an ongoing scrapbook of sorts for me!  Hope you enjoy the ride with me!

In closing I have an icon I made below with my motto for 2014!  Read more about what it means here.

Linking this post to Confessions of a Fabric Addict Whoop! Here 🙂
Wish Adam a Happy Birthday by going to where I linked at SEWjo Saturday with Kim Here!
Check out Kathy’s quilt ready for binding at Slow Sunday Stitching!  Here 🙂

Happy St. Patty’s Day :)

I do have a little irish in my blood but have never been one to like beer… much less green beer! lol  So we thrifted some today… and came home to find this in the mail…

and while we had been out I had bought the jar with glittery sea shells.. the other shells are from another area of our home… my dd picked them to join the beautiful vase full of shells 🙂

Also while we were out today I stopped by my local big box office supply store and got a book spiral bound … it only cost $6.00 for the service!  SCORE!!!

Last week my brother and his family came to visit… we celebrated my mom’s birthday at a local restaurant 🙂  While we were waiting we snapped this pic of my dd with her cousins 🙂

The next day my dd showed them our local park and they got a little excited and formed this cool pyramid!

We had a great visit and a fun time was OBVIOUSLY had by all!

What fun things do you have in your week’s plan?  Today I am hand quilting on a green block on my current project … you can see the project in my blog header if you are reading this in your reader 🙂

Have a blessed week!

Terrific Tuesday ~ Francis is named!

Lots of fun stuff happening here… and just wanted to break into your week and share 🙂

My honey named the 1928 White Rotary ….

Francis ~ after the mother and daughter of the Martha Washington cabinet he just finished a great reno on!  Take a look at her 🙂

This is what she looked like in her original “outfit”… the sides are off in these pics for reno already!

And here she is after many painstaking hours of stripping, and sanding, then staining.. then touching up, then varnishing several times!!!
Tad-ah!!!

 Inside the right hand door is a GREAT place for the power cord to stay hidden… my honey rewired the case but not the machine as it was in good order already… that cost $3.00 at Lowes.  Did I tell you this wonderful machine and cabinet came to us FREE on Craigslist locally???

Anyway, the door is a cool place to store thread… but there is more!  Look closer 🙂

Look at that cool little brass oil can that has a little home… my honey plans to “reno” that can so I can use it for oiling my machines when I use them… something vintage machines need regularly I am told! lol
And on the top of the door is a hidden door with this brass plate … “Martha Washington Model”.

The left side is a “pocket” of sorts… and was typical on this sewing machine cabinet when first produced.  It came with special hinges to move the lid of the drawer out of the way and back into place… but the wood there is past worn out so I told my honey to leave it.. it is part of her history.. he still sanded a LOT! lol… but her previous life still shows through a bit!  Francis is a good strong name for the good strong machine and cabinet she is though!

 Inside that pocket are the original manuals and a box that says “Eaton” on it that is full of…

 Stuff! lol

A needle threader like I used! A tatting shuttle… lots of attachments too! And…

needles in this holder for the machine!  I snatched these quick as I did a cool stilleto! 😀

 Now that I have showed you where she came from… take another look at her…

 Isn’t Francis in a beautiful cabinet!  I love how she is dressed… but now more about her!!!

She was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1928.  All other history is unknown… she sews great though and now she has a beautiful renewed case to last the rest of her life 🙂

Close up of her name plate 🙂

Look at all the cast iron scroll work on the bed, the front …

add the far end too!  So Beautiful!

Francis has a nice BIG wheel on her!

… And a view from the top!

 In this view here you can see the knee pedal inside the cabinet and the bottom drawer fronts disappear into the cabinet as part of the mechanism cantilever system Francis was originally engineered with…

She is a straight stitch only… and has a matte finish on the cast iron called “crinkled” finish.  Her wheel needs to be rechromed and she could use a bit more scrubbing… but look at this below!

She sews like a dream!

We played with her quite a bit and the stitch length indicator works well and initially she needed MAJOR tlc in the oiling and running department… you can see now she is ready for whatever we send her way!

So total investment…

Gas to pick her up (she was a Craigslist FREE find)                                            $5.00
1 week labor…                                                                                                      Sweat!
Stain and varnish we already had…
We bought stripper and have leftovers                                                                 $12.00
We bought sandpaper                                                                                             $6.00
We bought an extension cord for rewiring…                                                          $3.00
>>> Knowledge in all those areas!!!<<<<                                                     Priceless!!!
Total                                                                                                                    $26.00!

So if you have the knowledge of refinishing furniture or are handy enough to learn it try it!  But if you don’t get electricity take the extension cord to your sewing machine person and let them do it for you!  Electricity is nothing to mess with and you could short out your whole machine working with old wiring… luckily Francis has perfect condition wiring… but her cord from the cabinet was DANGEROUS!  So we didn’t even plug her in til we changed that out.  We did not test her when we got her in that condition because she was FREE 🙂

Hope you have enjoyed these pics 🙂  I enjoyed having a sunny day to take pics in! lol