Thoughts and Prayers

going out to everyone on the East Coast of the US 

Sunbonnet Sue Quilt

It's Friday! Yipee!!!
Lots accomplished. Monday, finished the blocks for the Block of the Month planned at Cathy's Sew and Vac. Tuesday sewed all the blocks together with sashings and borders so the top is complete. Took it over to Cathy's and forgot to take a picture of it! We hung it up in the classroom in place of my Black, White and Red All Around quilt from my Quilting 101 class. Brought that back home and plan to show it in the Annie's Star Quilt show in October of this year. Helping a quilter that came into Cathy's with a Sunbonnet Sue quilt as a favor to the store.

A few years ago I joined Annie's Star Quilt Guild, a guild in Chico, California, USA. It's a large guild with over 200 members. This month I was nominated and voted onto the board. Thursday was my first board meeting, with the new and outgoing members. Will be interesting to serve on the board for the next year.

This afternoon I worked on window treatments, valances. Will finish those tomorrow to have them ready for installation.  I am taking a few days off next week and spending them with my BFF Sally in Tahoe, celebrating a friend's birthday. Time to recharge my spirit with some mountain time!!!

Marilyn, if you read this, let me know if you are still up in the Tahoe. Your cell doesn't get reception up there. We should get together at Penny's shop, Quilting Tahoe. That would be great!

Have a quilty weekend! Will catch up with Civil War BOW and sampler next week.

Red Eye Distraction!

A great weekend with some wonderful "new to me" finds!

Some felted wools, wool roving, some primitive threads and patterns. Very yummy! Also Civil War fabrics purchased at an estate sale. Patterns, tools and a whole bunch of paper piecing supplies. Some rulers and tools that I already have, however these are in much better shape than my worn down tools!

But the best of all... a Red Eye. Always wanted a treadle that I can actually sew on!

This is a 1916 Singer Red Eye that I found in a new Consignment shop that just opened last week in Chico. Model No.66 born in Elizabeth, New Jersey.

Cabinet is in pretty decent shape and it's a 7 drawer. Nice wood details... and the drawers are stuffed with all sorts of buttons, needles, bobbins and all the attachments. No manual. I may have one, not sure if I kept it or sold it with an electric No.66 that I sold because there was too much to change it to a treadle.

The top of the cabinet has some rings... why is it that people feel compelled to set plants on treadle sewing cabinets!?! However, the veneers are in excellent shape, no bubbles or peeling, not even much crazing.  The metal stand has some rust and is very dirty. I have another treadle with a better stand that is exactly the same so I plan to switch them out. My goal is to have a treadle that I can actually use, not just for collecting.

This is a Singer I brought back from Texas last year. Originally from Wittenberg (Prussia) Germany. Only known history is that production began in 1908, all records were lost. The decals are unusual.

The 5 drawer cabinet is in decent shape. Some crazing in the varnish. This machine was found in the hot attic of a house in Houston, Texas. The metal stand is in excellent shape and turns smooth. The machine is not in as good of shape. Both of these cabinets have the pull out instead of the drop down middle drawer.

There were 2 small old oil cans in the drawers of the Red Eye... so now with a third oil can that was found in yet another 5 drawer cabinet I found a long long time ago, I do have a collection of oil cans. That cabinet did not have the original machine in it any more but it did have all the attachments and the manual for a No.66 in the drawers. The manual I hope I still have... lol So you see, I have been working on this for a long time!!!

Now, back to work and why are there not enough hours in the day?!!!

August already!

Over the weekend, finished the binding on the Flower Power quilt.

 Flower Power with binding

Can't believe it's August already. The weather has been so weird. Our tomatoes are just starting to come in. Normally I would have lots of salsa made by now. Do have lots of squash, nothing stops them. lol We had the last of the corn for supper this evening. Again, "normally" we would have had a second planting going by now. Beans are at the top of the trellis but no flowers yet. Very weird.

There are Civil War blocks cut. Drafting a pattern to make this weeks block. Empty Spools. Original block is a single spool. By Saturday afternoon there were 3 different variations, by Sunday, there were at least 7!!! I guess the up side of not keeping up is that I get to see what everyone else has done and then decide how I want to make my block. Instead of the single spool, I plan to draft a block similar to the one Justcruising made. It has 4 spools with a center square fussy cut with a flower. Very nice and I feel a better scale with smaller pieces, more like all the blocks made so far. Fun! here is a link to see the latest blocks posted:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/civilwarquilts2011/