Treadle 66

We have been looking at stationary bikes for me to exercise on. I made a comment once that I'd noticed that using Grandma's Treadle sewing machine was a leg workout....soooo we moved the treadle from the entry to the living room and put a chair in front of it.

Going to the internet I was able to discover that it was made in 1910. The model number is 66-16. It works but I am trying to figure out how to purchase the missing parts. When I got it after Grandma's death it was missing the post for the thread and missing the bobbin case cover. I have another old sewing machine that I stole the cover from and it almost fits. It is sew-able although there is a gap of 1/4" when the plate is closed as I can get it. Here are some details of this beautiful machine;

 The decal design is called 'red eye'.

The front shows the old bobbin style, I've never seen this kind of bobbin.

 Even the back is beautiful.

The bobbins with the holes were wrapped in paper with a label,'bobbins for Grandma's treadle machine'. They do not fit. The other do.

I have 2 gizmos like this...a ruffler? gatherer? The internet told me to not use any household cleaners on the body, just oil. So I've rubbed it down but it needs a bit more tender loving care. I've ordered polish for the chrome bits and am continuing to research how to take care of it. Now I'm trying to decide which project I want to make using this machine.

Getting ready to post this I called my Mother to get any information she may have about it. This machine was around her whole childhood. Since I don't think Grandma bought the machine when she was 12 we're pretty sure she bought it used.
Grandma made ALL of my Mother's clothing on it.  Mother had store bought socks. ALL of her underwear, dresses, etc, and coats were homemade. Her underclothing all had little bits of embroidery, on everything. Polly also worked full time, had a huge garden, canned their food and took care of a sick husband. 
Mother started dusting it when she was very young, probably 3. Grandma told her that her little hands could get in and dust it much better than her bigger hands. Mom dusted it until she left home. (Then I'm sure she dusted it when she visited; I know she dusted it when she came to my house.)

Doldrums

Why is it when a vacation or visit is over you get sad? I had fun this month but now I have to figure out what to do next. Dieting is not really an activity I look forward to but that is my main agenda now....yuck.

I did do another zipper pouch (no photo) but it won't change my zipper count at all since when we found the pink gingham to use for the lining it had a zipper attached, that I got to unpick and add to my stash.  I think it was a top I wore in High School, at least 100 years ago. Remember the dresses with the high bodice? The yoke stops half way down the arm hole.

Did you wear this? The little bit around the neck was a bias strip of gingham. I remember Cheryl (my older sister) wearing this too.

Grandma's afghan

My Grandmother, Belle Elizabeth; my daughter, Elizabeth Rene; and my sister, Leah Rene, about 1988.

My Grandmother did not quilt much (One quilt taught her that quilting was not much fun.) but she knitted and crocheted for years. I have fond memories of her knitting in her big rocking chair in her living room. I still have the mittens and hat she knitted for me while a child. Towards the end of her life she crocheted Granny Squares,using up the bits and pieces of yarn she had leftover. She got several afghans put together but I got a kit of squares a few years after she died.
During one visit my Mother made we laid the squares out and safety pinned them together. A couple years later during our 2005 Hurricane Rita evacuation I sewed them together. Five years later I got to spend 6 days in the hospital with Jeffrey and my project was to crochet around them. I quizzed my mother about how Grandma finished hers and did mine the same. (Less decisions that way.) Three rows of black and then a yellow shell border. I had to get away from the hospital once and buy some more black and get some yellow yarn. Sunday night my husband helped me block it. It is 65" X 53 1/2"Monday morning my son thinks it should come off the floor, it will stay there until it is dry. I had to wait for 2 weeks while he used the room for a bedroom. Since his healing may take a few more weeks we (Roger and Andrew) got the recliner up to Jeffrey's room so he's sleeping up there now. He still can't get up if he lays down so the recliner works to give him a little independence and then I can get him his pills in the middle of the night. (It only took one time of Dad having to lift him up for us to figure out a better sleeping arrangement. )

Tuesday Inspiration

This is the quilt my great-great-grandma made for my mother when she was small. She slept under it for years knowing that her great-grandma loved her enough to spend the time to make this beautiful quilt. When I was young I slept under it too.

