New quilting machine!

I have a new quilting machine!


There it is! Love, love, love the machine! Not thrilled with the frame. The best thing about the frame is that it would go down to the basement. Other than that, it has no redeeming qualities whatsoever.





Some practicing with the new machine. It's nice!!



This is one of our recent estate sale finds. Husband has been wanting a butter dish with a handle. Normally I just keep butter on a small plate. Butter dishes just get all messy. Well, we found this at an estate sale and couldn't resist! It has a handle like he likes and green pigs. Yes, green pigs. Why? I don't know. What do pigs have to do with butter? Who ever heard of a green pig? Too funny!



And here's our big snow. Haven't seen this much snow ever, and this was a pic before it was said and done. It's been a big snow year for us!

Went sale-ing today!

Found some really fun things this weekend!



A sewing iron. Says so on the box! Works great, nice and light, and has a lovely purple cord. $3. How cool is that?



An unfinished applique quilt complete with pieces to finish it (and matching thread!) and the instructions.


Think all the pieces are really there? Who knows? I figure it will be fun to substitute if they aren't. I was wanting some handwork and here it is! This should keep me busy for a llloooonnngggg time!! $12 for that. Just couldn't resist!

There's a sale clost to my house that's open tomorrow, so I'm going over there before they close to see what's left that is cheap. There were some fun old sheets that would make pretty quilt backs and two Necchi Supernova sewing machines. I have one already, but wouldn't mind having another for the right price. If they are still there tomorrow they just might be the right price!



And my neighbor was throwing this out!!! Eeeeek! It has so many fun fabrics in it!!! She said it had gotten wet and she was afraid it was moldy. I don't think it is, but if it is I think I might take it apart and use the unmoldy pieces. It's just tied, so should be easy to deconstruct. That's just the last resort! I'm planning on it being just fine and using it as is! It's so cute!!


My lovely assistant had a birthday. She's two! Time flies....

Cool finds over the weekend

The quilting machine is back in the shop. It's either breaking the thread, or the tension is wwwaaaayyyyy off. The mechs are starting to say it's me (I don't think so) and I'm starting to think either they just can't figure it out or it's not fixable. This last guy gave me a warranty, so I'm gonna let him play around with it a while. I'm trying to get a hold of someone with the outfit that put the whole thing together, but they have recently gone out of business so that's something of a long shot. Not giving up yet, but extremely frustrated!!! Ack!!! I still think that this machine 'should' work well and I still think I can make that happen before I spend anywhere near what it would cost to buy a new machine. Just wish I could make that happen tomorrow....

In the meantime, found some really fun stuff this weekend while estate saling. Hit a bonanza sale!!!

This was all together in a bag marked 'tatting kit $25'. It was Sunday, which usually means 1/2 off and it was 10 min till they closed, so they gave it to me for $10. That's more than I would normally spend, but I enjoy tatting and the book is worth $10 so I bought it.

This basket is actually something we found a week or so ago at a garage sale. I spent more than I should have on it, too, but I'm a sucker for neat baskets and this one has a sewing machine on the lid (a lid!!) and that made it irresistable.

This was just too cool! All this was in a bag marked 'bobbin lace kit - $25'. Got it for $10, too. Gobs of bobbins, a little thread and an instruction book. Always wanted to learn how to do bobbin lace and now I can! In all my spare time. Ha!!


Something else I find fascinating - wooden spoons. Guess I should say, wooden utensils! I like ones that are an interesting shape or decorative. I have lots of these and love finding them. I rarely use them, but they just make my kitchen look and feel so homey. Got all these for $1. Someday I'll have to blog about the time I set my basket of wooden spoons on fire. It's a pretty good story complete with fire extinguisher, but not exciting enough to include the fire department.


Also got this basket overflowing with tatting thread.

This bag of wool and the spindle was $.50. That's half a dollar. Can you believe it? I haven't looked really closely at the wool or tried to work with it yet, but I think it's felted a little. I'm confident I can fine something cool to do with it if it won't spin or needle felt. Dolly hair, maybe...

