Thanks Rosemary and Wendy for the suggestions. I was thinking about the flowers in the border when driving in and I might be able to put them at the "points" of the embroideries. I'll have to look at that when I get home. I think it's a good idea. And Cindy Needham is actually my inspiration for this piece. I've sent her an email asking for advice since I'm taking her "Design It, Quilt It" class on Craftsy. It's the placement of the embroidered flowers in the border that are giving me problems. They are considerably closer to the inside than to the outside border and they are a little too close together to get a winding feather to look good going between them. But I have another idea that I'm going to try tonight that I hope will do it for me. My current thought is to take some of the lines out of the middle and use them to surround the embroidered flowers, then just put in a regular winding feather border that runs behind these motifs. I think that will make the flowers a bit bigger so they won't look weird with something running behind them. We'll see...

I'm glad everyone is keeping busy and Limbania stays in my thoughts. I hope things are going well for her!

Nancy

Like your flower Nancy and the tablecloth is going to be good. Have you seen the work of Cindy Needham. By coincidence I watched show 202 yesterday, its really inspiring tell me if you'd like me to send it to you. Have a look at her website as well http://cindyneedham.com/home.htm . She has some good tips for old linen that's not square and adds little pearls and beads to the work.

I'm sorry not to have chipped in much recently (had the lurgy) but I've been reading all your posts with interest.

At the Festival of Quilts at Birmingham this year there's a Chinese Whisper display. I shall look at it with interest and get some pics for those of you not going.

Thinking of you Limbania, hope you're in the process of getting rid of the unwanted guest. Send him packing!

As a teenager I had a singer treadle rescued from a jumble sale. Wish I had it now

Nancy, your projects are looking great. Some of the flowers in the centre of your table cloth quilting design would probably look good in the border - a bit smaller in scale perhaps - but just a thought...

As for Singer machines I have 2, one is a hand crank that I have inherited from my Gran (and is now nominally Isabeau's when whe wants to play, although it is a bit temperamental with the spring on the tension plates and I doubt that it has ever been for a service. The other is a treadle in a cabinet which I bought from 'Uncle' Arthur who I worked with when I was on Savile Row, I think that it was his mother's and it is just like one that the V&A have. It has a long spool bobbin and it is 'interesting' trying to get the bobbin case out. I don't use it much at all because I have my electric machine sitting on the cabinet for normal use. 'Uncle' Arthur worked in the office section of AJ Hewitts and was the 'youngest' man of his age I have ever met. In 1994 he needed a day off to attend the 50th Anniversary of the D Day landings and we discovered that he was part of Monty's bodyguard (couldn't stand him either ) and I think his rank was something like Captain or Major (I don't just recall now)

Lois, here's something for you to look at:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=singer+sewing+machines&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313&_nkw=singer+treadle+sewing+machines&_sacat=0

Nancy your heart flower is beautiful. I love all the hand stitching you did. And the tablecloth quilt is going to be lovely. I like the pink behind it. Your idea for quilting is also going to be lovely.

Actually, I am not looking for a really old one. In fact, I'd like a Singer made after 1920. They have regular bobbins and the bar that holds the presser foot is standard with current feet. You can fit them with walking feet and other kinds of feet as well. I look on ebay now and then, but I don't want to buy one sight unseen. I'd rather spend my time quilting than tracking down the machine. If I ever get one it will be out of pure luck because I just don't seem to fine time to scour the countryside looking for one. When I was 16 my parents bought me a singer slant-o-matic. That was 1961. It is a great machine it still works great. After I got married, I found a Singer treadle cabinet and I put that 1961 Singer in the treadle cabinet. The hinges were standard and so was the base of the machine. It's still in that cabinet and my daughter has it in Nevada. I used it when I go there to visit. I used that machine until the early 90's. It's done tons of work. If my daughter ever gets rid of it she'll be in big trouble.

yes, Lois....back when...1986 or so...I worked at striping the varnish and removed a lot of veneer that was
damaged and I'm afraid, some that I damaged in my ignorance. The wood underneath, in most places, is ok.
The table top is made of a plied hard wood...and DH has done the best he could to patch and repair the remaining veneer.
The coffin lid or bonnet was in pieces and DH replaced a side and top ..and with a bucket of wood putty , put it back
together....I need two little brass fittings that the lid hooks into.I missed them on Ebay a while ago ! And I need
the drawer pulls...I may get them on Ebay if I'm lucky at bidding. There are lots of nice machines out there...more in
your part of the country just because of population. This one's an ugly duckling....but she was Grammas'!

