Tag Archives: feet

The shop is up and running!

As I mentioned in last week’s post, I’ve decided to finally set up the shop completely.  With the way we all do things changing from day to day, this seemed like the right time.

For years, I’ve mentioned in posts that I would put this or that into the shop when I had a chance.  Now that my IT work and sewing machine repairs have slowed to a halt due to the pandemic, it’s bubbled to the top of the list. Everything’s been photographed and a description added.  I’ve tried to be as descriptive as possible but do check attached photos as well.

This means : Continue reading The shop is up and running!

A Million Miles – traveling to speak and teach!

Note: Amended date!  I goofed ladies and gentlemen, April 16th is the date, not March!

Update: 2014-04-09 – It looks like the Evening class is tentatively full (may be able to open 1 more spot) and there is one left open for the morning class.  If you wanted to get in, now’s your chance!  We’ve been chatting about the possibility of me doing the class again in the future in William’s Lake, but there’s no firm timeline for it.

OK, so it’s not quite a million miles but I bet it feels like it by the time I get home.

I’m going to be teaching people just like you how to service and restore their vintage machines in BC next month! 🙂

Beauties like this:

IMG_1558

The Cariboo Piecemakers quilt guild has asked me to speak to the group about vintage sewing machines at their Tuesday meeting.   The following day I will be doing a marathon training session.

The class is in William’s Lake, B.C. Canada (approximately 3 hours out of Kamloops) the Wednesday before Easter (March  APRIL 16th) at the Pioneer Complex, and we have just added a second session and there’s currently a little room left.   The tentative times for the classes are 10am to 3pm with a break for lunch and 5pm to 9pm.  If you’re interested in attending, leave me a comment below or contact me here.

Here’s what I’m planning to cover: Continue reading A Million Miles – traveling to speak and teach!

Beautiful Broken – Quiet down your FMQ

Since I brought the B-Line frame and the Juki home some months ago, I’ve managed several projects on it.  I enjoyed every single one of them, but there was one thing I couldn’t enjoy and neither did Ryan – the noise.

Note:  This post can still apply to you if you don’t quilt on a frame.  For instance, my Singer 301A is incredibly loud when doing FMQ as well.

Doing feathers and straight lines with the Juki made such a racket, that I couldn’t quilt at night once Ryan went to bed.  It sounded like a jackhammer.   Ryan’s even told me that he can hear the machine outside when I use it!

Yesterday, it was time to service the Juki again, and while I had it off the frame, I took the hopping foot off to clean the fuzz out of it, and I ended up running the machine without the foot.  What a lovely sounding machine….

Wait,.. what?  How could I love the sound off the frame, but hate it on the frame?

Continue reading Beautiful Broken – Quiet down your FMQ

Greased Lightning – Singer motor lube in Canada

Update 06-30-2016:  The latest batch of Singer Lube I received from the supplier is no longer suitable for use in Singer motors.  As such, I’m recommending the use of Petroleum jelly.

People far smarter than me are recommending it and White Sewing machine motors of the same time period used it.

 

Over the last few months, I’ve been hearing that Singer Lube / Lubricant / Motor Lube (S2129)  is getting really hard to find, especially here in Canada. This has been my experience as a consumer as well.  Walmart used to carry it, but no longer.  I believe that it may have been at Fabricland at one point.  Also, no longer.  With the loss of the Singer store in Edmonton, there were no longer any options I was aware of in my area. Continue reading Greased Lightning – Singer motor lube in Canada

Sewing articles to come

  • Introductions to our whole sewing machine family, and how I ended up collecting.  It should never have happened really
  • Feet and attachments – They’re an addiction all of their own or “Style boxes, can I help you assemble yours?”
  • Featherweights and their poor sore feet
  • Oil Cans – Dating them
  • Screwdrivers – Why they’re so hard to find, or little boys with mommy’s toys
  • Basic adjustments you can do to make your sewing machine love you again
  • An impromptu article – What a Pile of …. or rebuilding your carbon pile button foot pedal.  A complete tear down.
  • A Kenmore? How did that happen? Or “another way to up your machine count”
  • Tension – Not just the stuff between your shoulders
  • Fade to white – Experiments with “whitening” products to revert the yellowed color of your plastic machine back to its factory color.

Please let me know if there are any articles you want to see, and if I have access to the items I need for the article, and the knowledge, I’d be happy to post about it.