And this is (I think) a cushion used for making the bobbin lace. It was $1 and came with lots and lots of pins, a couple of prickings (the patterns for making the bobbin lace - aren't you impressed that I know that?? Read it in the book.) and two bookmarks. For $1!!!!

We also bought a light box for $4. I've always wanted a light box, didn't want to go buy one or build one, so always used the window instead. The problem with that is my sewing room is in the basement. It has windows, but they are tiny and higher up than I can reach. I don't get to do much sewing during the day, so I just don't do things that require a light box. Now I can! Husband and art major son were also excited about the light box. They are just so handy for some things.

This sale was so much fun. The house looked tiny, but there just kept being rooms and rooms and roome.... BIG rooms! They must have built onto this house 3 times, each time building on a big project room. Awesome antiques and more crafting stuff than you could shake a stick at. Painting, sculpting, sewing - way too much fun! We were there on Sunday and I can't imagine what had been there before we came. Didn't find a sewing machine, though.

Just heard back from the guy who built my quilting machine. He gave me a little advice and said he'd work on it if I got desperate (I'm just about there....). Don't want to drive out there (probably a 4 hour drive), so he suggested I ship it to them. Hmmm... We'll see.

You're not going to believe this, but.....

I bought a longarm quilting machine today. At a garage sale. For $200. It's old, it may need some work, and it's not especially long in the arm (10 inches), but it's mine! WOOHOOO!!!

So, the story:

We were doing our usual garage sale thing today. We hit a few down the road and then came back to our neighborhood to hit a few there before we came home. One of those sales was at the home of a neighbor who has lived here forever. She's a terrific lady who was very crafty. She's in the nursing home now and her daughter and son in law live in her house. They have had several garage sales of my neighbor's things and I have bought many things there - quilt tops, fabric, batting and batting and batting and batting.... I was a little disappointed today because there was no fabric there, no batting, just stuff. So we were browsing, looking at things, visiting with neighbors, had picked up a few things to buy, and started talking to the son in law about all the things they had sold and all the things they had left to sell. He mentioned there was a big quilting machine in the back. I asked if it was for sale and he said yes. Not sure if his idea of a big quilting machine and mine were the same, I asked if we could see it and he said yes. We went back to the shed and inside under boxes and chairs and who knows what else was a 12 foot quilting frame with a monster quilting machine on it! I have known this neighbor for over 10 years, been to her house many times, and did not know she owned a quilting machine. I think it's been in that shed since before I knew her. It's from the 80's, needs lots of cleaning and may not even work, but I figure the frame is probably worth $200. I was shocked they were asking so little for it! So we bought it.

Twelve feet is really long. I hadn't ever really thought about how long 12 feet is until today. It's 'really' long. And this frame isn't the easily disassembled kind. This house is only 3 blocks from mine, so we figured if we could just get a trailer we could get it home. We know another neighbor with a trailer, so we went home to ask. He wasn't home. While waiting for him to get home, husband and two sons went to unbury the machine and came home with the head. Took those guys to lunch and trailer neighbor still wasn't home. Ever the clever one, my husband decided we can get the table home with the wagon. Not a station wagon, a Radio Flyer. One end of the table goes on the wagon, he'll carry the other end while I pull. This didn't sound so great to me, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to try it. So we took off down the street with our wagon. It's really rattley when it's empty, so I rode in the wagon and he pulled me. When we got there we realized the wagon on the end would be fine, him carrying the other end wouldn't - it was just too heavy. He had almost brought some of the kids roller skates but hadn't. When we mentioned that to the neighbors they laughed, but also said that might work. They might be as crazy as we are.... They also mentioned that they had a wagon and maybe we could use that on the other end. So we did. Just imagine - a dumpy little woman in flip flops with a really good looking guy walking down your neighborhood street pulling/pushing a 12 foot quilting table on two Radio Flyer wagons. That would be us!

