Hi everyone,
I have been kind of a lurker for a bit here so I felt it was time to step out from behind the sewing machines in my basement and say hello.
I'm Terry Shay. My wife and I live in Northern Delaware and have been here ever since my retirement from the Air Force almost 23 years ago. I was in Public Affairs (photographer, writer and newspaper editor) in my Air Force career. Since then (1988) I have retired two more times and am working on retiring a third time. I have the retiring part down pat but just can't seem to get the quit for good part down .. LOL!
I am the machine geek here, while my wife is a quilter. She does about half her work on a Singer featherweight (she has 4 of them, or is it she has one and I have three more hidden in the basement she has not found yet) and then completed them by hand stitch.
My wife calls my "habit" an out-of-control hobby that has consumed 3/4ths of our basement! I especially like working on the people-powered machines but will get adventurous periodically tackle an electric one.
She makes quilts, most of which she gives as presents, but she also makes them for very special babies -- she is a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit nurse (28 years, now.) Many times her quilts have become the first piece of anything these babies could call their own. Many of her colleagues do the same kinds of things for these very, very prematurely-born children. She is my Angel.
Anyway, my interest is in restoring machines that I then get my wife to use, which she thoroughly enjoys doing. Three days ago she picked up an early 1900s Singer treadle head and asked me to show her how to restore it. I guess she is moving in on my territory .. grin.
Our most favorite things to do are going into Lancaster County (PA) and go to our favorite fabric places, going to quilting shows, making unannounced "Stash" runs -- her favorite, and to a yearly Brethren Relief Auction in my hometown of Lebanon, PA where they auction off some of the most amazing quilts. I have seen more than go for several thousand dollars there. My favorite thing is to attend yearly TOGA meetings for us people-powered sewing machine enthusiasts. We have these TOGA gatherings all across the U.S, and also in Canada. TOGA, by the way, is an acronym for TreadleOn Gathering and Academy -- a group of people on another service who get together to educate, show off, sell, trade and even give away (we call it gifting to a new home) machines. It is a wonderful time. We give demos on how to use these old machines, their accessories, how to service, restore and search out hard-to-find parts, and the list goes on and on.
I better stop here before I get off on too many tangents. I am very happy to be here and look forward to learning bunches of neat stuff here.
Terry Shay -- Northern Delaware
USAF Retired (1968 - 1988)