Before and After treadle table

This was a lot of work.  The easy, sane thing to do would have been to have just replaced the top.  But, then, when have I ever done anything the easy way?

Singer 31-20

This lovely lady is a treadle powered industrial.made in 1920.  Lets think about that.  Some person, or more than one person, spent 8 or more hours a day, treadling this machine and sewing.  No motor.  Musings on work conditions of yesteryear aside, it is a smooth powerful hunk of a machine and I love it dearly. For those who wonder, the light behind it came from IKEA, but I think it does will with the machine.

I had to work on the cabinet a good bit.  The machine, other than layers of filth was in good shape. Built to run, as they say.  It is currently living in the dining room, but if the longed for sewing room materializes, it will move there.

 

odd quote for a Jew to put on her blog, but whatever…

“Dear Child of God, I write these words because we all experience sadness, we all come at times to despair, and we all lose hope that the suffering in our lives and in the world will ever end. I want to share with you my faith and my understanding that this suffering can be transformed and redeemed. There is no such thing as a totally hopeless case. Our God is an expert at dealing with chaos, with brokenness, with all the worst that we can imagine. God created order out of disorder, cosmos out of chaos, and God can do so always, can do so now–in our personal lives and in our lives as nations, globally. … Indeed, God is transforming the world now–through us–because God loves us.”
― Desmond Tutu, God Has a Dream: A Vision of Hope for Our Time

endless roll of string blocks

whenever the little plastic dishpan full of scraps starts to get full, i make a few of these blocks.  I have no clue how many i have now- or how many quilts it will ultimately make.  I just make them, usually log cabin style, and trim to 10.5 inches and sew them on.