Bloom Along Quilt

Hello

My sewing has been very neglected recently, my garden takes a lot of looking after in the summer and that's on top of my customers gardens.   But gardening 7 days a week makes Sharon a very unhappy girl!  So took a bit of a break from it this last weekend and did a bit of sewing.

First made a pressy for someone special.  Liked it sew much, made another 2 for good measure.

Heart shaped pin cushions with a handy scissor pocket.

Put some home grown lavender in the filling so they smell nice too.

Then I tackled the Lori Holt Bloom along quilt.  I have had the blocks done for ages but couldn't decide how I would do the borders.  Finally made up my mind after much dithering (which is not like me at all).  Put a border sash around each block so its slightly different to Lori's  (Bloom Along Quilt)

I loved doing the blocks for this quilt.  Its the first time I have really done applique on a grand scale.

Now all I have to do is put the quilt together then dither on how I am going to quilt it!

Feel better now I have some sewing under my belt.  Back to gardening today.  No peace for the wicked.

Cheers
Sharon

Fabric Sample Book Quilt

Hello

Haven't done much sewing recently, been busy with my gardening business, the weather has been kind to me until this week.  So seeing it rained on Wednesday had a date with my Singer 201K.

I was given a fabric sample book which I took apart and cut the fabric (upholstery) into squares.  Ended up with a considerable pile of squares.

The fabric was very good quality retailing at around £50 per metre.  Some of it was heavyweight fabric,  the linens had an open weave, a few frayed badly,  all of which is totally different to my normal cotton quilting fabric.  Made them up into 9 patch squares to make into a quilt.  I used a fake suede type fabric for the sashing which again was a fairly thick.  It was tricky to put together as some of the fabric squares moved around, especially the thick pile ones.  The Singer coped fairly well even when I added the fake suede sashing.  Added some wadding and cotton sprig backing.

Then the fun started, the 201K has hardened steel gears so is a very strong machine and boy, I needed that strength.

Please note that I do not recommend that you trying sewing stuff like this on a normal modern machine, especially if it has plastic  gears.  My other vintage Singer 327K wouldn't have been strong enough to sew this and that has metal gears.  So be really careful, I once broke an Elna by trying to sew a thick horse rug.

I used a walking foot and Size 16 needle (which was the thickest one I had), I still had to ease the fabric through the machine, it was really tough, some of the thick seams pushed the foot across so my quilting lines are far from straight. The quilt is heavy had to keep the weight on the table so that it didn't drag the quilt sideways through the machine.  It was the trickiest quilt I have ever done, glad I didn't make it larger.  Used the backing material to bind the edges.  Lucky the weather had cooled down as its an extremely warm quilt to have on your lap while sewing the binding on

So pleased with my heavyweight, not sure if I would make another one I was pushing my luck with my machine, I think this was the limit of what it could cope with

Oh, the fabric book had a really strong back cover on it so I made it into a patchwork design board by covering one side with wadding and finishing the edges with a matching bias binding which was glued on.

The back is a fake leather.

Cheers
Sharon

Fabric Sample Book Cushions

Hello

The lovely Sarah from Drawn Threads gave me some fabric squares from a sample book, the type that you choose your sofa fabric from.  I had the idea to make some new cushions out of them. Managed to get 5.5 inch squares out of each one of the pieces of fabric which was handy as when I sewed them into a nine patch it was exactly the right size for my existing cushion pads.  Phew. Backed them with an off cut of fabric that I bought for £2.  Used the zips unpicked from my old cushion covers.

While in the cushion making mood, made some more using the leather I was given along with pieces from Sarah's free fabric box and upholstery fabric I was saving for a rainy day.  Covered some buttons for the middle with matching fabrics.

I like the idea of thrifty makes, gives me more pleasure than just buying new cushions.

Cheers
Sharon

Quilts for Twins

Hello

My nephew Lee's wife is haviidentical so I made a couple cot quilts for them.

Used the same fabric but made them slightly different.  One has patchwork butterflies and the other cute bunnies.

As I had some fabric over, made a useful bag to put them in.  I was lucky to be given some leather from a local furniture company, the green was the perfect colour to match the green in the fabric, jammy or what.

Babies arrived safely one last night before midnight and the other early this morning so different birthday dates which will be nice for them when they grow up a bit.  They are both a decent size so should be home soon.

Cheers
Sharon

Update, babies doing well, identical girls.  They have called them May and June.  X

Sylko & Trylko Cotton Display Drawers

Hello

I've been grounded at the moment not allowed to work as I have stitches in my face!  Oooh err, had to have a lesion removed which looks dramatic so I am telling everyone that I have had half a face lift and when I have saved up enough money will get the other side done!  Hee Hee.

Sooo to cheer myself up bought a Trylko cotton set of drawers off Ebay to go with my Sylko drawers.

The Trylko box was a bit chipped so spent yesterday trying to mix paint to match the purple paint, easier said that done.  Got as near as I could and touched up all the white chips which made it look tidier.

To give it a nice sheen polished it with some beeswax.  Not sure if the purple colour is original, I suspect not as its quite rough and there is no logo on the top but it goes well with the orange drawer front.

