Sewing Machine Social

I have a Homemaker's Group I go to the second Thursday of the month in the afternoons.  We take turns hosting, and this month was my turn.  I did a talk on my vintage sewing machines.  I will have to show you the machines in another post.

The picture below is of Miss Norma making a mug rug on one of my handcranks.  Miss Norma learned to sew on a treadle but had never used a handcrank before.  I also demoed my treadle, unfortunately, those pictures did not turn out.

 We had a show and tell and everyone brought a craft they wanted to share.
Debra, who does not usually come since she lives an hour away, shared a baby blanket she made. She is Miss Norma's daughter. The baby shower was that night.  I'm sorry about the pictures, the sun was not cooperating for good pictures.

 Linda, on the right, is a friend of Debra's and came with her.  She shared several quilts that she made.

 The below one is cross stitch and embroidery.

 The bluebirds were blocks a lady in a nursing home had started but could not finished, so Linda finished them for her.

 Pat loves using her embroidery machine and sewing.  She embroidered these towels for a college student.  She also made and embroidered the sweatshirt she is wearing.

 Here is a baby bib she made and embroidered for a new baby in our church (we go to the same church).  Cupcake joined our party.

 Garnet  crocheted this baby blanket for a new baby in her church.  I love the ruffly edges on it.

 I delinted and vacuumed all the cat hair on the furniture.  This chair is not in great shape so I keep a quilt on it.  Oreo decided to put the cat hair back on the chair and sleep on it before the guests arrived.  I used my string quilt to cover the TV.

 I had four sewing machines in the living room.  Here I have my New Home(1920) and in the back is my Singer model 12(1881).

 Here is a corner of my clean sewing room.  I had to clean it for my demos.

I promise to do an upcoming series on my blog about my machines.

Don't forget to enter my giveaway for a journal.  You can enter here. You have until Monday to enter.

We have a different theme each month for our group, next month's is gardening.

Aside from quilt guilds, are you involved in any other clubs?

Missy (currently with a clean house but I doubt it will last long)

New Cushion and Tutorial

I bought myself a new Papasan chair a couple of weeks ago.  I found great deals on everything.  I went ahead and bought the stool, however the cushion was $20 and was a boring solid grey color.  I knew I had material leftover from when I recovered my bench.

Sorry about the awful photo

It was super easy to make.  First I traced around the stool using newspaper.  I put my finger between the sharpie to make the circle bigger since I wanted a 1/2 inch seam.

I pinned the newspaper to the fabric and cut two pieces at the same time.

I sewed a half inch seam around the fabric that is right sides together.

Be sure to leave a gap so that you can turn the fabric right side out and stuff it.

Clip the seams, be sure not to clip the thread.  This helps the seams to lay flat when turned.

I had to pull stuffing out of every box of fabric I could find.  I found stuffing everywhere!  After you stuff it, be sure to sew up the opening.  It's not a perfect circle and the button is not centered, but I still like it.  

Cupcake loves it!  It took her about five minutes to claim it.

Muffin is in the chair, Cupcake on the stool, Custard in the red chair.

Don't forget to enter my giveaway for a devotional journal.  You can enter here.

Missy

Bible Devotional Review and Giveaway

I have a special giveaway and review for you today!  One of our local homeschool moms has written and published a series of devotional books.  She gave me one to review and one to give to you!

 The author and publisher of the devotionals is Shalana Frisby.  She gave me The 12 Week Journal for Book-By-Book Bible Study.  It is designed for any religion or Bible preference.

This journal includes weekly Bible study pages for: -Noting in a reading log the dates, chapters, and verses -Researching the background of each book -Writing character studies for each book -Studying the setting and culture for each book -Drawing a map of the location where the book takes place -Listing the main themes represented in each book -Reflecting how the book applies to your life -Sharing the book topic and verses with others -Taking personal notes about each book What you'll need to accompany this self-guided DIY study journal for the most benefit:a Bible of your choice and access to online Bible study resources (or printed commentary and Bible atlas). Note: This study journal is not specific to any Bible version and designed to use your preference of Bibles and resources in a self-guided approach. It works well for personal use, church, Sunday school or Bible classes, homeschool, and more. Give yourself just 12 weeks with this simple journal to learn amazing things about the Bible!