So when I got old my first quilt was this:
I was also influenced by a pink quilt I saw in Ladies Circle quilt magazine. I'd seen it standing at the magazine rack but couldn't afford to buy it. I mentioned the beautiful quilt to a friend at church and she bought it for me.

I loved it. but was smart enough not to try to do the applique. As it was I took 10 years to finish this quilt ; from 1984-1994.

I copied the quilt pattern from Lizzie's, but I did not quilt it. I finally paid some ladies at a church in Baytown to quilt it; which is why it got done. This was pieced before I knew of rotary cutters AND the blue corners were appliqued to the alternate block instead of pieced, which is common now. Later I organized an exchange and made this quilt in 1995, trying to get closer to the original. I have enough squares/exchange pieces to do a double with muslin background AND to do one with yellow background. You will see those years from now.

I had to add a photo of the back. This is a fabric I inherited from my grandmother and I used most of it to back Jeffrey's baby quilt.

Winding Way

Have you noticed a trend? Tuesday is Inspiration Quilt day. Unfortunately I can't see this continuing for a long time.
This is a quilt pieced by my grandmother; Belle Elizabeth Tinker Caughey. She made it while working for a hotel in Silverton, Colorado before her marriage in1923. The blues all came from the aprons the women wore in the hotel, all but one of them faded substantially. Grandma found that she did not love quilt making; during my youth she made us each a doll quilt and then knitted and crocheted. Nevertheless her Winding Ways quilt inspired my mother to make this:
I have collected a book and templates to make it myself but it's not on the list for this decade. Here are some close-ups of some of Mom's blocks. Each quilt she makes has some butterflies in it and she often 'fussy cuts' special motifs.

This block is of a scrap from the swimsuits my mother made her 5 s in the 1950's. I remember wearing it in the backyard playing in the sprinkler.

Stash report plus my house quilt.

Does a quilt add ripples when it has been used for years? I finished this quilt in 1991; for Elizabeth. She came home to visit with her baby Saturday and wants to take it home with her. I remember when it was finished it was perfect! (just kidding, I'm not sure it was perfect with today's experience but in '91's eyes it was perfect....It was quilted, bound and labeled.) I often sewed on quilts while Liz was young....one day I was working on a white on white with a bit of beige and she asked if it was a quilt for her. Yikes a white quilt for a 4 year old...I don't THINK so. I told her no but that she could choose which quilt she wanted from my stash of exchange blocks.

She choose the house blocks because one of them had been embellished before the exchange (the very reason I didn't care for them much was the reason she LOVED them) So I embellished the rest; some by her instructions; the toy train buttons in the window are looking into a playroom. The strawberries are in front of 'our house' since we had a bed of strawberries lining the walk. I raided my mother's lace stash for many on the bits of lace. I loved working on it and adding the embellishments; there's even a key charm by a doorknob.

I also learned that buttons added to a quilt cause additional damage with use. This quilt has been repaired more than any other; often when a button comes off it makes a hole in the quilt. When a button has done that and it has been repaired it made sense to me to add a clear button to the back to support the front button.

I had been making quilts for years by 1991 but when she chose these blocks I went to a book I had and followed the instructions to make a quilt with 25 12" blocks. It was SO easy when you don't try to invent the whole pattern yourself.

She chose the quilting in the border, birds, and 2 of the birds are kissing 'cause she told me to make it happen. We worked together ...well she watched me and talked to me the whole time I worked on this quilt.

I HAD read before this child was born; but it is hard to talk and read at the same time and Liz was not happy unless you were talking to her. I can talk and sew so I did. She was happy to stand by the sewing machine...facing me and talk. I don't remember her ever getting into stuff because she was always with me.

