My new old addition

I can't turn down a sewing machine. My favorite uncle told me that he had an old singer in a neat 30's or 40's cabinet that belonged to my grandma and he wondered if I wanted it. I kinda don't have the space, but I know that he needs the space that it was taking up in his house even more, so I said ok and cleared out a spot in my sewing room. Isn't it beautiful?

so simple, so heavy duty - just forward and backward and I think there's a stitch length adjustment. plus, there were neat things in all the drawers

(see how cool and curved the drawers are?) like a button box and a couple incredibly complicated button hole attachments. Unfortunately, it probably hasn't been used in 20 years or more and it needs some tuning up. It was going real slow at first and we oiled up all the spots that looked like oil ports (it actually has spots with little felt wicks where it'll hold oil and dispense it as needed!) and my uncle is super good at working on stuff like that so he knew some stuff to look at and as a result, I now know what a worm gear does! For a while it was working pretty well, but then it started going downhilll again. I think I'm going to take it to someone because I'm betting that all the oil that was there is pretty gunked up after 20 years of sitting idle and our addition of new oil may not be enough to get it going. Fortunately the motor itself works great (we disengaged the clutch and let it run full out - so it's obviously just the moving gears that are bogging it down.) And there are no belts or electronics, of course, so it's just mechanical parts that need to be cleaned up. the cord could also use to be rewired, which I'm sure I could do, but because that's not the only thing involved, I think I'll have to find a hospital for her! I did a search online and found a few around here and some up in Columbus - anybody around here have a recommendation? I'm kind of afraid I won't be able to find someone who knows how to work on these things - just folks who are used to changing out motherboards and electronic cards on new machines!

someday my spring will come

Ok, it has to be like 60 degrees out there today! and I'm not stupid - it's ohio and it will, without a doubt, get super cold again before spring is really here - it's only February after all, but I love it when it gets like this! It's the first taste of spring and it always makes me all excited!

today, before it got too dark, I went out with a shovel and started chopping up this big pile of yard scraps that I've been throwing in the back corner of my yard. I tell myself that they'll "mulch right down" over the winter, but I know I'm lying to myself and that it's just my excuse to be lazy and pile the crap there because I don't feel like dealing with it! Then in the spring and summer, big scary spiders start living the the pile so I can't do what really needs to be done which is hack it all up into smaller bits with a shovel - because obviously the spiders will bite and kill me. So this year, I went out early - while it was still too cold for spiders, and guess what!? it really did compost a bit - it's sort of black and nice! Well, the parts that aren't twigs and dried plants which I was too lazy to do anything with. So I chopped some of them up and spread it around as much as I could - and broke a sweat doing yard work, in February no less! I didn't take a picture because it's just a big wet pile of dirt and yard waste. and speaking of dirt that isn't fit to photograph yet, I started some tomatoes, peppers and flowers in my basement! my gardening co-workers all say "it's too early! it's too early!" but they can suck it because I NEED to do this now. besides, there's no doubt that I'll put them outside too early too - because they'll be big before it's really safe to plant them outside and I'll lie to myself again about the chance of frost probably being past...it's just what I do!

finally big enough!

It occurred to me that I still wanted to add a solid border to my quilt top so I checked the size by flopping it over the bed again and decided that it really was finished!! I added a 6" solid red border to it and now it's slightly wider than the quilt I have on the bed now. I got a very promising lead on someone who'll quilt it for a fantastic price and I'm pretty much thinking that's the way to go. I was sort of dreading trying to do the quilting on a full sized quilt myself. Smaller ones, like baby size, haven't been too bad, but it seems like a real battle to wrestle something this big. One of these days I'll try it, but I think this one might just get sent away!