Yesterday's day off, which was to be devoted to cleaning, oiling, and lubing The Rocketeer 503A . . .
. . . was unexpectedly devoted to an in-depth audit of the chorus's financial books. I'm scrupulously honest, but the audit this time pointed up places where my monthly reports needed to have a page with a clearer breakout of income and how it's categorized and shuffled about between accounts. It was a solid 6 hours chunk of time and I was exhausted by the time I got home.
This morning I arose with renewed energy and started on the Rocketeer right away. Small wonder why it's called a Slant-O-Matic!
By the time noon rolled around I had that machine running as well as it could, and I was looking forward to doing some stitching. I had also googled additional cams for it, as without a specific cam (#0), it doesn't do a plain zigzag.
After putting it (him? her? them?) on the sewing table, I glanced down and noticed a box. A very significant box, with all the right words on its lid.
It held wondrous things!
None of them were cam #0, but there was a walking stitch that looked promising.
Perhaps it's the machine, perhaps the cam, but in reality the stitch is more like this, and not nearly as helpful for my needs:
Under that marvelous box was another forgotten and unexpected box which merited exploring. What did I have to lose?
MORE CAMS!!! (And another ruffler. My goodness--how many ruffles were made for little girls in the 50s and 60s?) Still no cam #0 (oh, excuse me: Fashion Disc #0), but one that shows promise (for now) for creating frankenbatts:
I've not given up on the possibility that my son can create a Fashion Disc Zero for me, given one of the existing discs and this fabulous picture to work from.
With just a few minutes remaining this afternoon before leaving to visit my mom, I starting looking for border fabrics for the smallest TATW flimsy. Given its size (48" x 72") it would need 9"&11" borders to bring it up to throw size, or 10"&15" for twin size. I was hoping to find some fabrics to make a couple of borders around it.
Instead, this caught my eye.
It's such an unexpected juxtaposition that I can't tell if it's crazy, kitschy, or absolutely perfect!
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| The flimsy is folded, so only 1/4 is seen in this shot. |
So many cams! I'd hestitate with the DotD fabric because there would be recipients who really, really would not like it. It depends where the quilt is going to end up.
ReplyDeleteThen again, I'm in the middle of Texas! I don't think ANY of the donated quilts are thrust upon people. I believe they're given a choice from several. But I'll email the leader of the group and ask her if it goes against any guidelines or beliefs. Thanks for the guidance!
DeleteC
That's a Cuzzin Carla print for sure! You are definitely cam-o-flaged with the Rocketeer. The new issue of Quiltfolk (which I read during the midnight-to-1 a.m. thunderstorm last night) has a profile of quilt artist Judith Content whose sole machine is a 1956 Singer that looks like yours.
ReplyDeleteYou nailed it! It was one I pulled from the two Sairey fabric boxes. She wouldn't take those boxes until I had helped myself to some of the bounty, and furthermore insisted she had more than enough DdlM fabric in her own stash.
DeleteSome good news: Dios de los Muertos fabrics are just fine with the sponsors of the Community First! Village (Mobile Loaves and Fishes). Some muddying-the-waters news: I pulled alternative fabrics for borders (just in case) and I might like them better!
C
And yes, her machine does look like a Rocketeer. What's so ironic is that the manual is practically BEGGING the user to step outside the straight-stitch-only box, and here she is making a name for herself using nothing but!
DeleteC (well, a lot more than just straight stitches went into making a name for herself!)