We live in the absolute best neighborhood on the planet. I know this is true because 3 neighbors stopped and asked if we needed help. The next question was, "What 'is' that?" And you know they love us because if they didn't they would have just driven right on by and pretended not to see the crazy couple with all those kids rolling down the street with whatever that monstrous thing is. So we can never move. Except now I have a 12 foot quilting frame in my living room because it's too big to get down to the basement where all my quilting things are! I thought I had a big living room until today. It's not nearly as big as I thought it was.... So we may need to move so we can house the quilting machine. Because I'm keeping it. Forever.

So, that's today's adventure. My mom is going to read this and think, "You can't afford to come see us in Branson but you can afford to spend $$$ on 'that'?" So anybody reading this who gets it, please comment that you are at least as crazy as me and would have done the same thing? Maybe not rolled it home on two wagons, but would have jumped at the chance to buy it? Please???

This is the table in my living room.

Ignore the mess, I'm pretending it's messy because we moved everything to get the machine in.

This is how far it sticks out farther than the couch. Yikes!!!




Here's the head.

This is the frame in my driveway on the wagons - are you laughing?

And one of the most wonderful man in the world. He has to be - who else would let his wife buy a 25+ year old monstrosity of a machine with precious $$$ and then wagon it down the street in front of everybody? And THEN nearly kill himself and oldest son getting it in the house? He must be the most wonderful man ever. Note the joy on his face.....I think it's really "What was I thinking when I let her do this?"

The cutest thing ever! Really!

Check this out! Teeny tiny cupcakes, ladybugs and stars on pins!!!

They are much cuter in person. I saw online someplace that someone had made some of these with shrinky dink stuff. When I started surfing to find the tutorial again, I couldn't find it. BUT!! I did find another tutorial about using other plastic to shrink, so I tried it and it worked! This tutorial (which I can't find either....) said that clear plastic with a recycling code '6' will shrink and that you can find it on deli type stuff. I found this on top of a rotisserie chicken from Walmart. Washed it, colored it with Sharpies, punched it out with craft punches (which was super hard, so had muscle bound son and husband do that part), stuck a pin through each one, stuck the pin into a potato, put the potato in the oven at 350 for about 30 sec (give or take.....) and presto! Wallah! Cutest pins ever!!! I hate pins. They're so much easier to use and less irritating if they are cute. It's hard to see the colors in the pic, but the silver did the best, I think. I might try paint pens next time. I gotta get some more craft punches...

And here are some monkey wrench blocks that followed me home from an estate sale this weekend. They are all hand pieced! There are some other ones, but I forgot to take pics of them. I'll try to remember to do that tomorrow.

And then there was 'this' beautiful thing that I found at the same sale. For $10!!! It has it's original warranty (lifetime!) that says it was purchased in 1962. And you know what? I don't think it's been sewn on more than a couple of times. It's clean as a whistle and runs buttery smooth. And it's the heaviest machine I've ever come across! Has all it's attachments. Does a zigzag. Even the bobbin tire is in good shape. I've been trying not to accumulate a bunch of machines, but I just couldn't resist this one. Big sister likes it cuz it's green. She's into green.

OH! The spider left. It rained the next day and I guess she didn't like the rain. Haven't seen her since. Which is a little scary.....

Estate Sale find

Here's a lovely little lady that I found at an estate sale this weekend. Paid all of 50 cents for her! She was marked $1, but everything was half off.


Someone had decided to make a pillow out of her and had stitched a back and a ruffle all around, but never stuffed it. The back and ruffle were poorly made, a sharp contrast to this block. It is nicely appliqued with very neat embroidery accents.

I have liberated her from the pillow trappings and she is now awaiting a new life as something else. For now she's an orphan block! I think she would be really pretty with scrappy floral fabrics all around her. Maybe a braid? I have this 'thing' about making small stuff. I don't know why. I think the quilt police in my head keep whispering "small stuff is just for decoration, you can't really 'use' it, so what is the point?". I think she might be lonely as the center of a big quilt all by herself. Maybe she will join some other orphan blocks someday in a quilt. My list of things to do include something with orphan blocks, so maybe even someday soon! For now, she is happy to be free of the pillow.

Today I got two more pinafores cut out and I'm also working on cutting out more 'stuff' to make little books.