Glowing...

Last saturday, C, Baking DD and I went to the "Glow" exhibition in Eindhoven, hometown of the Philips factory. Glow is an annual event in which there are moving light projections on buildings (that alter the building completely) and other arty farty light objects.

 We really liked these giant lampshades, that changed colour. C made the pics, including the artistic one below. Yeey for an I-phone, when you forget to take your camera:)

The startingpoint was in an old, abandoned factory, for the occasion turned into a café/bar. The old building had something to do with textiles: giant spools were displayed and all the tables had a sewingmachine in it's original cabinet at their side. One machine caught our eye...

A Lada! Special to me, since my car is a 20 year old Lada aka "the Russian Mercedes". (it says "made in the USSR"on the fuel tank lid). Never knew they made sewingmachines as well. Turns out the sewingmachines were Czech and not Russian..

Finally i did some "glowing"myself; couldn't resist.
Nothing quilty to report. I'm still handquilting the same project. I did play around with fabric the other day, but it's too soon to show. Next time perhaps!

Featherweight tote/dustcover part 2

When i get an email from someone who loves something i have sewn, but needs additional info, i'm happy to oblige since there's at least one fan. *lol*
So with more pics and more "how did i do it" the Featherweight tote/dustcover again!

 First things first: was it my design? NO. Was it my idea? NO again. the only thing i did was combine 2 tutorials into one. So credit where credit is due.
The paperpieced block is to be found here and the bag pattern here.

The bag is intended to protect the Featherweight IN it's case.

...and what would a heavy pic post be without at least ONE flipped over....

The original bagpattern is for a white FW which is a bit smaller than the black ones. The PP block also is bigger than the given patternparts, which is good since i wanted to make a bigger bag!

My bag front is 11.5"x11.5", WITHOUT seamallowance. Just add your fav seamallowance; mine was 1/4".

The PP pattern swapped two pattern parts, but if you look at the overall pattern, you should be okay.

The piping adds extra sturdiness but I found it a real pain to sew it as tightly as possible. i made the piping myself sewing a cord in a ready bought piece of bias strip, using a zipperfoot.

 Afterwards i cut a 1/4" seamallowance. I didn't know any other way to get it as I wanted.

 The bag pattern says you have to iron interfacing on the liningparts. I used a fusible fleece (Vlieseline H640) and ironed it to the OUTER parts. The fleece gave a sturdier bag with more padding to protect the FW. By ironing it on the outerparts, the paperpieced block was more secured as well. Mind to sew the PP block UPSIDE DOWN!

 

The reason that i made the bag higher is not just caused by the measurements of the paperpieced block. I wanted to fold it over the machine. My machine foot clip is in the case lid. It probably fell off once onto the machine, since my letter "s"is chipped. To prevent that from  happening again I needed protection on top of the machine.

 The details were embroidered on . The original pattern says "the perfect portable" but i declined on that much lettering and put '221k4" instead. Transferring the text can be done by taping it to your window as use sunlight to see through your fabric. I took a Sewline pencil.

When you use the bag as dustcover, you'll find you'll have extra space on top (remember as a bag it is folded over) No problem. With the fleece and piping it will stand and if you have to put your machine in a tiny space it still works :)

Hope this all makes sense for those who want to make this too. I mean: I know what I'm talking about but hopefully you do too :)

 

Happy sewing!

New quiltshop :)

Today C and I went to check out the quiltshop that a former employee of the fav quiltshop, started. (do you still follow) Since fav quiltshop closed it's brick and mortar building, she was out of a job and decided to follow her dream!
It was a bit of an adventure to get there; it was outside town, near the river ánd a road was closed. The house is just behind the river's dike! Gorgeous!

Ah! a quilt showed the way:)

Outside....

 C's new allstar sneakers reflected in the lovely teacabinet...

 Willeke, the owner, has a great eye for detail and everything was displayed very nicely. Even the towelrack in the kitchen was worth a pic..

..and check the view from the workshop area!

I bought a pair of scissors to match the Featherweight

For those who live in the area:
"Fat Quarters" in Culemborg. www.fatquarters.nl  and her blog http://colourfulaffairs.blogspot.nl/

Tomorrow, C, Quilting DD and I will go out again to a quiltshow in another lovely little town..Busy weekend!

My tiny world

Last week I had, what we call, "autumn break", meaning I had the week off. I had planned a lot of sewing time, but all i did was sleep and take naps inbetween. Guess I was tired :)
Wednesday i told myself to snap out of that routine, wake up and actually DO something.
While searching through Pinterest pages I found the  little world teacup pincushions from Mimi Kirchner and it triggered my pc obsession :)
Here's what i came up with

 With steppingstones..flowers in the garden..

 and for cold nights you need to have some logs for your fireplace..

