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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Finishing up on the cozy/rug :)

I had hoped to share on Kathy’s slow stitching Sunday here… check out all the great handwork going on… but the only pic I could have shared of hand stitching is this one… my last row to stitch 🙂

And this my overall done now time to figure out that pairie point border!

So first I trimmed the edges above to 1/4″ bigger than the quilt top… to give the bottom layer extra “fudge” room for my plan on finishing this up 🙂

Then I turned the whole thing over and pinned back the backing piece… to reveal all that batting (I used 2 layers of leftover batting for this project).

Then to trim the batting back so that the seams from the prairie point border will fold back and meet them like they do in this pic….

Yippee!  I trimmed off just enough… had to sliver trim a couple places but mostly it played nice 🙂

Finally I pinned down the backing like I wanted it to look… finally I took it back to my Janome and added a straight stitch finish to catch all the borders and a decorative edge finish inside that … pretty fancy stuff!

 All turned out well as you will see in the grand reveal when her name comes in and is placed on the case 🙂  For now I pet her often and talk to her too… shhhh don’t tell anyone though! lol

Do you name your sewing machines??? Do you have any specially handmade things that adorn your machine… maybe a spool doily??  I would love to have one of those next… 🙂  Only problem is I don’t crochet… my fingers don’t move that way… anyone up for making me a spool cozy next!?? hehe 🙂

Have a wonderful Christmas season and take time to enjoy it!

It is a Friday to WHOOP about :)

Have you ever been happy to close the books on a week and see Friday come??? I sure have this week… we have been so busy… but I took a little time to show you some progress we have made this week!

Starting with my sweet girl Capo… she is 15 1/2 years old… senile… and silly these days… she just came back from being groomed though and wanted to primp for the camera! lol  Her groomer gifted us the sweetest ornament for the Christmas tree for her 🙂  Whoop!

My daughter is all into the rubber band bracelets… well let me tell you she is mastering it and enjoying herself and really using thought process to do it… I am loving that addition this week!  Whoop!!

Next pic is a big whoop, with my busy week anyway… I am over halfway done hand quilting the little rug to be a cozy for my new sewing machine table top cabinet my honey is making me for Christmas… I am only doing a simple 1″ cross hatch…

I marked with graphite and have fabric erasers by Sewline coming in the mail from here 🙂

Right side DONE!  WHOOP!

Second side cross marked to stabilize ~ now let the quilting begin!!!

 The navy with sea water and fish is a preview of an upcoming project I am still planning and gathering for… but work has been done on that this week 🙂  It is for my favorite therapist… she will use it in her office… it is 27 x 45 panel I will quilt larger and embellish and quilt with gold thread!!!  Any helpful hints for dealing with hand quilting gold irridescent thread??? lol

Next is the case my honey has been devoting quite a bit of time too… yesterday morning it looked like this…

Heading to get sanded and the base stained 🙂

Now it sanded with rounded corners… the base is two toned inside but not out.. and we went shopping today for “jewelry” for Fiona!  The grand reveal with rug/cozy, cabinet and machine should be very soon!!!  Stay tuned 🙂  WHOOP!!!!

Finally is a project I am sure you will see a lot of.. It will take me 2 to 3 months to handquilt it.  It will be my 11th quilted item and made especially for my honey THE MAN quilt I call it now 🙂  He has to name it as it comes to life!

The templates arrived today so now to finish this cozy and get to marking his quilt top and get it sandwiched!!!  Those are my weekend plans anyway.. see if “other” things pop up as they have all week! lol

Linking to:
Confessions of a Fabric Addict ~ Sarah ~ here!

Finally back to stitching!

Wow!  I haven’t written since Sunday!  Hope you like the grainy blog header but I wanted something Christmassy and everything I have made I can’t post there yet! lol 

It turned into quite a busy week and not much time for quilting really til yesterday… then I zipped through one side of the cozy

here is the cozy Wednesday … not quite half done yet!

 I am working on for Fiona to sit on in the cabinet being fashioned for her by my honey for my Christmas present… Fiona was my Christmas present to me! lol

Here she is trying out her new case… the base if finished but the red oak we got hasn’t been stained yet… I chose a mahogany stain with a contrasting honey oak for the larger flat parts you don’t see there yet 🙂  Soooo excited about this!!!

Here is the cozy/rug this morning after some early morning stitching!

Note the left side is marked but yet to be stitched… I better hurry! lol

Close up of stitches 🙂

You can read more about how I designed this cozy for my tabletop machine here.

Meanwhile I patiently wait for the stencils to be delivered for my honey’s quilt.  It is ready to be marked and sandwiched.. patiently waiting hanging neatly over some soft backed dining room chairs 🙂

 And I did squeeze in some time sewing with my dd 🙂  She is the mastress of buttonholes on that Janome machine I don’t like but she LOVES!  Yipee 🙂 

So what is on your Christmas list… do you buy your own gifts???  Do you give of your time or money to help others less fortunate???  How do you celebrate for you???  Would love to hear!!!