Testing a handcrank machine

 I spent some time this summer testing out a lot of machines in the garage.  Here is a beauty of a Singer 28 machine which stitched like a dream.  I sewed up a comfort quilt block on it. 

the decals were in perfect shape

folded corner block

 

Summer in the Garage

 I've been very negligent on my blog!  We have been working in the garage fixing up many sewing machines this summer.  The pandemic has given people time to rediscover sewing and many people have hauled sewing machines out of closets that have been sitting there for years so they could make their own face masks, etc.  We are now in the process of cleaning things up so that we can get both cars in the garage after Thanksgiving!

I did work on some UFO's and have finally had a little time to start sorting out my sewing room.  I'm hoping to blog about some finished items in the next few weeks.

This Kenmore sewing machine weighs a ton, but it purred once it was serviced.  A wonderful vintage machine that sewed through multiple layers of fabric and battings!  I enjoyed testing this one, but it is definitely not a portable ☺!

Here is the table where I test machines during the summer.  We had a great summer, but now it's time to clean it all up again.  Sewing machine repair and testing will now be moved to my sewing room again.

 

National Sewing Machine Day

Apparently today is national sewing machine day so I thought I'd post a few pictures of some of our machines:

We acquired this Canadian machine in 2016.  It's a Little Wanzer made in Hamilton, ON in 1867.  It has the date etched in it.  Fun to have a machine made in Canada's founding year.

A beautiful Raymond No 1 - made in Guelph, ON

A lovely Gardner treadle machine also made in Hamilton ON.

A Singer 15 with the Canadian National Exhibition badge from 1939

A lovely Singer 99 given to us by an older man in our town

The Singer 99 also has the Canadian National Exhibition badge from 1939

My Singer 15-88 treadle machine from 1951 that I use almost daily

Singer 27 made in 1904 exactly like the treadle sewing machine that I learned to sew on.

Just a small sampling of the 150+ sewing machines in our collection :-).  Happy National Sewing Machine day!

A great sewing machine for our collection....

This past March, we were asked to do a trunk show for the Chatham ON Canada quilt guild, which is about an hour's drive from our place.  We took along several of our antique and vintage sewing machines as well as a couple of buckets of quilts to show what can actually be sewn on old machines.  There was a reporter at the meeting from a local newspaper and he asked if he could take my picture with an old machine.  We had a good chat and he took a few notes and then said he was going to stay for a few minutes.  He ended up staying for the whole presentation and did a really nice write up.  You can read the article here.  The story was picked up in our home newspaper as well as in several other cities in the area.

The article mentions a framed photo we have of Jake, when he was two years old, trying to take his Mom's old sewing machine apart!  This is the only photo we have of the machine and it's backwards.  We asked Jake's Mom, but she had no recollection of the machine or the brand at all.  We would love to add this machine to our collection :-).  We did see one on eBay several years ago, but it went way above our price range to purchase it.  Who knows, maybe we'll run across it at a yard sale someday :-). 

Jake at 2 years old already tinkering with old machines

That article in the paper resulted in a number of calls about sewing machines that we may wish to purchase.  Most of them were great machines, but did not fit into our collection.  There were so many millions of machines made that there is just no way you can get them all.  However, one phone call, from a gentleman in our own community resulted in this very fun addition as we focus on machines with Canadian connections.  This little beauty is a Singer 99 with the 1939 Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto badge on it.  We are in the process of servicing it and getting it running smoothly.  I hope to sew something on it with a Canadian connection.

Singer 99

Canadian National Exhibition Toronto, ON 1939

Quilt show Fun

I have several quilts I still need to blog about, but have been gallivanting all over the countryside lately!  Last weekend, my fairly local guild, London Friendship, held their show.  Since we were holding it in a new spacious venue, they had asked my husband and I to put up a display of our antique and vintage sewing machines. We set up a treadle to work on as well as a Singer Featherweight and a few other vintage machines.  There were some pictures hanging on the wall behind the tables, so we hung a few quilts over them to cover them up and arranged a couple of quilt stands to display quilts made on the antique and vintage machines.  Here are a few pictures of the display (click on the photos to enlarge):

Singer 15-88 treadle machine

an assortment of Featherweights and Singer toy sewing machines and two Singer irons with a "pressing guide" produced by Singer

Singer 301 and accessories and toy machine which slides in a little worktable

Canadian machines and toys and an Elna toy machine

Our oldest Canadian hand crank machine

Basic set up.  We had a lovely large space to display the machines

Christine R took this photo on Friday when I sewed on the Featherweight.  My treadle belt broke and I had to wait for Jake to fix it.

I sewed on the treadle on Saturday.  I worked at piecing the rows together of a Kaffe Fasset scraps thimble leaders/enders project.

My Bonnie Hunter Easy Street mystery was hanging in the show

My Kaffe diamond quilt was also in the show

 We had a great time chatting with people of all ages about memories of their ancestors' machines.  One older lady in a wheelchair sat watching me sew on the treadle with tears coming down her cheeks.  Awesome hearing the stories and inspiring people to dig out those old machines and get them up and running.  I do all my piecing on my 15-88 treadle and even some free motion quilting on it.  Most of my quilting is done on my vintage Bernina 830.