Feline Friday

I got a new cat!  She is zero maintenance!  I got her off the raffle table last week.

 I love her face!  I stuck one of the cat's toys in her paws, and one of my cats took it away from her.  LOL  Excuse my floor, I can't sweep until my finger is healed.

These two are so predictable.  When it is time for me to get up, Muffin curls up next to me and practically pushes me out of the bed so he can have my warm spot.  Hence, my bed never gets made.  It does not take long for Pippi to curl up to him and go to sleep.

 I put a towel over my cutting board to clean this machine.  Cupcake decided it was a great place to sleep however.

 You can tell Oreo is sleeping on my sewing room floor because of all of the fabric scraps.

 Cupcake loves my bag that I use when I pack.  Maybe I could also use it as a cat bag?

 She was begging for belly rubs while we were doing school, goofy, fat cat.

If you have any cute posts with cats, or I'm sure dogs can join in too, link up with the linky party at Sarah Did IT!

Missy

Raffle Quilt

Every year at the NE TX TOGA, they have a raffle quilt to help pay for the retreat center.  The quilt is always pieced and quilted on either a handcrank sewing machine or a treadle.  The Cranky Treadlers is a quilting group in that area who only uses hand cranks and treadles. This amazing group puts on the TOGA and makes the raffle quilt.

I took close ups of the free motion quilting which was done on a treadle.  Some people seem to think working on a treadle is slower.  It is not, just depends on the person.  I know that I am just as slow on my electric as I am on my treadle.  I can't remember who they said did the quilting, I'm sorry.

 I love the flowers!

 I love the feathers also!

I want to give you my opinion on raffles.  I do not gamble because the Bible says to have a good stewardship of money.  A raffle like this, which is raising money, is not gambling.  They do not charge or ask donations for the TOGA, instead they have the raffle to raise money for the use of the facilities and to pay for our BBQ dinner on Saturday.  They also use the money to pay for making the quilt.

I would like to thank the Cranky Treadlers for such a well organized TOGA and a beautiful quilt!

Missy

Book Review: Back in the Saddle by Ruth Logan Herne

Ruth Logan Herne is a new author to me.  I really enjoyed reading Back in the Saddle.  She does a great job weaving the theme of "God's plans" through the story and how the characters determine what God's plan for their life is.
You can find more information on the author here.

Back in the Saddle is about the eldest son of a cattle enterprise/ranch called the Double S.  His name is Colt Stafford.  He had left the ranch to make his fortune on Wall Street, which he did, but then lost it all.  He had to return home, humbled by the experience.  A lot of things had changed in the nine years he had been gone.  The biggest change was the house manager who takes no gruff from the cowboys she is cooking for.  Her name is Angelina Morales.  She has a secret colt is determined to find out what it is.

I really like that the book is in mass media size.  I prefer the smaller size in books, however, Christian fiction books are usually in the bigger size.

I highly recommend this book, it is the first in a series of I believe three books.  I hope to get the second book soon!

Have a great day!

Missy

I received this book for review from Blogging For Books.

T.O.G.A. Treadle-on Gathering Academy

This past weekend I went to the North East Texas TOGA.   It is a great time to learn more about vintage sewing machines and some great projects!  We don't get much sewing done, unless you stay late on Friday or come in on Thursday.  We got there Thursday night, so after unloading my machines, we went to the hotel.  I stayed there all day on Friday until five o'clock, many stayed later,  especially ones who were staying at the retreat center.  Saturday I was there from morning to after 8:30 pm.

 We had lots of laughs with the "Cranky" Lady (short for hand cranks).

 We learned some great information about the Spartan sewing machines.

We had a young girl with her grandmother.  She made her first quilt block!

 We had lots of fellowship while we worked on our projects.

 The majority of people brought their hand crank sewing machines to work on, a few brought their treadles.

 Over a hundred came over two days.  It is a free form set up, you can come and go as you please.

 We had a couple of ladies who helped us learn how to fix our broken machines.  Thank you Margaret and Lisa!

 Of course we had vintage machines!  Some were for sale and some were to look at. I have more pictures on my camera, which I will share later.

 I loved seeing everyone's special doodads and pin cushions!

We had a lot of demos on our machines, sewing, and quilting!

How to make easy prairie points by Diane.

Twist and Shout, putting your blocks on the diagonal.

 How to make cute cloth bowls by Margaret.

 How to make Scandinavian Stars by Sandy.

 English Paper Piecing.

 All about bobbin tensions by Margaret.

How to change a treadle belt.

 Pincushion and clips holder demonstration by Sue.

 Pinking attachment demo by Deborah.

I missed a couple of the demos unfortunately, there were many more.

We also had a sewing machine parade.  I came in second place with my float.  I did a theme on the home since the machine I used was my New Home.

Here are the other floats.

 This was the RAF (Royal Air Force) machine so she went with that theme for her float.

We also had a raffle, quilt raffle, and BBQ brisket dinner.

I'll share some more detailed posts later.  If you would like to find a TOGA in your area, look here:
http://treadleon.net/fleamarket/events.htm

If you would like to plan your own TOGA, here are some ideas:
http://treadleon.net/fleamarket/makeatoga.htm


If you are interested in Treadle sewing machines or handcrank sewing machines, these are a great way to learn more and meet some people who share your interest.  If you have ever been to one, I would love to hear about it!

Missy

Quilting Progress

 I have been working on my getting my cake quilt quilted.  If you remember that my quilting foot broke a couple of weeks ago, I tried a new foot and it messed up my machine, which I had to fix.

It occurred to me that I still needed to outline (or stitch in the ditch) around everything, so I put the original foot back on it and I am almost done with that part.  I have a couple of pink sashing "boxes" left and the brown inner border.  Someone sent me a darning spring that I am going to try as soon as I finish.  I will let you know how it works.  Someone asked me what foot this is, I believe it is the original foot that came with the machine, the machine is 126 years old.

 I found that the middle finger on the left hand is not used in quilting, just the palm.  I put my quilting glove on my hand and put the splint (for my broken finger) over the glove.  I was not able to quilt as long as I wanted to since too much movement does hurt.

I would love to have it finished by this weekend, but I'm not sure it will happen.  I have 25 nine patch blocks to make for a block exchange this weekend.  I have half of them made.  I have to admit that my blocks were cut kind of wonky.  I should have taken my neighbor's offer to cut them for me.

Have a great day!
Missy