I really like this journal. It is a guide to help you know what that book of the Bible is about. I know that sometimes I will read my Bible without thinking about the background of what was going on at that time in history or of whom the book was written to. This devotional helps you think about those things and will help you understand more of what the book is about.

It is set up on a 12 week program (12 weeks, one book a week) however you can take however long is needed for each book. My first book that I am studying is Micah, since that is the book we are studying in our Bible study at church. I will take a couple of months for me to study it. It is also great to use in your homeschool for children.

If you would like to order any of these books, you can order it here. It is half off for the month of March.

To win the book, I will give you up to five chances to enter by making a separate comment for each entry.

1. Do you have a special book or journal you use for your personal Bible study time? Leave a comment letting me know!
2. Do you follow my blog? Leave me a comment letting me know how you follow.
3. Follow Shalana's Facebook page for her 123 Pubish It Company. You can find it here. Be sure to leave me a comment letting me know you follow her! She has some great videos on Facebook talking about her journals.
4. Sign up for her newsletter. She is having a March Madness sale and giveaway this month. A giveaway every Friday on her blog. Her signup page is here. Be sure to leave me a comment letting me know you signed up!
5. She is also having giveaways on her Instagram page. You can find her page here. Be sure to leave me a comment letting me know that you follow!

You do not need to enter all five times, one time will get you entered, however five times will increase your chances!

She has another giveaway going on now on her blog. Be sure to go enter to win a the Bible Memorization journal there. Her giveaway is going on until Wednesday. Her blog is here.

Very important, when you leave a comment, I need to be able to reply.  Please be sure to leave me your email address so that I can contact you.

My giveaway will be open until Monday, March 13.

Good luck!
Missy

Feline Friday and Machine Update

Almost every morning Muffin crawls under the covers to go back to sleep (he gets up with my husband).  The cats wake my husband up early but know it will not do them any good to try to get me up.  I always wake up around seven, even on my days off.  They wake up my husband between 5:30 and 6:00.

Pippi has a basket she likes to sleep in, so when I brought home my new papasan chair, she thought it was a new basket for her!

Check out the link below to see a video showing how the presser bar works.  I can't seem to get my videos to work this week.

https://youtu.be/nf2A30pO3HY



 I got my machine fixed.  I cleaned the inside with goop and then oiled it with sewing machine oil.  I let it sit overnight and then had my husband loosen the nut on top for me.  I thought you would be interested to see how the presser bar lifts up and down.  I got it stuck by tightening it too much.

This picture is missing the lever, but thought you might like to see the inside.

Do you fix your own machines or have someone else do it?  That is one thing I like about the vintage machines, they are usually pretty easy to fix.  I call my Singer 16 my Big Old Lady, she is 126 years old.  She was born in 1891.

Here is an update on my wall.  I promise that it is not a load bearing wall.  There is even wire mesh on the ceiling, it is in the way of getting the big board off the ceiling.  Such a pain.

I'll be having a giveaway next week, be sure to check back.

Have a great day ya'll!

Missy

A "Grey" Day

We have been trying to get this half wall torn down for five months, I've wanted it torn down since we bought the house in April. We thought it would be a quick one day thing, like on TV. 

 Unfortunately, when we started tearing down the wall, we found that it was laced with metal webbing and hooked into the ceiling with metal bars.  Those took a while to take down since we did not want to tear down the other wall, ceiling, or floor.  Then before we could knock down the drywall (which I had fun doing), DH had to move the light switch and plug, which he had never done before.
Now he needs to figure out how to remove the thick board across the ceiling and across the floor.

We did pull out two of those boards that you see on the left.  I also kicked one of the nails sticking up, wearing only socks.  It hurt, but I'm glad it did not break the skin or I would have had to get a tetanus shot!