Stash report...1/8 yard in! I'm really trying to buy fabric for a customer's quilt and have been to about 6 stores in the last 2 months looking for the right fabric...I'm going to try tea-dying this 1/8 yard and seeing if it will make it work.

for the year;

in: 20.37 yards

out: 91 yards

doll clothes project

This is what greets me as I walk up the stairs to my room. These are my old doll dresses on hangers I made when I was little - 8? I just remember making them; no idea how old I was. These dresses were made by my Mother, my Grandmother and the neighbor down the street that was hired to make some for us for Christmas one year. I smile when I see them; the dolls from my childhood and some of my daughters dolls are on the shelf below. Lately as I go up the stairs I notice the dust on them. So I've started washing them, by hand, with the idea of doing something crafty with them... I'll post details when I get one finished. 

Don't hold your breath though I'm planning on going slowly with this project since my main goal is to quilt.

Christmas

With everyone home I have little time on the computer. We just don't have enough computers. Our computer geek son came to visit with his family; 2 of our grandsons. Roger and Reed spent several hours at Fry's (electronic super-store) yesterday. Then they tore into our 2 'old' computers; 1 was not working at all; 1 we've been using but had a few problems. Both computers are up and have internet service; yeah! no more boys on our computer. Also meant the living room had to be rearranged a bit to make room for another computer AND the tree.


This is one of my favorite ornaments; my Mother gave one to each of my older children so they left when they left home; I got to keep Brian's. I keep thinking I'll make some for myself but haven't managed to fit it in in 20 years.

Sunday I had a 'cool idea' 1 hour before church. I rushed and made 6 of these little ornament memory books for each on my students in my Primary class (similar to Sunday School). During class I had them write in important things that happened to them this year. THEN I decided to make some using felted wool for each of my grandchildren. I hope it will become a cherished ornament.

I decided to have each one have a letter for MERRY CHRISTMAS. Tyler is 4 so I made him 5 books. James is 2 but needed 3. Austin and Carter each got an M. (The books are constructed but I used up all my small jingle bells on the church kids so won't finish until I find some more.)


This is still my favorite crocheted snowflake; I crocheted it for our second Christmas, 1977.
This is my son and grandson on our walk; our effort to get me to walk a mile a day... does it count if it takes an hour to walk that mile?


I missed my stash report this week...I did some sewing but I'll group it together next week.

Have a Merry Christmas.

ike

Hurricane Ike looks like it is headed right for us. We decided to stay put since our street has not flooded before; we were an island with floods all around us but we were dry. 

I managed to make all of our frozen bananas into banana bread. (Wouldn't it be dreadful to have the power go out and have frozen banans sitting in your freezer... thawing...gushing slimy stuff all over it? It's not going to happen here!) I had about 9 cups of mashed bananas. We have breakfast at least for the next week. I hope, hope, hope we have electricity soon after the storm.... 

The grocery stores were a bit crazy today; I noticed Kroger's peanut butter shelves were empty...a whole lot of people are going to be living on sandwiches...

We need a couple hours of bearable weather in the morning to finish securing the outside; tie down canoes and board up a few windows. 

During Hurricane Katrina we evacuated to Northwest Houston and stayed with the Johnson's. I had brought some of the food from our freezer so we cooked a turkey and had a feast. We watched television and I got my granny squares from my granny sewn together.  We had a great time I hope this hurricane is just as memorable...

chronic cough

My family has listened to me cough for years; Jeffrey runs and gets me a glass of water. Strangers listen to me cough and ask if I'm going to live. Every time I've gone to the Dr. for the last 6 years I have complained about my cough. She'd say, 'have you tried this?' and I'd try a new medication. FINALLY she ran out of things to try and sent me to an allergist.

Today I found out that I am not allergic to anything! Nada; no reactions to any of the allergens. Turns out I have a 'sensitive upper respiratory track' and will have to live with it; but there are medications that can help. So I'm on steroids for 11 days; antihistamines/decongestants (2 a day) and 2 different nasal sprays. We'll see if it goes away so that I can sing in church again.

