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Finally we got the wordpress issues resolved and I can get back to writing to everyone about the cool sewy things going on….oh wait, its Thanksgiving already?  Well dangit, I’ve missed so many opportunities to write!!

So lets go way back in time to September, when I was able to jaunt to beautiful Lake City Minnesota for the annual River Rat TOGA.  TOGA stands for TreadleOn Gathering and Academy- basically a weekend of hanging out with Vintage sewing machine enthusiasts- focusing on techniques, cleaning, sharing the passion of our machines, and of course- admiring each others beautiful pieces.  These events happen all over the United States throughout the year, and allow those of us who do have a passion for these beautiful machines (especially the people powered ones), to commune with those who enjoy them as much as we do. 

It seems sometimes that many folks are only into collecting them to resell them for high prices, or other reasons besides using them or restoring them to their original glory.  In my case I use my vintage machines- for piecing quilts, for embroidery, and for making small clothing projects and other crafty things.  This year I was even able to demonstrate the treadle embroidery techniques I’ve been learning from classes by Marilyn Lee online, which was so wonderful. I also got to use my Vickers hand crank and become more familiar with her workings, buy some parts for other machines, and of course, participate in the raffles that we have at the event as well.  I also presented my Feedsack lecture and display, which I’ll discuss in a bigger post at a later time. 

If you’re  vintage enthusiast like myself, you should definitely check out the TreadleOn group (treadleon.net) and one of the great TOGAs they put on.  The mailing list also does block exchanges each year, which is a great way to learn how your machine works, and learn how to do fun things like quilting or making a pin cushion, or all sorts of neat stuff. And the folks on the group are always helpful and full of incredible knowledge about all sorts of machines, needles, etc.

I really can’t wait for TOGA again next year, to see what I learn and who I get to see.  Its really like a family reunion, which I adore.

In our world of instant gratification- Amazon NOW, Microwaves, clothing stores, et cetera, it seems as if many forget that it can sometimes take an extended period of time to complete major undertakings, like quilts.  While there are many new tools of the trade to help shorten the time it may take in some cases, it can still be a lengthy process.  In my case, I have a full time job, an active social life, as well as pets and a house to care for. Additionally, I choose to use more traditional methods of quiltmaking, so my quilts take longer as well to complete.  Recently,  I finished a quilt I had been working on for some time, so I thought I would go through what actually happens from the beginning of a quilt to the end of a quilt to show everything that goes into it.

This particular quilt was made for a Niece that was born a few years ago.  When I found out that her mom was expecting, I started right away to find a pattern, and decide colors, size, and other aspects.  The mom and dad had decided to not announce if they were having a boy or a girl until birth, so that also can sometimes put a crimp in your style for what you want to make.  In this case, as I am a primarily scrappy quilter, it wasn’t bad for me. So off to my vintage books I went. 

I found the quilt pattern I chose in Aunt Martha’s Favorite Quilts. These booklets of quilt patterns, released originally in the 60s, were prints of patterns that the Tillotson family had produced for a dime a piece in the 30s and also advertised in newspapers around the country.  There are several Aunt Martha’s books you can still purchase today, and they are full of great patterns. You can get them from this site, here

The design I chose was called “The Great Circle.” Its a large design made of rounded triangles and squares, that when looked at as a whole, becomes great circles.  Its a fascinating pattern, but also allowed for lots of white space for quilting, and allowed me to do another unique thing for my Niece- an “I-Spy” type quilt.

An I-Spy quilt is a quilt designed where fabrics are chosen with prints of items.  These can be animals, popular culture figures, insects, and so much more.  This allows the quilt to be used to play the ever fun game “I-Spy” So that not only is it a warm covering to keep you warm, or a cover for a blanket fort, it also can be used to improve vocabulary, and keep a toddler occupied on long drives.  I chose a variety of prints that I wouldn’t normally purchase- including insects, crayons, musical notes, teddy bears, and more for this quilt. For the border, I chose a turquoise- a fairly neutral color, but also one of my personal favorites. Bleached muslin would round out the pattern, which would allow me a lot of space for quilting designs, and also make the prints stand out individually. 