Did I mention I have a group of ladies, my homemaker's group, coming to my house next week?  Not to mention a baby shower cake to make on Friday for a baby shower I'm helping to host. Ladies Bible study on Friday.   I'm not sure when I'm supposed to have time to clean since I work on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays.

I was hoping to finish my quilt so I could show and tell it Thursday at the homemaker's group and quilt guild that evening, but my sewing machine broke yesterday.  The part that lifts the presser bar that is connected to the foot, snapped loose last night.

I took the face plate off and proceeded to clean the inside.  It was nasty.  You have to remember that this machine is 126 years old.  That is a lot of gunk build up.

This is the lever that lifts the presser foot up and down.

The presser bar is the one with the spring on the left.  It is stuck and will not move.

I oiled everything down and am going to have my husband try to loosen the top nut on the presser bar. Hopefully if he can loosen it, it will become unstuck.  I think what happened is that when I put the "new" hopping foot on it(I found it in my stash), I had to tighten the presser bar a lot.  I must have tightened it too much and caused too much pressure inside or something.  If I can't fix it, I will have to take it to the Northeast TX T.O.G.A. in April and have someone help me fix it.

I declared yesterday a "grey" day!  LOL

Have a great day ya'll!
Missy

Feline Friday and Frivolous Food

I have always loved playing play-doh.  I think that is why I like modeling with fondant on cakes!  I know that I still have a lot to learn and need more experience, but it is still fun!  My student turned 12 yesterday and her grandmother ordered a cake for her.  She has talked about wanting a pink and black cake with zebra stripes for months.  She also loves fingernail polish.

I had fun making the fingernail polish bottles.

Yesterday the cats joined me in bed before I got up.  Here are five of seven cats.  

I had to take a closer picture of Cupcake who was sleeping on her back.

Right after I took that picture, Pippi decided to join them.

This did not last long, as soon as one woke up they started irritating each other.

Our hot water heater went out this morning so I had a very cold shower this morning.

Thanks for stopping by!
Missy

Book Review "Shine Like the Dawn"

I just read a great book, Shine Like the Dawn by Carrie Turansky.  It is was very well written, in fact, I finished it in less than a week.   Carrie is a new author to me.  I really liked her book and will read more.  She did a good job of coming up with a new plot for this book.  It is a Christian, historical romance.

Shine Like the Dawn is about a young girl who loses her family in a boating accident.  Years later she finds evidence that the accident might not have been an "accident" after all.  She needs to learn to trust God and let him take her bitterness away.  She needs to decide if her old friend can be trusted, even if facts start pointing to someone in his family being responsible.

I don't want to spoil the book for you because I know you want to read the book!

I highly recommend reading this book.  You can find more information about the book here.
You can find more information about Carrie Turansky here.

"I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review."

Have you read any of her other books?  I really enjoyed them!

Missy

Sweet Sewing

I've been snatching a few minutes when I can, trying to get some quilting done.

I am doing all of my quilting on my Singer Industrial 16 treadle.  Remember last week that my darning foot broke?  The new foot works okay, but I had to lower the presser foot bar thingy as far as I could to make it work.  It is also not always easy to see where the foot is going either.

 I have been quilting one color at a time.

 I can't decide if I want to quilt the blank area around the cakes.  What color thread should I use, off white?  Any suggestions on the quilting?

 Pippi was my helper last night.

 She also likes to hang out in the back of dress form.

 Here are some pictures of my classroom in my basement.  I privately tutor a homeschooled sixth grader three days a week while her grandmother is working.  I found these banners in my fabric stash.  A friend and I had made them many years ago for old fashioned Sunday at church.

 I have two strands, so I hung them in both corners, across all three windows.  I used pipe cleaners to attach them to whatever was handy.  Yes, I purposely placed those shelves under windows and put cat beds on them.  The windows are level with the ground and the cats love cat tv down there.  Muffin is in the top picture.

I also like to hang things from the beams in the ceiling since it is an unfinished ceiling.
I hope you have a blessed day!

Missy