The picture? That's flooding from tropical storm Claudette in 1979. The cutie is Melissa our oldest. Later I learned it was dangerous to play in flood waters in the south. This picture was taken in our drive way; the water stopped a few feet from the garage door. Luckily we didn't see any water moccasins or alligators. Roger got his canoe out and took the neighbor children for rides and the men met at the end of the street with shovels and dug a ditch so the water could escape to the big drainage ditch behind our subdivision. Later we found out that the drainage pipes in our streets were blocked with debris.

making it from scratch

When they were small my youngest 2 hated Sundays so I started a tradition that we kept for several years; ice cream to eat as soon as we got home. I usually heated up peanut butter to use for the sauce and it didn't take long for Sunday's to become more popular around here. The transition to bread was gradual once they got older and their older sister started making it every Sunday.
Now the 10 year old and 12 year old take turns making all our bread. We have been making all our bread for about 15 years. When there were 4 children at home and they all packed their own lunches we went through 2 loaves of bread a day. Brian made a loaf before he went to school and before he went to bed in our first bread machine. Before that I made it sporadically, in fact when our first child was born (1978) her labor was 'induced' by putting the bread on the floor (in a large bowl) to knead it, since I couldn't reach it on the table. I guess the scrunching of my body broke my water...well maybe it was time anyway :-)
This is the recipe I have posted near the bread machine:
water-12 ounces
salt-1/2 Tablespoon
olive oil-2 Tablespoons (we have a spout that measures it, so they just tip it over)
oatmeal-1/2 cup
whole wheat flour-1 cup (we grind our own wheat and keep it in a bag in the refrigerator)
flour-2 1/2 cups
dry milk-3 Tablespoons
yeast-2 1/2 teaspoons
sugar-2 Tablespoons (we like to use honey instead but I hate to measure it.)

(I really should have taken a picture of what the counter looks like after he measures everything...on the other hand maybe I don't want to remember.) I keep most of the stuff all together so it easier to make; Brian had it down to 2 1/2 minutes; Andrew takes about 30 minutes :P
Andrew made a loaf last Sunday before church so as soon as we got home they had a slice or 2 of bread and then I worked on dinner. Their favorite way to eat it is to fix a dip with olive oil, salt and garlic powder. They love it and if they don't make it we just wait to eat until I can get something fixed. I love when the consequence's of their disobedience doesn't have to be manipulated by me.

chocolate mint

Several years ago I discovered Russell Stovers French Chocolate mint candy bar. I loved that bar. I knew which stores had it and would go out of my way to get one. I especially loved unwrapping it and putting it on a plate and softening it in the microwave for a few seconds. YUM! NOW, however there are NO stores in my area that sells ANY of the French chocolate mint products. I was probably the only consumer in my area and when I quit purchasing them there was no longer any demand here and now I can't find them anywhere!
One time I splurged and bought myself a box of the individual mints. When I got home I
realized that they were not in the best condition. They had obviously melted a bit in the box so I called their customer service center and complained; then ate all the chocolates anyway. They sent me a box in the mail PLUS a coupon for another box to purchase at the store.
I've NEVER had a boyfriend surprise me with a box of chocolates but WOW it was really a boost when a strange man (the UPS guy) knocks on your door and hands you a box of chocolates! They had packaged it in a Styrofoam cooler and included a frozen cooler pack but it was still a bit soft, but did I care? No, they tasted great anyway and that is when I discovered that I loved them a bit soft.
When a local grocery store went out of business I bought all 10 of their boxes of mints and served them at our first daughter's wedding. I could not believe it when they weren't all eaten, if I'd been near the table I would have eaten half of them! My son and future daughter in law packaged everything up and hid put them in the freezer. The next day I looked and looked for them and NEVER FOUND THEM! About a year later my darling younger daughter admitted to finding them and over the course of the next few weeks eating ALL of them.
I am still bitter.

dear daughter 22!