 Now I have to clean up the mess on my table

..and get ready to start quilting again!                                                                                                       

 I'll probably make more. After the first 2 you'll only get more and more ideas about the next one. How about an island? Or something with blue felt? A pond? C's fav pink and purple? Big flowers instead of trees? Impossible to make just one, or 2, or......

For those who share my current obsession: Mimi Kirchner uses wool balls and covers those with wool fabric or felt. I took small leftover battingstrips (the ones you cut of a quilt before putting the binding on) and rolled them up to a ball, and plain felt I had lying around. Fabric glue to hold tiny pieces in place, came in handy. More info on how to make these "tiny worlds" is to be found at Mimi's website.

Piping..pfffff!

What to do on a rainy sunday afternoon? Well, how about a bit of relaxing in your sewingroom? That sounded like a good idea and i still had the paperpieced Featherweight block lying around.
Decided it had to become a tote. Not for grocery shopping but for the FW.
The pattern required ready-bought piping. Not going to happen. the only thing I could get here was  "yuk" polyester/shiny/pastel coloured stuff. So instead i bought cord and ready made bias strips and made myself some piping. So far so good.
Getting the piping on the pattern pieces was another story! What a struggle to get it as tight as i wanted it to be.
Wááááyyyy past dinnertime I had a headache and this:

I lined it with fusible fleece and wanted it INSIDE the case to protect the FW from bumping. It's a bit taller than the original pattern so I can fold it over the machine, just in case the footpedal drops from the cases lid.

..and i can safely lift it in ánd out the case. Although I made many mistakes, putting the block upside down is NOT one of it.

It's a dustcover as well. How clever! (not my idea..)
Some more pics to show that wretched piping

Tutorial is to be found here
Now I can relax and to some handquilting on the couch...

Last days of summer...

Now summer is slowly fading, I've started to handquilt my latest top. No real name popped up yet for this one; perhaps it'll come to me later on.
It's nice to have a new project on your lap now evenings are getting colder..

I started with circles and filled in the blanks later on.

 Had to make several quilt shapes last sunday. I made them out of (thin) cardboard and glued those onto sandboard to prevent slippering. I also had C's ready bought circles that fitted perfectly.
To hold on to the summer feeling as long as I can , I treat myself to a fresh bunch of sunflowers every week.

Transforming my dinnertable to a colourfull spot in the house:)

Don't want to bore everyone with endless Featherweight stories, but i do want to say that i'm up to my neck in restoring. The more I unscrew and clean/oil/lube, the better she starts to sound and stitch. When i came across this pattern, i couldn't resist!

I love how the letters form the machine! I think I'll turn it into a dustcover or something like that.  The paperpiece pattern can be found here.
Enjoy the last days of summer!

Deep cleanse...

To be frank, I was a tiny bit dissapointed about the state my Feather was in. I assumed the seller, who stated it was checked and oiled, would have done a better job. Seller is well known among Feather owners here and offers Feathers frequently.
A friend who specializes in restoring oldtimer motorcycles,  is enthousiastic about ANY old machine, regardless what it does (ride, sew, saw...) He took a good look and told me it was just wiped of, oiled and that was about it.

When I first plugged her in and tried to sew she rattled. And I mean RATTLED. Ough!
The bobbin/bobbincase as far as i could tell, made that noise.
So! time for research and elbowgrease!

 It even took some heavy machinery to blow a cloud of dust out. (no worry, it can blow gently!)

I replaced the smelly oil and grease soaked drip pad (grrr flipped pic ofcourse)

and gave her a good rub. There was also a 56 year old feltpack beneath the stitchplate and couple of old threads on the back of the bobbin housing.

NOW she's shiny! (and clean) And she started to hum instead of rattle and moan. Now we're talking!

Next problem is her stitching. Afterall, that's why she's here. She makes a bit of a zigzaggy stitch instead of a straight one and loops on top and sometimes below.
Checked the bobbin tension and it seemed okay. The problem is probably in the uppertension and more specific the tension nob, but I won't dismantle that untill my maintenance/manual book arrives.
Now got to find a place/website where i can order lubricant, oil and more much wanted items.
Last pic (can anyone please tell me WHY blogger flips perfectly straight pictures??)
A "certificate" the Singer Company mailed. How fun! I might even consider framing it *lol*