The next step, is of course, cutting out all those pieces. I make templates of the pattern out of vinyl sheeting.  This allows me to keep a consistent pattern, and gives me the pattern to use again if i decide I like the style.  Also, I find vinyl holds up better than paper or cardboard.  After cutting the vinyl, I use a pencil to trace around the vinyl template on the fabric.  If the fabric is dark, I have a white marking pencil.

After cutting all the pieces, which takes awhile, even when doing it at night while watching television or during conference calls, then its time to start assembling. This is sewing the blocks, and making sure they all line up and look good side-by-side.  Of course, I always have extra helpers (like Fireball, my cat, and Holly, one of my Greyhounds) making sure I’m performing quality work.

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After the assembly is finished, then its time to press the whole quilt, and then to pick out the quilting design or designs.  For this quilt, I chose some more whimsical designs than traditional, using rainbows, moons, and stars on the border, and flowers, beehives, and butterflies for the white areas.  I trace these out on paper, then transfer to cardboard, as each time you do a pattern you may choose a different size of the quilting design, and cardboard is recyclable. So remember- Vinyl for the actual Quilt pieces, and cardboard for the quilting template.  Once the templates are made and cut out, you can apply the patterns to the quilt.  I use a regular #2 pencil, but some folks use any number of different washable marking tools- from chalk, to crayola washable markers, to iron off frixion pens.  Trusty #2 has always worked for me.

Ready to quilt now?  Absolutely! Put your backing fabric in the frame, your batting on top, and the quilt on top of that.  I hand quilt, so this is the longest part, and of course, the most fun, in my opinion.  It took me almost a year of working on this quilt to quilt it, but again, I am not quilting for hours and hours every single day.  But here are pictures of the progress.

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After weeks of hard work, finally you get to cut and unpin your quilt from the frame.  Then trim the sides and do the binding by hand.  I also tend to have at least one quilt tester, Harmony, to lay on the quilt to ensure it is comfortable.

Once the binding is completed, I wash the quilt to remove the pencil marks.  Occasionally I have to wash it for 2 cycles to get all of the marks off, but I find that adding Oxyclean to the wash cycle helps immensely with reducing that need.   Air dry the quilt- it keeps the batting from bunching, allows for better care of the color of the prints, and makes the quilt smell fantastic.

After it dries, then you can enter it into the fair, or send it off to the person its intended for, or just add it to your collection of quilts that you’ve made. For this particular quilt, I’ve entered it into the Minnesota State Fair, and while it didn’t place, it still is on display, which is wonderful for me.  Once it is returned from the fair, I’ll be sending it off to my Niece to enjoy for many, many years.

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This past weekend, your head Sewluminati was honored to be a part of the World War 1 Centennial weekend at Historic Fort Snelling at Bdote. While not portraying an actual military persona, I was honored to be representing the “Civilian Corps of the Red Cross.”   

When war broke out, everyone banded together to help do their part.  Women all over the country aligned with the Red Cross to knit, sew, and help provide supplies to the hospitals overseas, as well as the stateside recovery hospitals.  Even McCalls and other Pattern makers rallied together to provide patterns that the average sewist could purchase and work on making hospital clothing, comfort kits, socks, bandages, and more.

I worked on Comfort Kits, specifically. Filled with items of comfort for the soldiers- shaving soap, toothbrushes, combs, playing cards, and of course, tobacco. In Minneapolis, Minnesota, there was a Comfort Care committee, and that committee made over 20,000 of these comfort kits and sent them to men overseas during the war. They are simple kits, but I can totally imagine that the men were so grateful for these simple items, similar to care packages sent to soldiers today.

In addition to working on the Comfort Kits, I had several hand crank sewing machines laid out for folks to try their hands at sewing practice sheets. Folks really seemed to enjoy the opportunity to try them, and learn that not only the men “over there” participated in the war effort. 

I find it fascinating, not just that many of the surgical clothing and recovery clothing was made by civilian ladies, most in their homes, but the fact that it was exclusively made this way- there was no industrial production of these items to meet the needs of the hospitals. Bandages were rolled by school aged children participating in the Junior Red Cross- 50% of all school age children participated in America alone!  Women formed groups in their homes, in their churches, all to help their sons, husbands, and brothers overseas.  We hear a lot about the homefront efforts during World War 2, but so little about the first world war.  To be able to honor these ladies, and share their efforts with the public in addition to bringing visibility to the “Great War” was a wonderful time.

