Vintage Singer, quilt disaster and other stuff...

Last Saturday I went to the Antique Fair with my friends which was held at the County Showground in Kent.  It was a cold day but we had great fun mooching around the stalls and looking at all things we couldn't afford.  I saw some great vintage things which were elaborately priced to say the least!  But the find of day for me was a handcrank Singer sewing machine.  Anyone who reads this blog regularly will know that I have a little Singer Featherweight which is a great little machine, but what about this for sheer poetry?

It is in perfect working order and sews beautifully.  It has a rather unusual spindle bobbin which I will have to get to terms with, but I love the black and gold and wooden handle and the simplicity of the mechanism.

I've looked the number up on the Singer site and it says it was made in 1940.   I probably won't be doing that much sewing on it, but it will be there waiting for me when we have an electricity cut!
I had some charm squares that I thought I'd make into a quilt.  I took them to my sewing group on Friday along with some fabric scraps and started on the top.

I have to say I'm not loving it.  It's a bit bright and I don't really think it has come together very well.  I've bought some fabric to do the final border and the back but I can't say I'm overly thrilled with that either.

I thought the red,orange,yellow and green would somehow pull it together but now I'm not so sure.  My sewing friends thought it would look better when it was quilted and maybe they're right.  I bought red quilting thread so I'll give it a go.  It couldn't look any worse, could it?

While I was shopping yesterday for the quilt fabric I also wanted to get some pins. Just straight pins with a coloured head, you know, for pinning.  Well the shop I bought the fabric from was having a sale so the fabric was quite cheap but my bill was larger than I thought it would be.  I didn't think about it at the time but when i got home I checked my bill.  My packet of pins were Clover quilting pins with coloured heads 100 in the pack.  The price?  £11.50!!  (That's about $18.00 US)  Can you believe it?  I checked and the pins are definitely not made of gold.

I've finished my latest bag for Sew Hip magazine  It's a rather pretty clutch with optional chain handle. The corsage on the front is sewn to the bag.  It's interfaced with Timtex (stiff interfacing).  Pretty enough for a wedding I'd say.

 

Last post I mentioned that I was going to be teaching at the Stitch and Craft Show this year.  I'm doing a session on Thursday repeated on Saturday which is a two hour workshop for sewing beginners.  Although participants will have had to at least used a sewing machine before, they won't need any great sewing skills.

This is what we will be making:

It's a lined zippered pouch with interfacing.  It's got a flat bottom too.  If you are thinking of making bags but don't know where to start, this is a good place.  You learn two bagmaking basics, squared corners and zip insertion as well as other bits like interfacing.  If you'd like to be part of the group why not book a place?