No Seriously.

Last weekend we moved into our new rental, a pretty little house on the better side of town that has room for me to bring Millie home.  At long last that beautiful machine is home.  Friday I took a short break from unpacking to give her some cosmetic love.  Quick bath and dry with a coat of Turtle Wax and we have awesome.

So encouraged by this I spent a few hours after work last night cleaning and oiling many of the moving parts and found out though extremely dirty she's a great looking machine! At about 11:30 last night we gave her a try.  Not exactly a success, but she sews now its time to figure out how to work the different controls and get the stitch regulator unfrozen.  So after that let down (yeah I was hoping she'd be easier then Sparky) off to bed as we are planning on moving more things today.

At about 5am the Hubby and I were awakened by our cat Nori howling. This is not exactly a normal occurrence but usually means he is hunting paper. Yes Nori steals paper (bills, letters, homework) and kills it.  After several months of not hearing the hunting howl my husband jumped up and hurried to find out what the cat was doing.

The awesome hunter in his natural state!

Well Nori had found my restoration kit and had stolen the bag of cosmetic cotton rounds and was standing over his kill howling for acknowledgement!  After laughing and taking away the rounds and going back to bed we were again awoken by the howling of the wild Nori!  This time he had gone back into the kit and stole another bag this one a ziplock with my scrubbies in it.  Guess its time to put the kit under lock and key! Silly Kitty,those are for sewing machines!

The TVR

Not to long ago my favorite brother-in-law asked if possible to create some door pockets for his 1962 TVR Grantura.  For as long as I have known him Lee has been painstakingly restoring this old lady.

Of course I was more then happy to help and brought along one weekend, as they live almost three hours from here, my Husqvarna. Well poor Husque has been out of commission since.  For some reason it seems, as I just figured out tonight, none of my sewing machines seem to like the thread I tried. Ok so I'm sure PART of it is the layer of pleather, and the two layers of heavyweight cotton I used for lining. So today I decided to work on the door panels and get them out using the Commodore.

A little short history about this car. A TVR for those who have never heard of them are hand made English coupes much like the MGB but hard top.  Each one is unique in that it is hand made and none are exactly alike.  This should ring bells with crafters.  He has collected much history on this car as you can see in the above picture of it, he has done a lot of research and collected quite a bit of data on the car.

Now that the car is nearing completion, the interior is being done and I made the pattern to recreate the pockets on the doors. So tonight the Commodore flew.

Definately not the easiest of jobs.  Its amazing that a sewing machine that has sat for so long was able to just fly through this. Granted it did not like the heavy thread I had started with but once I changed over to the cone of polyester things went smoothly.  

And they are done, I hope they look as good as the rest of the car does once they are installed. Its a real treat to be involved even in two small pieces!

For more information about this car Lee's Grantura

And for more information about TVRs http://www.tvrccna.org/

Zooma zooma

My daughter and I made several trips out on the New York Row by Row quilt shop hop.  We have visited 8 shops, my daughter along for 6 of these, yes please do feel sorry for the 14 year old we traveled from Long Island to Albany in rain so bad we had to sit it out in a gas station at one point.

Once I got home i had to start immediately on the row by row. Of course Sparky was chosen for the piecing machine, I'm sure the neighbors are loving this as even though she's a great machine the one word I can think of to describe this machine... LOUD.  Wow! But then again, whats noise when faced with stitching like this?

Next problem to solve is the speed.  For some reason, my father and husband keep saying rheostat, the machine has two speeds, off and ZOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMM.  More updates soon! 

Sparky Rides Again!

Ok so after over 20 years... Sparky rides again! While I still want to rebuild the original motor I have just ordered and recieved a replacement motor for old Sparks. So today after over 20 years of setting... Sparky sewed a single line. Now remember I ran out of bobbin thread about half way through.

Happy Bornday!

Well, today is quite the milestone in Millie's life, another year older. Today is the old 66's 96th birthday.  I had hoped to have it home by now but unfortunately the space thing just isnt working yet. Soon though must be soon!
I've been thinking a lot about how much this machine has survived through. Being "born" in 1917, I can only imagine the amount of clothing and linens and quilts, etc that she has created. Can you imagine, how many hours of work this gal has probably put in over the years, how many technical advances it has survived through. Not only survived but has not been altered like so many have been. Its simply mind boggling.

Happy 96th bornday my old friend! 

Life is Good

Life is good. Recently my husband I went to the ultimate yard sale with my in-laws, niece, step kids and my daughter. Of course the in-laws arrived first, as they and the step kids live closer to the flea market/yard sale and my husband, daughter and I brought up the rear.  My daughter and I both scoured the booths and tables for sewing paraphernalia as well as something for her birthday.  

One thing I've noticed is that there are a lot of sewing machines out there in beat up condition.  We found a total of 5 machines and only one peaked my interest, but it was too expensive.  Other then that there was nothing of sewing interest. My daughter however did end up with an unusual jewelry box.

That night my wonderful in-laws had over the nieces (there are two), two of the step kids and a long time family friend who might as well be family and we celebrated father's day, my daughter's birthday and my own (coming up soon!).  The amazing thing is I then found out why there wasn't any good stuff at the yard sale... They had bought it all!

This is a collection that my in-laws have been working on for about a year, two small toy sewing machines, a sewing box and a pin cushion which has a tape measure!  I really am lucky to have these wonderful people in my life. But the one thing I cannot get over is the sewing box. It is a match for the 66.

And now to continue the search for the regular foot for the Ole 66. 

 

Sparky!

In my last post we had just changed the plug on the Commodore branded De Luxe and had quite a light show. Well being optimistic people (stop laughing) we decided to try to change the plug to a more heavy duty one in hopes that this would solve the issue of the sparks.  Last week we picked up another plug, this time a vacuum cleaner replacement plug and gave it a shot.  Before we plugged in Sparky (now aptly named)  we grabbed a spare surge protector just in case we had to shut it down quickly without becoming fried ourselves.  When we tried it this time the light lit up just like before and worked perfectly! So then I made the hubby try the pedal. Yup, nothing, that's right no sparks, no TV  no cable box, no light, just that noise that you hear when the breaker trips and everything shuts off. Yup, no sparks just dead quiet.
So deciding that we would check out the motor to see if there was some sort of easy fix, both of us being mechanically inclined I started taking the motor off the sewing machine and can you guess what I found?

Yup that's right our culprit, or so we reasoned.  Perhaps its an easy fix, so we opened the case and started taking the motor out.  Easier said then done there is another wire inside that goes to one of the brushes that is fried too. So now its the debate of fix it now or replace it and fix it later. 

On a positive note, the other night our beautiful calico suddenly noticed there was another cat staring at her, a cat trapped inside of the Commodore, that's right the machine is that shiny...