I'm Just a Lucky Sew-and-Sew

From the time I learned to sew at the age of 11 until I graduated from high school, I sewed on my mom's Singer.

Mom's machine... still running!

For my HS graduation, my parents bought me a brand new Singer sewing machine from the Singer store in the mall. Do you remember Singer having their own stores? They sold vacuums, sewing machines and fabric, patterns and notions. In fact, at the time, our new little mall had two stores selling fabric. 
There were things that machine did that I still wish for today like winding the bobbin right in the bobbin case, just push the button and press the pedal. So easy! And the buttonhole attachment was the best. You put the button onto the attachment and slid the gauge down to fit and it automatically made a perfect sized buttonhole!
Thanks to Tonya's Sewing Room for this pic.

Looked like this one.

 

But... it also had its problems, like the tension was never right and big globs of thread would bunch up on the underside of the fabric. It made sewing a nightmare.

So a few years later, with my nearly new Singer for trade and money my grandmother left to me, I went shopping for a new machine. What I bought was a Viking 6690. It was top of the line and the first Viking to be partly computerized.

That machine has sewn everything from my first nephew's baptism outfit to a canvas awning for our deck. From theater costumes to my wedding gown. From hemming jeans to hundreds of yards of bias tape onto aprons. In all these years it required repair only once. When I purchased it, the store owner promised it would last me 35 years. Well, that 35 years is up and the machine is telling me it's tired. It's time for a new machine.  
 After months of researching and shopping around, I finally made it official last Friday. I paid a deposit on a brand new Pfaff Expression 3.2. Yeah!!!

 

Isn't she pretty? My machine had to be ordered but it should be set up in my sewing room in less than a week. I'm so excited!!! My favorite feature on this machine (and it's on all the new machines) is the light over the needle. It gives my eyes a much better view of what I'm doing. Now to decide what lovely project I'll make to christen my new machine.

 

Onto something from my past...

 

My cousin and his wife have a son and a daughter. Their son was married last Spring and their daughter was married last October. By Christmas they were both expecting babies! So this Spring I had two baby shower gifts to come up with. Of course that's the perfect excuse to make quilts.

Thanks to browsing on Pinterest, I had become enamored of I Spy Quilts. Here's the first one I made.



Over  150 different things to spy.

I used a Snowball pattern and a checkerboard border.

And the back... The fabric I wanted to back it with was too narrow so I pieced it.

And the second one.

I like the design of this one better.

They were both fun to make. More than half of the different fabrics were in my stash. My sewing buddy shared some of her cute fabrics with me and I shopped for the rest.

I made a list of about 100 things to spy, had it laminated and tied one onto the corner of each quilt with ribbon. I'm sure the parents will have just as much fun playing with these as their little ones. And speaking of those little ones, I must share a photo of the two baby girls that were born a month apart.

 

 

I'm thinking these two will be more like sisters than cousins. Such a sweet new branch on the family tree.