Ivorine and Silver Pin Pot

Hello

My mum used to have a sweet little pin pot when I was a kid but I hadn't seen it for donkey's years.  When we were clearing out the house I thought that we might find it but alas no sign of it.

I spotted this on Ebay so had to have it, there was some dosh in my Paypal Account so I left a bid.

The silver writing has a London hallmark for 1902 with the makers mark for Casimer Widmer & Sons of St Johns Street, Clerkenwell, London, the box itself is ivorine which is an early plastic (celluloid) but it has the appearance of ivory.  Much more elephant friendly.

Not sure it if was for sewing pins (I like to think so) but more likely for an elegant lady's hair pins.  Put a bobbin so that you can see what size it is. Cute.

It is very delicate as the ivorine is so finely made so it will be easy to break which probably explains what happened to Mum's.  Think that I will just look at it rather than use it. Wouldn't want to break something that is 113 years old.

Cheers
Sharon

Wadding Too Thick Quilt

Hello

I like to give my quilts names, for example, Snuggle Quilt.  This quilt should have the name "Wadding Too Thick!"

I got carried away when buying some wadding for my hexagon quilt, so some unknown reason apart from being an idiot skinflint, bought thick polyester wadding instead of cotton wadding.  It was loads cheaper but wasn't wide enough so would need to be joined, problem No. 1, the fibres stick to the feed dogs.  So it was rolled up and its stayed there for a couple of years.  I lined the hexagon quilt with an old blanket which didn't work too well either so it still unfinished.  The hexagon quilt is jinxed.

Made this quilt top ages a go when I first got my Featherweight but again, another unfinished project.  I dug it out, and again to save money decided to use up the wadding, my Yorkshire genes coming out, we don't like wasting anything.

Was going to have a go at free motion quilting but it was too bulky for easy moving under the hopping foot.  So got the Featherweight's walking foot out and tried it on the 201, it fit yippeee.  So quilted with straight lines (well nearly straight, it was a tight fit).

Here is the walking foot, got it from America from the wonderful April at  April1930 Walking Foot.  I have only used it for putting the binding on quilts as I normally hand quilt.

Bulky wadding.

The pretty pink fabric is vintage Linda Beard polyester cotton which is really soft to touch.

Back to that name?  Its a really "cozy quilt" so perhaps that should be its name, will embroider a name tag for it.

Regards
Sharon

Heaven - Great British Sewing Bee

Hello

It's Thursday night, got a half bottle of red wine and watching the The Great British Sewing Bee

Great British Sewing Bee

This week, sewing with Lace, it even had a bit about bobbin lace making.  I made bobbin lace for years, might have to dust off my bobbins and give it another go.

I really admire the contestants, sewing difficult things against the clock, I would have a nervous breakdown.

Cheers
Sharon

Tweed Notebook Cover - Present for a Chap

Hello

It's my partners brother's birthday so thought I would have a go making a present for him using some tweed suiting fabric that I have had stashed for years.  Its lovely fine wool I think.  It was hard not to pretty it up with girly stuff!

Cheers

Sharon

Irish Chain Wedding Quilt

Hello

My old school friend's daughter is getting married in March so rashly I thought that I would make a patchwork quilt as a wedding present.  Asked and her favourite colour is blue.

Pieced the top a while ago but have been stalling making the quilt up.  Its tricky to get all the layers of the quilt straight and flat, laying it on the floor at home isn't really an option cos Buzz sheds his coat everywhere. If the quilt had been just for me, I wouldn't bother too much but its for a wedding present and don't want to mess it up.

Then had a brainwave, found a use for my late Dad's front room while the house is empty, somewhere to lay my quilt sandwich.  Yippee, with room to crawl round it while I tack it together with my nifty tag gun.

The hand quilting took quite a while but when the weather is cold, its the best way to pass the time, sitting on the sofa with a cozy quilt draped over me.

Finished it yesterday, doing the final bit sewing the 7.5 metres of binding on.

#

I like to put a label on my quilts, I normally make a heart shaped one, their wedding invitations had a little wooden heart attached, so having a artist in the house was handy, he drew me a larger version of it which I| traced onto some fabric.  The colour theme for the wedding is a crimson red so despite this quilt being blue, the embroidery (I use this term loosely, embroidery is not my strong point) has been done in red.  Hope the red doesn't run when they have to wash it, might do a test first so that I can warn them.

All wrapped up and ready to go

Hope they like it.

Oh, Buzz rounded up a pig (in his mind, it wandered up to the fence and was oblivious that he was even there, hee hee)

Cheers

Sharon

Patchwork Notebook Covers

Hello

Been having a go at covering note books.  Had some left over fabric from the patchwork baby quilt.  It was fun to do.

Played with my new Singer Embroidery foot on the Featherweight trying to learn free motion quilting.  The small notebook is a Liberty print with the flowers picked out with orange thread, its not perfect by a long way but as I quilted with the machine, the easier it became.  I found that if I turned the fabric too quickly, it skipped stitches so steady away was the way to go making sure that the stitches had caught before setting off.  It finished off with some vintage bias binding which was a perfect match.

Cheers

Sharon

 

Singer 221 Featherweight Free Motion Quilting/Embroidery Foot Simanco 121094

Hello

Been on a bit of a spending spree to cheer myself up.  This icy weather is making me anxious despite having grips on my boots when dog walking.  Roll on Spring.

I have always admired anyone that could do free motion embroidery on a sewing machine.  Did have a go once on my "modern" (1980's Toyota machine) which can drop the feed dogs.  It was disaster, despite having the correct foot, I just couldn't control the stitching, was totally defeated so gave up never to try again until now.

When browsing Ebay for Singer attachments, found this reproduction feed dog cover for my Featherweight at a price of £23 which seems a lot for such a tiny thing until you see the cost of an original Singer part, the last one I saw on internet was £90, eye watering!  Only ever seen the odd one for sale so very rare.

All I needed to go with it was an Embroidery foot, Singer made a special "hopping" for the Featherweight 221 (Simanco 121094).  Again, a fairly rare item but they do come up now and again.  Missed one on Ebay for £14.99 got sidetracked and forgot about the listing (doh).  Did find one but ended up paying twice the price, hey ho.  It arrived in the post, again such a dinky little thing.

Put them on the machine, set the stitch length at zero.  Made a little quilt sandwich and jumped in with both feet and wrote my name!  Wow, so easy to control, the featherweight sews steady away, no zooming out of control.  A joy to use.

Here is the first ever attempt which I don't think it too bad for a total beginner, can read the words (well almost all of them).

Will have to look at UTube for the quilting techniques and patterns but awesome, so chuffed.

I had borrowed this plastic Singer foot off my stitchery friend Sarah, again another embroidery foot but much later date, its huge compared with the the other foot but seeing its a low shank foot, tried it on my machine, it worked fine so this is a suitable alternative which would be cheaper to buy.

Off to practice

A WORD OF CAUTION - IF USING A FEATHERWEIGHT FOR FREE MOTION QUILTING/EMBROIDERY - YOU MUST LET THE MOTOR COOL DOWN REGULARLY - DON'T QUILT FOR LONG PERIODS OF TIME YOU WILL DAMAGE IT

Cheers
Sharon