With a bear coming towards me, I'm afraid those dogs would have been "flappin' in the wind" at the end of their leashes as I ran away! :D

Ok you guys! Calcific tendonitis, calcium deposit, frozen shoulder, 50 year old woman syndrome, a BEAR attach! Geeze! I think I have everything, but the bear attach! A wolfdog and a coydog? What is a coydog? Geeze, I think I will just hunker down and let my shoulder get better all by itself! My shoulder moves ok, it just screams when I move it certain ways. We put my DH's Tens machine on it last night - ouch - that hurt! I think it made it worse! I am going to tough it out, though, no surgery for me if I can avoid it! I've been there, done that with enough horse related accidents - but no BEARS, although, I have seen a couple bears, a mountain lion, and lots of coyotes out riding! Geeze, Irishrose where are you hiking?

Nancy

Oh, we did 2 flea markets, several yard sales, a barn sale, a livery stable sale, 2 church rummage sales, and 2 estate sales! Nothing! There was one White machine from the 60's or 70's at an Estate sale for $100 that is still there! Crazy!

You are most likely right about straining it - I had my shoulder frozen up for about a year. I finally found a chiropractor who said it was something pulled in my neck. It took a while but she got me better. Now when I pull something I quick go see her.

Yikes, I can relate cause I had a frozen shoulder and even with therapy it wouldn't budge so I went in and they knocked me out and the dr. 'broke' it loose. They said it sounds horrible so I was glad I was out for it. The chance of them actually breaking the shoulder while being broken lose is pretty good but I was lucky and that didn't happen. It was sore for a longtime and the pain down my forearm was the worst but I saw an acupunturist and after he put only two needles in the front of my left leg (yes, leg, go figure) it was 90% relieved and it's been good ever since. I make sure to do range of motion with both arms now cause at 66 I don't want to do that again.

Joe, snap a picture of each machine, print the pics out on typing paper - maybe you can photo shop them a bit, too. If you can get them to turn out about the same size it would be easier... then you could draw or you could cut around the edges to make a pattern - you could do a bit of free motion or you could applique the silhouettes. Sounds like a fun project.

Nancy, sounds like our day. My son and I hit probably 20 garage sales in our area (all in one community) a church sale and then about 5 garage sales in another community. He got one video game. I don't think I've seen more clothes for sale in my life. LOL. I did see one older Kenmore in a cabinet for $55 that I didn't even look closely at... nothing worth buying today at all!

Yes Charlee, it was around that time. Mine started out hurting during the night and then just at times during the day. Would always think that I had slept on it wrong until the day came when it hurt like **** to even try to move it. Dr. even had the nurse show me how to take my blouse off without it hurting as bad. Because of that I now dress in a different way too. Don't want to aggravate it anymore than I have to!!!

Thought I had my Singer fixed today but guess not!!! Played with the tension with no luck. Then tore the bobbin apart, cleaned it and checked for rough spots and finding none put it back together. Seems like it sews pretty good if I have 4 thickness of cotton but with just putting a seam together it catches every time. Then went to my other machine to try to finish what I was working on and it started acting up. Couldn't win so just left the room!! Not my day to sew I guess.

Miriam,

That's so easy it was a "duh" moment when I read your suggestion. I think that will work just fine.

Should be easier to keep them all the same size too.

Joe

I won one today. I have an old black Japanese 15 universal. It was a flood rescue. The tension was missing and it was locked up good. I got it moving and tried to cobble together a tension - no luck with the tension. The other day I cleaned up an old blue Japanese 15 Mercury - under it is stamped Brother on one of the metal parts.... Any way I didn't like the way the tension on it worked. I puttered around cleaning and dis-assembling and re-assembling the tension on the Brother today. Figured out the pin was the wrong length so I pulled out the black Universal and swapped. I'm not sure which nose plate goes to which machine at this point but they both work now. I used the instructions from http://www.tfsr.org/ - that has some really good info on tensions. HOWEVER. If you are having to improvise it doesn't go into how long the pin should be. Some pins are longer than others. I also noticed that the tension on the Brother had been oiled and then it dried so it was a bit gummy inside. I also noticed while improvising that the tension needs to have spacers so that the pin actually hits effectively. I finally got those two machines working nice so I got out another machine that had no tension and thought since those two got fixed maybe my luck would hold out. I have a Singer 185 that came with out a tension. I have stuck about every combination of tension parts I have in there. I gave up and pulled one off a junk plastic machine recently found and guess what... it fit just right. So I raised the feet but the tension didn't move. I took the thing back out and put it back in. No luck. Then I opened up the door and noticed that the hitter is riding right on past the pin about half the time. It is either bent or the pin is crooked. I think it is what it was doing before and I didn't catch on because I didn't look in there while I was trying to make it work. Anyway, I think I need just the right nail.

Cathy or Pat,

Did you ever meet James W. Slaten the author of Antique American Sewing Machines, A Value Guide? I understand he had a Singer Sewing Museum in Oakland. Last bit of info I could find on him was from 2008. Is this guy still alive?
Do either of you own his book?

I have no idea how I came across this dude. Sometimes I get lost looking for info on the internet only to find other interesting items. :D