Fiona’s grand reveal & a little rant too!!!

I found Fiona, my Morse 600 ~ 1950’s model straight stitch only class 15 Toyota made sewing machine, on Craiglist, about an hours drive from our home.  We picked her up on November 26 🙂  Here she was…

And here are a few pics I took when we first got her on this blog post!

And today… here she is all dressed up for a party thanks to my handy honey!

Doesn’t she look lovely!  And nothing for me to snag or catch on … and a wider work surface to sew on and still be portable!!!  LOVE THAT!

I made the prairie pointed cozy/rug and blogged about it last week here…

It matches my ironing board cover 🙂

Here she is fully dressed…

This was a Christmas present from my honey and the great thing is…

• we did it together!
• it cost less than $100 total!!
• she sews smoother than ever now 🙂

Okay so here is the real story…

My honey planned it but asked for my input… we looked at the old original base for necessities and looked at some cabinets online but nothing struck my fancy… or his… so off to Lowes we went with a meager budget of $30 for OAK!

We added Ribbon to be a handle to the drawer on the side…

Fits my big ginghers and all Fiona’s tools!

Love her two-toned look on the cabinet door closed 🙂

We had the stain colors we wanted from previous works of art… so away my honey went … he planned and measured and planned and cut… meanwhile I looked into jewelry.. what kind of name could I find for her and… and what to do about handles…

The handles were found and the clasps to hold her closed when traveling were found…

But mostly I was obsessed with her name being on the case somewhere… hopefully the base not the top so I could see it anytime I was using her or not! lol

So after ordering her name from an Etsy shop I waited and waited… anxiously wanting to see HER name in lights that would shine on this case my honey had so lovingly made and adored…

However, the name came out looking nothing like Fiona or her personality… so we used the cute heart attached to the bottom of the name… and found she would give a partial refund since we the name was unclear to us in how she wrote it… took the refund and headed to Hobby Lobby where we found Amy Tangerine thick fabric stickers we glued on with super glue get then a couple coats of varnish 🙂

Ta Dah!  She is officially named now 🙂  And my honey even found this cool leftover wood from the project to mount her name on in light oak and her heart on on dark mahogany stains… all still oak! 🙂  Yippee!  Do you see the grain of this woood… it is an arrow or chevron pointed shape.. LOVE!

Now… do you want a rant from me telling the good and bad of online shopping or would you rather me leave this post as is???  I shop online A LOT because I love cool one of a kind things… so I can share that with you in a future post… but for now… just make sure you read the fine print before agreeing and paying.  That fine print is all what is important to the seller.  Let’s you know more about them…

As for me… back to marking my honey’s quilt… right now… working on swirly feathers in the sashings 🙂  Have a great Friday and a Happy Weekend before Christmas!

Sorry I don’t rant well btw! hehe… but if you want more rant I have it… and can share it if you are interested so comment and let me know what you think of Fiona.. think of online purchases…. do they meet, exceed or fall short of your desired outcome???

Merry Christmas Season!

This great Finish is linked to:
Richard & Tanya quilts here
Whooping a Finish with Sarah here
Lorna @ Sew Fresh Quilts here

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Meet Fiona ~ My "new to me" 1950-s MORSE 600 :)

Fiona

Is my new-to-me approximately 1950’s sewing machine.  She has a body made in Japan by Toyota then she was shipped to the US where she got her motor.  It is dated 1956.  I have written to sewtoyota to see if they can tell me exactly when she was manufactured.  I found her on Craigslist for $15.00!!!  In barely working but great stitches produced order 🙂

My honey fixed her up using his know-how skills

And we used an old Singer I had inherited from my great Aunt Kathleen that doesn’t work at all anymore…

with a close up of her… unnamed but beautiful and not sure of her year 🙂

Her decals are still good but her motor was all burned up… so we used her tension knob for the missing one on Fiona…

 Also we harvested this plate that was on the back of the Singer to cover the hole for servicing Fiona that had been lost on her travels to her forever home…

Isn’t this lovely!  I would have missed it but my honey didn’t!