One of my babies is 22 today. When she was 4 she wouldn't let me out of her sight; now she lives in Idaho. The first day of kindergarten she wore cows to school... she loved that outfit. (I think a child should get to dress as a child and not a miniature adult.)I don't suppose you could get her to wear any animal today. Look at her happy smile on her wedding day! Soon she will have her own baby to hold (about 6 weeks away) .
I sent her a package with her favorite cookies; Fudge Ecstasies, that's what she said she wanted but she didn't think they would come since I am pretty bad at sending packages. I included the thrift store 'find of the week' in her package (maybe a blog about it tomorrow.) Here is the recipe for her cookies.
Fudge Ecstasies
I first made these in 1990, an instant hit.
Like some brownies, the surface is crackly, but inside they're soft, fudgy, and nutty.
From Better Homes and Gardens Cookies for Christmas 1985

1 12-ounce package (2 cups) semisweet chocolate pieces
2 squares (2 ounces) unsweetened chocolate
2 tablespoons butter
¼ cup all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon baking powder Dash salt
2 eggs
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chopped nuts

In a heavy medium saucepan heat 1 cup of the chocolate pieces, unsweetened chocolate, and butter till melted, stirring constantly. Transfer to a large mixer bowl to cool slightly. In soup bowl stir together flour, baking powder, and salt.

Add eggs, sugar, and vanilla to chocolate mixture and beat well. Add flour mixture and beat till well mixed. Stir in remaining chocolate pieces and nuts.

Drop by heaping teaspoons onto a lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake in a 350' oven for 8 to 10 minutes or till edges are firm and surface is dull and cracked. Cool on cookie sheet for 1minute, then remove and cool thoroughly. Makes about 36.

The recipe should really be doubled there are never enough cookies, but that could be a good thing. It doesn’t work to mix this up and make it later. Forget about putting it in the refrigerator and baking it later you can’t even put it aside for an hour the chocolate gets hard and it’s impossible to get out of the bowl! It’s so good with a bowl of ice cream but a glass of milk goes with it great too.

Liz had them for breakfast yesterday. :-P

old chair

This chair sat next to my bed when I was a child. It was used as a night stand and had a old cotton rope seat. It held my clock and I put my glasses on it every night before I went to bed. The rope eventually rotted and it was stored in the basement until my parents gave it to me. This is the second seat it has had since I got it. The previous seat was woven as a scout project by Brian, I think he used small rope, it lasted about 8 years. About a year and a half ago I took a can of black spray paint and covered it's clear coat and then wove this seat using part of one or 2 of my selvage balls. I was busy getting ready for my daughters wedding but most nights I would weave a couple of rows before going to bed. I like it.



This is close to what the top chair looked like but is in worse shape. This one needs to be stripped, then painted but I've plenty of selvages for it!

My Dad e-mailed me a postscript that I've added about my chairs.

You might like to know a little more about the chair. My dad found it in the middle of the highway. It had apparently fallen off a truck. I think there were two of them. They originally had woven straw bottoms..
I put the cotton rope on it when we didn't have any furniture. They were new when we got them. That was probably in the late 1930s Love Dad

marshmallow dreams

I think that my husband and sister are in cahoots with each other.
I have been wanting to make marshmallows for a very long time, maybe 5 years, I hesitated (that's a long hesitation) since I live in a very humid climate and I thought it would affect them. So while I was in Idaho for Christmas I thought it would be an ideal time to try it. Christmas Eve came around and I had my husband get the ingredients. There was no unflavored gelatin at
Wal-Mart and I didn't want it bad enough to send him all over a strange town looking for it. But when I got home I decided to make them since I had NEVER had them or made them before and I had all the ingredients. Later I called my sister and while telling her about my sweet exercise she tells me that I had made them and given her some at Easter time 30 years ago. They were egg shaped and covered in chocolate. She thought they were delicious.
I thought she was delirious.
Tonight I offered Roger some (he was sick yesterday so I saved some for him to taste). He said the same thing, that I had made them before.
Now I thought I had a reasonably good mind and I know a little about learning things. If you read about something you may not remember it. If you hear something you may not remember it. But the more senses involved the more likely you are to remember it. So here I see a recipe and read it; vision, I made them; touch, I ate them; taste, I heard compliments about them, (maybe); hearing. I still have NO recollection of it, NaDa not one cell of my brain has retained that experience. So I figure if I had kept a journal that would have been the missing link to my brain and I would have remembered it. Or at least I could prove that my husband and sister are collaborating to convince me of my EOA (Early Onset Alsheimers).

