This gorgeous shawl was being worn by a lady at the harvest festival in Poland. Too beautiful for words, and perhaps a bit too hot for that particular day, but somehow all the ladies in their shawls looked calm and serene.
Hello again and welcome to Barbara (yes, the maker of yesterday's wonderful landscape quilt) who has joined as a follower.
Here is the doll quilt that came all the way from Oregon, the longest flight taken by any doll quilt I have received so far. Before it arrived I found out that Barbara had a blog so I had a sneaky peep and saw a photo of this wonderful little picture quilt. As soon as I saw it I had to shut my eyes straight away. Partly because it felt like cheating, but also because I loved it so much and didn't dare believe it might be on its way to me. I couldn't even read what Barbara had written about it, because if it wasn't the one coming my way the disappointment might have been too much. So you can imagine the delight when the big envelope finally arrived and I took out this beauty!
It is definitely an American landscape - look how the converging parallels give the feeling of wide open space. Not a tree or hedge in sight. And those farm buildings look totally American.
Thank you Barbara, you did a wonderful job!
Welcome to Mary Ellen - thank you for following!
Similar to the previous triangles doll quilt shown last week, but with the lights and darks reversed. For both quilts I used the Frister and Rossmann Transverse Shuttle for the piecing and the 1927 Singer 99K for the binding.
Again I did the quilting by hand. Then I kissed the little quilt goodbye and packed it into an envelope for a rather long journey to my partner.
Welcome to the latest follower, Sharon S - what a lovely cheerful smile on your avatar!
Taking off the bobbin winder meant I could clean the front of the pillar easily, and gave me the opportunity to admire the decals in their full glory.
The decals on the back of the pillar are equally impressive.
A gentle rubbing with sewing machine oil on a dab of cotton wool is all it takes to bring up the shine. Any excess oil can be wiped off with a soft cotton cloth afterwards.
Never use any strong or abrasive substances on the decals - they can be damaged beyond repair by over-enthusiastic cleaning.
Hello Mommysue7! Thank you for following.
This is the bobbin winder from Maria's Jones Family CS machine before I started attacking it with the metal polish. The easiest way to clean it was to unscrew it from the machine.
On close inspection you can see the black oily grime clinging around the screws. After scraping the worst off with a wooden cocktail stick, I used an interdental toothbrush to get the metal polish into all the awkward little corners.
After a good rubbing with cotton wool buds and a soft cotton cloth, the metal began to shine.
There are a few blemishes on the metal where the chrome has begun to lift, but considering the machine dates from about 1931, it is in very good condition.
To get all the rubbish out of the thread and the teeth which engage when the winder is in motion, I used a tiny bit of metal polish on an old toothbrush and rubbed it off with a cloth afterwards.
To clean the black japanned parts of the winder, I used a tiny drop of sewing machine oil on a dab of cotton wool.
Welcome to mdghall - thank you for following!
A well kept machine will be oiled. Gradually the oil will seep down. If the machine is put away with the bobbin still in, the cotton on the bobbin will soak up the oil like a sponge.
This is the bobbin that was in Maria's machine. She has no idea how many years ago her grandmother filled this bobbin, but the machine spent years stored away in a Shropshire farmhouse and had plenty of time to drink up the oil.
So even if you are putting the machine away for ten days or ten years, take the bobbin out. You don't want a smudgy surprise coming up with the bobbin thread next time you start sewing.
Welcome to Carolyn, Sheila and luv2stamp - thank you for following!
First and foremost, a big thank you to Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville who posted my video "How to Treadle" on her blog yesterday.
I have been a big fan of Bonnie's for some time now and have her to thank for inspiring me to get quilting again after a gap of about 25 years.
Also, a big welcome to all the new followers who arrived yesterday - Rhonda D, JudyBL, Not Lucy, Marianne, Leeanne, bmoubray, sharon bull and Shena Boes.
Now that so many of you have seen the video of the Serata treadle, here are photos of the quilt that I made as my first project using that machine. I bought the machine in May last year, and once I had cleaned and oiled it I was ready to set to work.
The quilt top was made using material left by my sister-in-law's mother, who died nearly two years ago. Pat was 89, a great-grandmother, and originally from Wisconsin. She left the States in the late 1940's. She married an Englishman and lived at various times in the Middle East and Africa because he worked for an oil company. Eventually they settled in England, but she would visit her relatives in the States fairly regularly. She was a tiny little lady, and never lost her big Wisconsin accent.
When Pat died my sister-in-law and I sorted through bags full of material that she had squirrelled away. Some of the fabrics had come from the States - in fact I have recognised some of them on the slide shows on Bonnie's blog being used in her classes. Pat loved green, so I had the challenge of making a quilt in her colours. Fortunately she had yards of the neutral print that I used for the background, and I added a few matching colours from my own stash where needed.
All the piecing was done in strips, an ideal method with a treadle, and a great way to give the machine a good workout after years of lying idle. To add length to the blocks, so I could get nine houses to fit the top of the bed with an even border all round, I hit on the idea of adding hedges.
The quilting was done on a long-arm machine at the quilt shop, Midsomer Quilting They did a fabulous job, I was really pleased. Then all I needed to do was the binding, which again I did on the treadle.
This was my fastest project ever - two months from start to finish - because I wanted to make sure it was ready for the next time I visited my brother and sister-in-law. It looked perfect on their bed, and my sister-in-law was slightly emotional. My brother liked it too, but he had to be told that it was a houses design. He couldn't see them. He thought it was just random patchwork. Blokes.
