August 27, 2004
A Little Bit
This is a close up of one of the Gee's Bend baby quilts I am making. At first I thought the choice of thread was too colorful (I may still think it is), but it is growing on me. I think maybe it over shadows the hand-print fabric.
But having done almost all the quilting, I am not about to rip it out. These are baby quilts, you know. Spit, pee, dirt are all a part of growing up and these things are going to be used not hung on a wall to be admired.
I did give one baby quilt to a woman who hung the thing of her wall. I visited her one day, took it down, folded it up (it was a quillow) and gave it to her two year old daughter. The little girl didn't even know it was hers, didn't know it was a quillow, nothing! Geez.
Having received the last payment on a certain comissioned work of art, I promptly called a traveling sewing machine repair man to come and give the newest member of the family a tune up.
She has the ability to run at 5400 RPM, but is set to go at about 3400. Geez, sewing machine talk can really get me going. I bought her a gallon of oil, two new feet and had a light and bobbin winder attatched. After the sewing repair minstrel left I even had my Man apply some sassy stickers to her shiney lil' bod.
Doesn't she look purdy?
if it looks a good in real life as it does in the photo, I think the quilting absolutely compliments the handprint fabric...beautiful...
...a GALLON of sewing machine oil????
while we're on the subject, can I ask a question?..it a fit of home mechanics I oiled my sewing machine with canola oil...it seemed to work, but when I went to try it again later it seemed pretty gummed-up...I oiled it twice more with my kitchen wisdom, before I realized there was such a thing as a proper oil meantespecially for my Singer...ah...things are still pretty slow and blumpy...any advice?
i like the quilting - think it is a nice echo of the handprints. from far away you probably still see the fabric standing out - the stitching you see from close up - so neat that it has two different ways to look at it
Posted by: carolyn at August 31, 2004 03:21 PMA note to fern - oils from nuts and seeds are different from machine oil, because they oxidize and harden after exposure to the air for a while. Machine oil is mineral oil, and it never dries out. I'm a painter, not a sewing machine expert, but my guess would be that it's not such a good thing to use a plant-based oil in a machine!
Leigh
Posted by: Leigh at September 4, 2004 07:05 PM