This is the little Singer I do all my piecing on. It's sort of in between a Featherweight size and a normal sewing machine. It does a marvellous straight stitch and purrs happily away for hours on end.
Yesterday I was forced to try and piece on my Janome 4000 and it drove me bats, chewing the end of triangles, and not sewing the proper seam allowance no matter how much I fiddled. I gave up in the end, no wonder I just keep going back to this uncomplicated little darling.
It cost me all of $25 in a secondhand shop, I've had it for about 7 years and have sewed on it nearly every day since then. I have to love something this reliable and sturdy. I do adore my Janome 6500 for my quilting, but for piecing this is my little sweetie.
Today was a non-sewing day, that always makes me cranky. Tomorrow I have to take my elderly mum shopping, but I should get some early morning stitching done and then some late afternoon time. People think I get a lot done, but I probably sew at least two hours during the day (I get up at 5.30 to sew) and then I handsew for three hours every night. It really does mount up, so no wonder I've got a pile of tops to be quilted and all my stacks of blocks waiting to be set.
Lucy wanted to know how much fabric the little triangles in my bowtie top require. You'd need at least 20" of the two colours - 10 strips 2" wide in each of the feature fabrics. (That's about 52 cm if we're talking metric.) You need 198 squares of each colour for the 99 blocks that I did: phew, it sounds a lot when you add it all up.
5 comments:
What a lovely machine ! So you see there is no need for a expensive machine to quilt !!!
You have to love those old Singers. People wonder why I piece on my featherweight when I have a lovely Pfaff. You stated the exact reasons.
This machine looks like one I used as a kid. I wonder what happened to it--actually my mother probably still has it, since she never discards anything! I know what you mean about chewing the triangles. My Viking does the same thing, and my old Singer never did. I did find that a straight stitch needle plate helps though.
What a fun machine to have! It will just keep on ticking like an old work horse, it's a great machine! Especially if you don't need all those fancy embroidery stitches (I don't have a machine that will do them either) Just give me that good reliable straight stitch!
Bonnie
I love the older Singers too. I get the urge for a new sewing machine every now and then but since I only do piecing, there's no need. Thanks for the confirmation!
Judy L.
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