Its missing a handle so am on the search for a replacement.  Wondering if I could get a replacement 3D printed will have to explore this option.

So here is my trio of vintage drawers

Complete with contents

The lovely Anita sent me a present, a tin full of fab quilting threads which I have stored in my vintage sewing table which I rescued from Dad's garage.

Not sure if I will  be able to use all the reels of threads but will have years of pleasure just looking at them!

Cheers
Sharon

Haberdashery Fabric Shop in Whitby

Hello

A little while ago we had a weekend at Whitby on the edge of the North Yorkshire Moors.  Its a beautiful port town famous for its Whitby Jet Jewelery worn by Queen Victoria.  Also the inspiration for Bram Stokers Dracula.  When you look at its Gothic ruined Abbey you can see why.  Even on a bright Spring day it looks scary.

The close up photo of the Abbey was blurred (user error) but below is the church next door.

It was chucking it down when we arrived so we had a soggy walk into town from the  caravan site.  It was so wet I resorted to putting a coat on Buzz, he was not amused.

I did find a gem of a shop in a back street, being after hours it was closed, I pressed my nose against the window drooling over the lovely fabric.  Had to wait until Monday when I could go and shop.  Judith's shop has been open for 50 years!

 She had the best collection of fabrics, wall to wall displays.

 She kindly allowed me behind the counter so that I could take a photo.

It's not a huge shop but packed with goodies.  Well worth a visit.  She even has a holiday let above the shop, what better on your holiday having a fabric shop on the floor below!

And yes, I did buy some fabric, it would have been rude not to.

Her contact details are

Judiths Fabrics
Patchwork & Dress Fabrics
Haberdashery
Established 50 Years
Closed All Day Wednesday (She was closed on the Sunday as well)

Judith Williamson
12-13 Brunswick Street
Whitby
YO21 1RB
tel. 01947 603213

Sharon
X

Singer 201 Faulty Knee Controller

Hello

Have been making a pair of baby quilts over the weekend.  Pieced the quilts on my Singer Featherweight, she is such a great machine to sew on but when it comes to machine quilting I change over to the Singer 201.

I have been having a bit of problem with the 201, the knee controller kept sticking on a bit and therefore the machine didn't stop when I wanted it to.  Tricky, so I put it away in disgrace after checking the mechanism and not finding anything obvious wrong with it.  Looked on Ebay I was lucky enough to find a complete system so I could have a proper go at fixing it.  Have been putting it off for a few weeks but after sewing the quilt this morning, enough was enough so out came the screwdriver.  Being Singer, I just needed one size.

The knee leaver fits in a hole on the side of the machine, the motor controller is under the black cover.

The knee lever goes into the round shaped bit and that revolves, which moves the linkage bit with the big screw, then that pulls on a plunger switch in the motor controller (hope that makes sense).   When you stop pushing the knee lever the plunger switch is supposed to go back in switching off the motor but on mine it was sticking slightly open.  Tried oiling the linkage but no joy (never put oil in the controller itself).

The next thing I did was try the new knee lever in case my old one was worn, no that wasn't it. So changing the parts was the next thing to try.  Scary or what.

To remove, take the screws out on the linkage. 

The turn the machine on its back, being careful to keep fingers out of the way cos its extremely heavy   There are 5 screws, the top two hold the linkage in place and the other three the controller.

The linkage and controller lift out together, the finger on the linkage fits onto a loop on the plunger switch.  I took the cover off the controller by removing 2 screws underneath.

Comparing the two controllers, I thought I had found what was wrong, the white controller is mine, the back pad (which is like a back stop for the plunger when its pulled out) was worn on the edge.  So I swapped the controllers over.

I compared the my linkage with the new one, exactly the same so I put the old one back on.  You have to link the two parts together, slide the back of the linkage into the hole in the base, keep the controller level when you drop them both into place, you have to jiggle it a bit.  Then put the 2 screws in on the linkage, then carefully turn the machine on its back and put the screws in underneath.  Just hold the controller in place while you locate the first screw hole in the base of the controller, then the others are easy to screw up.

Switched the machine back on, it was a little better but still stuck on a bit.  So had to repeat the whole process again and take them both out.  Swapped the linkage for the new one and put it back together again.Yippee, it works.  Should have tried the changing the linkage first then I wouldn't have had to change the controller, doh.  Still can't find whats wrong with the linkage, its exactly the same as the other one.

A useful thing to stop you loosing the screws is a magnetic pin tray, if you haven't got one, then a dish to put screws in is essential, trust me, screws are tricky little blighters who like to hide from you!

Above is the offending linkage.  Afterwards I thought of an easy fix if you haven't got new parts.  Just tie a piece of fabric around you leg and put the tip of the knee lever into it, then you take your leg off the lever, it will pull it back into the stop position, just don't forget you are tied to the machine hee hee.

Its best to switch off these old machines when you have stopped sewing.  I take out the knee lever as once I forgot to unplug the machine and left lever in place.  It dropped down and slightly switched the controller on which then got quite hot!  Luckily I found it in time before it went up in smoke.

Cheers

Sharon