Here’s more pictures from the weekend: 

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So I’m sure y’all have missed my posts, but its been a very busy few months for me and the household.  I have moved across the country to a new home, a new sewing space, new sewing friends, and new adventures.  I had to pack up the majority of my machines, the majority of my projects, and all of my fabric during the house staging time in the old house, and then wait to unpack them all in the new house.  As of writing this, there are still a few machines waiting to be unpacked and find their place in the new house.  But all in due time.

This was when they packed all my quilting fabric into the POD. 

 

Here I have plenty of space for my machines, my quilt frame, and to separate

  my clothing sewing area from my quilting and piecing areas.  Its so nice to be able to keep my straight stitch machines in an area separate from almost all my zig zag machines (one will stay downstairs for times its too hot/cold/boring in the upstairs clothing sewing room.) And of course there’s 2 treadles in the living area upstairs because i couldn’t quite fit all the treadles in the sewing room. But still- almost all the machines are home!

 As you can see, I still have plenty of machines.

I’ve also already done some Living History interpretation with my machines, at beautiful Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis.  And I had the honor of speaking about feedsacks for the Northern Material Girls quilt guild in St. Paul.  Its been great finding more people passionate about machines, and getting to share them. I’ve also been trying to finish the current quilt in the machine, so I can enter it into the Minnesota State Fair!

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be working on ramping the blog back up, cause I’ve missed sharing my passion with folks.  This week I’ll be checking out a history of Garment making tools class, so I’ll definitely have to talk about that, and of course, update you on all the adventures I’ve already had!

Stick with me friends, the story keeps getting better. 🙂

 

 

I first sewed on a sewing machine, like many folks, in middle school.  We had a project to make a pair of shorts.  The machines were setup for us, and we had the practice sheets for learning how to work the machine and control the speed, and then cut out the shorts and sewed them. My shorts came out very small, I nearly ran over my fingers several times, and I just wasn’t impressed with sewing at all at that point.

Over the course of the next 15 or 20 years, I would try sewing one different

machines 3 more times.  Every time the machine would be out of my control, or I would have a project turn out so horribly.  So I gave up.  I was petrified of sewing, never even wanted to pick up a needle.  At reenactments, friends would be sewing their gowns, or handkerchiefs or the like, and I would act like a vampire seeing sunlight when they offered to let me try.

Then my aunt taught me how to quilt.  And one day, I decided I should try piecing.  So up to the local used furniture store, to look for a used sewing machine. Suprisingly, there was a gorgeous Singer in a cabinet for 35 dollars.  What a steal!  I verified it worked, and took it home. Thus began my love of machines.

What caused the change? Well for one, I’m sure it was age and patience for me personally.  I wanted everything done quickly, and as most sewists know, there’s nothing quick about any sewing.  However, comparing my used Singer to a modern machine a friend had given to me (a Husqvarna Viking), I also learned that I much preferred the feel of the vintage sewing machine’s operation.  But why?

I think that one of the big draws for me is that they are all metal.  Modern machines are primarily made of plastic gears and pieces, to allow for quick and low cost assembly.  Even though you may be paying out the nose for a state of the art machine- you’re paying for the computer within the machine, not the machine itself. Metal machines are just simple.  All the mechanisms that are in its operation are easy to understand and maintain.

The feed dogs and presser feet on metal machines, I believe control things much better than the modern machines.  I can feel the machine actually gripping the fabric and moving it.  But also I have to pay more attention to it to make sure its straight. As a bit of a control freak, I don’t mind that though.

I’m also not as afraid of breaking a vintage machine as I am a modern one.  Perhaps is because of their metal makeup, but I know its much more difficult to break these machines than it would be a plastic one.  I keep pins in when I sew, I put fabric that’s too thick for the needle in the machine sometimes, and lets not talk about how many needles I’ve broken, pushing the fabric through too fast. However I’ve never worried about breaking the machine in the process. But the plastic machines I’ve worked with, or on, I’m always so tentative and nervous that I’m going to snap a gear if I work it too much, or the little lever that changes the stitch length is going to fall apart.

