Sunday, February 24, 2013

Keepin' the Hands Busy...

Quote for the Day:
"Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing."
~Thomas Jefferson

As we move bedroom furniture out and open up an area of the new sewing/quilting room, I am taking the opportunity to clean the carpets in that room....one area at a time.   Unfortunately, that slows the pace at which we can move sewing stuff INTO that room because we have to wait for the carpet to dry first.

With my sewing room dismantled AND my quilting frame empty and inaccessible, what's a girl to do to keep herself from going stir-crazy???

Well, I did go through all of my dresser drawers and decluttered them...creating 2 bags of trash and one bag ready to be donated.  

But then what???

Oh, I know...I'll make one of these...



...a spool pin doily.  



For you non-sewists out there in reader-land, there is supposed to be a piece of felt under the thread spool when the thread sits vertical on the machine.  This keeps the spool from spinning too much when the thread gets pulled, thus causing the thread to unwind faster than the machine can pull it through the needle.  On many of these vintage machines, that piece of felt is missing.  Yes, you *CAN* buy another piece of felt to replace the missing one.  But since I already have cotton crochet thread, the appropriate hook, and access to free instructions...why *wouldn't* I make one???  




Isn't "Mary Gwendolyn" pretty with her little lace collar on???

**A note about the instructions:  I found the third row instructions to be very difficult to understand, so I "winged" it with my own.  I good friend, Theresa, who held my hand and gave me helpful hints when making the owl hats, taught me that "crochet is very forgiving" so feel free to improvise, if need be!  :)   (See...Theresa...I *was* listening!)

I have 2 more vintage machines that need these, so I'll be making a couple more, soon.  The first one only took me about 20 min. to make...while watching TV...and trying to figure out the instructions...so I'm sure the next ones will go quite quickly.

Loretta

5 comments:

  1. You did a wonderful job creating the spool pin doily...and you are always listening, as well as creating, sharing, and smiling...not to mention slaughtering me daily on Words with Friends! You are the bestest!

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  2. That is adorable! And since it's named for her, it reminds me of the pictures of Grama where she's wearing the black (with flowers) dress and the white collar. It may have been an Olan Mills picture...

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  3. I love your Singer Featherweight! A friend of mine is selling me hers, and I went to see it today.......I CANNOT wait to get it home and pack it up to fly with me!

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    1. Kevin, Congrats on getting your new Little Lady! Here are a couple sites that I find very helpful: http://www.novamontgomery.com/index.htm Sign up for her "Hint of the Month". She is an expert on care and maintaining your FW. Here is her Facebook page, too: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Novas-Featherweights-and-Quilting/347475461943838

      Now...the best prices and extremely fast service for parts, I use this site: http://www.featherweightsetc.com/index.html

      No affiliation with either...just a very happy customer. :)

      Good luck! Can't wait to see pics of your new Lady and find out what you name her! Also, please post pics of how you pack her for travel! :) She'll be several pounds lighter than your Spartan, so one arm won't be longer than the other anymore! LOL :D

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    2. BTW, Kevin, I also recommend getting some sort of rubber mat to put under her so she won't walk away from you when you are sewing. I use an old rubber mat that I used to have under my typewriter...back in "typewriter days!" LOL But 2 layers of rubber shelf liner works, too.

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