She has nice chrome in need of a polish but nothing more :)…

And a great condition sticker on her plate…

 And I love her nameplate… it is in excellent condition I think 🙂

 Her presser foot looks more like a darning or fmq type foot… so I am looking into one that will serve my quilt piecing purposes…

Finally we replaced her belts from our local Joann’s 🙂  She has 2.. one to run the machine and one to wind the bobbin…

no belts here…

nice new belts here 🙂

Of course we had to download the manual for it… 17 pages of wonderful info and worth the $10 we paid to download it 🙂

Meanwhile I continue writing to you and quilting … backstitching on the table topper I am working on as a Christmas present…

Hope you find time for yourself this weekend!

thanks for tolerating this post but I had no info when I bought this machine and if someone is new to vintage machines or this specific machine I want them to find out more info that I did 🙂

Have a blessed weekend!

How do you spend the day after Thanksgiving??

Yesterday I finally decided on a quilt design for the project I am working on for this table topper…

do you like this one…

or this one???

 While we pondered the two ideas… the first being my daughters idea:) … we enjoyed a hearty meal that we had never tried called Chicken Divan… yummy!  With pecan pie for dessert!  Double yummy 🙂

Today the kids are all with friends or napping and I am quilting… and my honey is working on my “new to me” sewing machine!

And I am sewing these with a backstitch instead of a running stitch.. what do you think of this angel ?

The tension is a bit tight but I have adjusted that for the second one.. and pinned the area a bit more for stability…

I obviously have more talent with a needle and thread than I do with a pen… but they will love it and use it I hope and not laugh at my angelic attempt! Ha! 

You see this is for my brother who is married to a lovely girl and they have 4 kids 🙂  Lots of wrestling going on with this table topper I bet!

 Here is a cute Thanksgiving funny someone posted on my fb page!  Thought I would share with you too!

Have a lovely weekend.  And try to make some time for you this weekend!  You are worth it 🙂

So how do YOU spend the day after Thanksgiving???

Happy Thanksgiving my Bloggy Family ~

Today on facebook I posted this as my holiday greeting to my close friends/family…
 

 I am mainly on facebook to interact with the Celebrate Hand Quilting page here and another page I will talk more about later.  I do also play wwf but most of my “friends” are fam and friends back in TN…

But the ones I share my faves and highs and lows is you!  You see I also use this as a journal as I have memory issues… so you get to find more out about me that other blogs so I can keep up with what happened and when just by reviewing posts… lol!  Love you all btw 🙂

So I continue to hand quilt on the second table topper…

Can you see that there are 2 diamonds in the center?

and an over view

And I have gotten it bound… machined to one side and hand sewn to the back… my daughter helped with this!  Very fun 🙂

Then we went on a Craigslist adventure and came home with this!

 It is a beautiful Morse 600 machine made in the 1940’s to 1960’s (still researching it.. may take a while)… got her on a local craigslist for $15!!!  She is HEAVY and all metal and very shiny and sews like a dream… straight stitch only.

This brings me to my latest facebook group called Vintage Sewing Machines… links to all of these will be at the end to make it easier for us both 🙂

I do like to play WWF on facebook… so if you play that and feel competitive look me up!  I keep that leaderboard busy but always looking for new competition 🙂

If you want to see me in my home environment the place I enjoy most on fb is Patchwork Friends… just close quilty friends… some I know.. some I am related to.. and some I have never met .. yet! lol  It is small and quaint and we chat ALL things quilty there.

So to make this easy… here are links to the 3 closed groups I belong to that I would love to see you in sometime if quilting and sewing is your thing..

Celebrate Hand Quilting ~ 1500+ members ~ very active group HERE by Caron Mosey
Vintage Sewing Machines ~ 2000+ members ~ very active group HERE by Starlee Simmons

Patchwork Friends ~ less than 100 members ~ moderate active group but where I feel most at home… HERE by me 🙂

Hope to see you if you don’t already belong to one of these if they fit your lifestyle 🙂  If not check out what boards suite your interests… tell me what you found.. and take a minute to be thankful…

For your Life!  

Have a very blessed day today and forever… be good to you!