inexpensive fun

My daughter is writing a paper in college. It is a photographic essay. I am the keeper of photographs in our family; therefore my assignment is to find and send the appropriate photos. Needless to say these are all pre-digital so I thought I'd have to send them slow-mail. I had tried scanning other photographs but then blogger didn't recognize them. I discovered (dancing with delight here) that Picassa could import them in a recognizable format.

One of the books she read this semester claimed that children in a large family were deprived of many things. Basically it claimed that to be successful in later life you MUST be from a small family. Herphotographic essay/paper is something about having fun and not being deprived because you have more than 2 siblings. She already has more current photos. I hope these work for her.

mittens

This is the post you've waited for ... (hey that sounds like a primary song, can't remember which one... this is the night you've waited for always a ...)

The mittens are finished and have been washed twice. I think they will feel like a coat of armor on, but the fingers will be WARM! My Mother is visiting and the mittens were big on her. Now that they've been felted Andrew can barely squeeze them on. If they are too big I think Tyler could wear them and play in some hot soapy water (they need heat, soap, and agitation to shrink) and they might shrink to fit him. (Try the hot water and soap and then let them dry with the soap in them and then rinse them in cool water.)I'm so excited about them that I can't wait for Christmas. They go to Idaho as soon as I get a cord crocheted for them. I'll need the length from one wrist, up the arm, across the back and down to the next wrist. (hint, hint, Angela).

I'd like to knit another pair but I think I need to see how these fit first.

I'm so grateful that I did not have to raise the sheep, shear them, clean the wool, make the yarn, and dye the yarn. I'm amazed that anyone ever had even one dress! Made me tired just listing the jobs.

My Dad was just told me a story of when he was in the 9th grade (about 1938) and his parents made themselves a wool mattress. In Ariola, Colorado the government sponsored a welfare project of sorts. They supplied the materials and the labor was done by the individuals that wanted a mattress. Years later, when they could afford a new better mattress they sold the wool.

Mom bought some stuff today for the boy's to make something for their grown siblings for Christmas. I think everyone will like them. The boy's loved making them and I had to make them go to bed before they were ready to stop.

I started cutting my 25 pillows out yesterday! So if anyone has a preference for one for their bed let me know. Unfortunately there is no bright blue or yellow fabric.... there is a lime green that would make a pretty pillow if someone has lime green in their room;)

I made 2 kinds of cookies tonight. Drommar and chocolate wafer cookie dough. The Drommar tastes almost just like pecan sandies. Drommar has cardamom in them and the next time I make them I think I'll increase the cardamom and see if we can taste it. Cardamom is an unfamiliar spice to us and even after putting it in these cookies I'm not sure what it tastes like.

Andrew decided to play (after he did his homework and practised 30 minutes on the piano, with no complaints I might add-and I'd told him to practise 15 minutes!) with a math problem and wrote an 11 digit number down and then proceeded to multiply it by another 11 digit number! What fun! What excitement! He was humming while he worked! What a lovely kid!

thankful

I feel like my son did when he was asked to write about his favorite animal; ROADBLOCK! how can I choose one and offend all the other animals? So just because I chose to write about it first or not first doesn't mean I love one blessing more than another.

I am grateful for sonograms! I will be the grandmother of another baby boy in March and I LOVE knowing what color quilt to make, what kinds of things to get for this new baby. I've already collected a few baby things from the thrift store but the parents live in a one room apartment so I've been good and not mailed them. I'm grateful that they found such a cheap place to live but I'm grateful that it won't be for much longer.

I included a few pictures from 2007 Quilt Festival. I love autumn quilts so here's a good one, notice the gradations of color around the border. The other one was in fall colors, I've seen dahlia quilts that I didn't like at all but this one had some great colors and I loved it.