I have been missing in action apparently! Our church delivered 27 quilts to the homeless in our community last week. And it was decided we'd do it again when we got 25 more made. And since I did most of the quilting and one lady did most of the piecing and binding, we decided we'd teach a few ladies to piece quilts! So, I went hunting for machines this morning. Found a couple at Goodwill and Mission thrift stores and then went to the sewing machine store and bought two used machines -- cheap! They're all cleaned up and oiled and ready to go. But the three I bought at the thrift shops were not. So, I managed to get two of them cleaned and oiled and they actually work really nicely. I'll attempt the third one later this week. But, this one was a find! An antique "Rockford" machine in fabulous shape. Made in Japan for the Rockford Co., Rockford, Illinois. Which is where I live. Since it is not a featherweight (!), I'll probably leave it at church in case someone wants to sew during the weekdays. I'll leave one of the other ones at church too.
Our inaugural Sew-In is planned for this Saturday, so I'll be hauling a lot of stuff between now and then. But I'm kinda excited to teach others to piece quilts. I know at least 4 people are going to be there -- and none of them has a portable machine!
Other news: I bought the computerized Statler Stitcher for my Gammill longarm machine. Had two days of intense instruction on how to use it and haven't had a chance to do anything on it for weeks! Yesterday I finally got a small quilt loaded and practiced an edge to edge pattern - screwed up the last row, but the important thing is that I know what I did wrong! It's an amazing machine and I can't wait to spend time working with it.
I'm looking forward to summer (if winter ever gets over - we had snow the other day!). I have lots of plans to work in the yard and stain my deck and plant some flowers and try to fit in time in the basement with my sewing/quilting stuff! Oh yeah -- and take plenty of walks to loose 30 excess pounds!
Until next time, blessings.....