Marilyn, That is a beautiful cabinet. It looks like you have sanded the wood and that it will look lovely when you finish it. Do you mean to say that you have peeled veneer off the cabinet and that you are refinishing the wood beneath. I didn't know you could do that. Keep us posted on the progress. Along with all the many projects I have going I keep thinking that I too want to find a treadle machine and get it in working order. I wouldn't be a very happy person if I'd be without electricity for some reason or another for an extended peroid of time and have no sewing machine. Lot of good needle up, needle down, self threading, self cutting would do if I couldn't sew a seam. I have it in my head I want to make a log cabin quilt on a treadle machine. A few years ago I heard Sue Nickles speak at Hershey about machine quilting. She believes that people not only pieced their quilts on sewing machines but that they quilted them as well by machine. She believed that those quilts were made mostly just to keep warm and that the reason we don't have heirlooms that were machine quilted is because they were made to be used and they got worn out. Interesting idea!

I got some pictures uploaded so wanted to share. Here is my Heart Blossom:

Here is the tablecloth with the pink fabric behind it:

And here is my planned quilting design for the center:
{!-- ia0 -->Center Quilt Design.JPG{!-- ia0 -->
I'm still working on how to quilt the border.

Nancy

Maureen...I thought that might be near you...they sometimes used the names interchangeably. It seems
that kilbowie was first then it all came to be called Clydebank. Hard to grasp that in the years right
around 1888 hundreds of thousands of Singer machines were made there alone and more in the other
factories in Canada, the US and other place across Europe. What a time it must have been.!
Rita...This old girl had been well used and then sorely abused by being left stored out in a less than
moisture proof shed when I was younger . I gathered it up in early'70s ...the top in a bx and veneer peeling,
I made it useable for while..then stored it again...I striped off varnish and all the loose veneer 20 yrs ago
and put it away again ! They made those cabinets in a huge variety of woods and finishes and decoration.
I can't identify it for sure but I think it was mahogany veneer over some other hard wood. It might have
been all mahogany and fancied up with the veneer.? The wood has a red tint when wet. This one is pretty plain.
The machine's decals would have been beautiful by the examples I saw online. So sorry they can't be redone !
This model is a little different and when I get it up I'll post some pictures of the bobbin etc. Its different.
About the long shuttles...they can be old or newer...they were made over a long time and several kinds. What
models are yours ? There is more of a story about this machines' life...but that's another page !

Yes Limbania is never far from my thoughts either.

Marilyn, I love your machine. The table is beautiful and so is the cover. What is the wood? I have one that was my grandmothers and the timber is oak. Yours looks like oak too. Mine is not as fancy as yours though. But I did look it up and discovered that it is from 1928 which is probably exactly when my grandmother would have bought it. My aunts had an electric motor attached in the 70s but it's possible to detach the electric part and still use the treadle. I keep mine in our house in Kerry and every time we go down I have a little play with it. It works perfectly. I also remembered that I have another one in the shed which I had forgotten about. But I stupidly gave the treadle table to my sister about 15 years ago because I was not using the machine. I really regret that now. That machine has a shuttle bobbin - I wonder does that make it an older machine?

Marilyn, I also have been thinking of Limbania, I think we all are.

I remember a treadle sewing machine when I was a child just like the one you are restoring. My mum taught my sister and I to sew on it. Interesting to know that Kilbowie and where the Singer factory was is not to far away from me in Clydebank

Sending good good vibes to Limbania!

Beautiful treadle machine, Marilyn. I really should get up the courage to clean and oil my grandma's old Helvetia treadle! It's been sitting in my living room for a good ten years now, problem is, before that it spent a few years in a shed (dry and cozy, but still...).

Thanks Rita, I've been doing those exercises regularly since you first posted them, without them it would probably ly be much worse. I now have an anti-inflammatory patch on my wrist and an wearing a brace. Seems to help. As I'll be in the mountains this weekend, there won't really be any sewing to speak of, so it should get a little healing time

Go for it, Rosemary, get those quilts shown... We'll be rooting for you!

Marilyn, I've been thinking of Lambina all day. I bet we all are. We are all so far away from one another. It's hard to know how to help.