Finally, and this is mostly the sentimental side of me here, these machines were used for years by people generations before me that learned to sew on these, or whose children learned to sew on these. They were used for quilts, clothing, tablecloths, linens, and so much more.  Its continuing their legacy by using these machines for my projects, both traditional and non traditional.  So in some ways I feel as if their hands are guiding mine in my lessons on what to do/what not to do with these beauties.  In the future I hope that others will see the value in these vintage and antique pieces as well for their own sewing, and as I teach more people about sewing, perhaps they too will grab a legacy piece of their own.

And that last piece is why I have over 70 in my collection.  To pass on to future generations who wish to learn to sew.

But also because they’re all beautiful.

One of the things I love about quilts is how they seem to bring everyone together.  Almost everyone I talk to, when discussing how I’m a quilter, will ooh and ahh; then with a wistful look in their eyes recall a quilt their relative had or made for them.  Its a magical moment for them, and for me, because we’ve bonded over pieces of fabric and the warmth they bring us.

Because of these moments, I’ve incorporated my hand quilting into a living history demonstration and display.  So few people hand quilt anymore, and sewing in general isn’t something that happens in every household as it did 50 or 60 years ago.  So several times a year (hopefully more in the future), I put a quilt frame in the car, along with a quilt top I purchased at a yard sale or antique shop, and set it up at an event to quilt upon.  Everyone is invited to try their hand at quilting, though rarely do we ever get anyone who actually is willing to try. But I also will set out coloring pages of quilts, or lacing cards for kids to try sewing on, so that at least they’re getting to try something they may not be exposed to elsewhere.

One of the best things, apart from allowing the public to try their hand at a new skill, or remembering the joy in one they’ve lost, is that my Aunt B joins me on many of these demonstrations.  She is the one who taught me how to quilt,  and has been quilting for over 60 years.  This week she celebrated her 77th birthday, and tomorrow she’ll be joining me again at Middletown Heritage Festival to share her quilts and her passion.  She really enjoys getting out and quilting, and talking to others about their quilts, families, etc.  While the history part is my area of expertise, she’s invaluable in talking about how she learned, how to teach others, and showing people how its done.  Also showing folks that you’re never too old to get out and have fun.

While some might call our work traditional, I love the lines and love that just call from every one of Aunt B’s quilts.  From the time she taught me, we now have this connection – we talk on the phone about weekly, and everytime I come down she shows me what she has in the frame, and what she’s been working on.  And I then start piecing something similar because I love how it looks, and want the challenge.  Which is why I now have several tops waiting to go into the frame.  Aunt B displays her work at the events we do, and hearing people admire it I think also makes her glow a little more than she usually does too.  I love that, and I love that I’m able to do that for her.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In addition to quilting demos, we also will bring out hand crank sewing machines, to let children and adults alike try their hand at using a sewing machine.  So many times I’ve heard of people (myself included) being afraid or intimidated by sewing machines.  This is a great way to have people gain familiarity with the machines, and perhaps even be interested in trying to sew on their own, or take a class.  Hand cranks allow for better control of the machine, and also keeps little fingers from getting under the needle better than having a motorized machine or treadle available for them to use.  I also have practice sheets made of paper for folks to try before trying to use actual fabric, unless they’ve said they’re a long time sewer.  One event, I had a lady spend 20 minutes making quilt blocks on one of the hand cranks because she enjoyed it so much!

If you’re interested in trying a handcrank, seeing some quilting, or even trying to hand quilt, Aunt B and I will be found at the following places in the next month:

Saturday September 30- Middletown Heritage Festival Middletown, MD

Saturday October 7- Harvest Festival – Montgomery County Agricultural Farm Park

Saturday October 21- Centreville Day – Centreville, VA.  We’ll be in the Sears house.

 

And if your quilt guild, historical organization, historical site, homeschool group, etc would like to have us do our demo or have a hand crank sewing class, please feel free to contact us with the information on the contact us page!

Keep stitching!