This is what I sew on. A Kenmore circa 1979. It’s like the AMC Gremlin of sewing machines. It’s a bit humiliating to be honest but it sews in a straight line and that is pretty much all I ask of a sewing machine.
It weighs about four hundred pounds but I dragged it down to my Dad’s this week ~ determined to make some progress on my Valentine’s table topper. Which I did. Mostly of the seam ripping variety but progress none-the-less.
My sisters are very accomplished quilters. Very. Jaw droppingly accomplished. Kate just finished the top to a bargello quilt done in gold, peacock blue, black and cream Asian fabrics that looks like a jewel. Nicki consistently produces quilt after quilt all done in really well thought out color palettes. She loves a scrappy quilt and can find forty different fabrics in the same shade of pale buttery yellow to work into a quilt design. She is so patient and meticulous and methodical when creating a quilt. I’m all about the instant gratification which is why I buy fabrics and then pretend I will make quilts out of it some day. She’s the one I go to when I need help with a calculation or a tricky intersection of fabrics.
Anyway – said sisters both do their quilting sorcery on Berninas. Nicki hosts a monthly quilting get togethers and everyone shows up with their fancy machines and I’m always kind of ashamed to lug in my old Kenmore. But like I said – it does the trick.
What I would really love is one of the old Singer Featherweights. What I wouldn’t do to have a white one. They are small, portable and they sew in a straight line. I need to apply myself to finding one – they are all over e-Bay but I’d rather buy from a local restorer.
I want to finish this quilted tabletopper so I can get on to my next project. I want to make this quilt in the Moda Poetry collection (exactly as depicted in the pattern – only bigger). We (my sisters and I and seven other quilters) are going on a quilting retreat in April and I think I can accomplish this quilt top during that trip. We are going to a monastery in Danville – we have booked one of the conference rooms for our sewing and the monks don’t care how late into the night we sew as long as we are quiet.
I’ve never spent more than an hour or two at a time working on any of my admittedly meager quilt projects so I’m looking forward to having two full days of uninterrupted quilting with so many accomplished quilters.
I’m sure they will all be too polite to comment on my sewing machine.
I just wanted to pop on here and say that you have a lovely blog! Love the writing, the colors, the subject matter, etc!
LOL, mine is a Kenmore circa 1976.
Oh well, it does ripped seams…
Thank you Kristen ~ I took a look at your blog too and it looks lovely. I need more gourmands on my list. Thanks for stopping in and leaving a comment.
Mimi – Well perhaps I was too hasty in proclaiming our Vintage Kenmores as humiliating and embarassing. I need to rethink this (and come up with some angle so that the classic Kenmore is a hot commodity and we can make a killing on eBay).
I have the same machine! I bought it with my high school graduation money way back when. . . I still have it (even after getting the Bernina) because when I took it in for a cleaning – the shop told me to contact them before I would sell it to anyone else – asthey are made so well. . . all metal parts! (ergo the weighing a ton!) – to replace it today would cost a bundle! So – it may not be the most glamourous – but they’re keepers!
My mom’s sewing machine is a heavy Kenmore, as well! I don’t know how long she’s had it, but decades at least. It’s still sewing!