Introducing Alli and my featherweight...

Well, I did convince Alli that she would like to sew all the sandwiches for the pink baby rag quilt.  Alli started sewing about a year ago, when she was 8 years old.  I started her on my featherweight...she pieced a Christmas quilt out of charm packs.  And she learned how to "frog" (rip out) her mistakes.  So now she is more accurate, and appropriately critical, of her sewing.  She learned that if you are off a little here and there, the whole thing won't come together!  OK, here she is at the beginning...notice all the unfinished pieces to the right.  And though she is smiling, she thought it would take forever. But she moved up to my machine...

By the next evening she was loving the sewing and had all the sandwiches finished.  See them all to the left?

Next, she arranged all of them on the floor for pinning.  I meant to get a pic of that but while I was taking a shower, Buddy decided to get Rebecca's attention by running and playing on all the squares!  So when I came out 10 minutes later, the pieces were all a bit wonky.  Hmmm.....

I thought I'd post up about my featherweight as well.  I bought it on Ebay...it is an AE model manufactured in 1937.  It was in great shape and runs beautifully.  I started Alli on that machine because I have the guide set to 1/4" and it was easier for her to align the fabric to the guide to get the right seam allowance.  It has the scroll plate and I made a nifty little bed cover for when it is in the box.

Now the box is extra special...I read online that under the black cover was an actual wood box!  So I figured I'd strip off the black paper and see what I found.  This proved to be a week long nightmare.  But in the end, I took off all the paper, outside and inside and refinished the box.

The interior panels, on the top and bottom, were remade and covered with brown corduroy.  When you open the box, it smells like a garage in the 1930's...it is the best thing about it!  Anyhow, it is super cool and well worth the time it took to make it mine....So, today I have to finish the cutest little booty bag for Alli, and piece together the pink rag quilt, and finish up some other assorted stuff.  By the way, it was 93 degrees when I walked the dog at 6:00 am ....We have been in the 110+ degree range for weeks now!  Ack....