We had a good meeting this month, which was attended by Diane, Courtney, Cheryl & Chris, Dorothy, Ellen, Janey and John.
Courtney brought some samples of ferrules he made, similar to those used by Willcox and Gibbs, for connecting the ends of leather treadle belts. He brought a sample of two leather belt ends connected with the ferrule to demonstrate. The inside of the cylindrical ferrule is threaded and the leather belt ends are both screwed into the ferrule, which holds the belt together neatly and securely.
Diane brought step-by-step samples of her "quilt as you go" method, with written out directions pinned to each sample, showing the process of joining two squares together. She does very nice work. She also brought an unknown foot controller she had. Janey was able to identify it as fitting a Singer 337, 603 and similar machines.
Cheryl and Chris were there with green beans from their garden and baggies for everyone to help themselves to some to take home. As we were having breakfast, her daughter was texting about the thrift store sewing machines she was finding, sending pictures to the restaurant as we ate.
We welcomed a new member, Ellen. She pleased us all by bringing a machine she acquired, a Helvetia, patterned after a Singer three-quarter size machine. It has a wooden portable case with a coffin-top lid that has nice ornamentation and decals.
Ellen's Helvetia - Front
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Ellen's Helvetia - Coffin Top
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Ellen is a QuiltingBoard member and has a post about this machine at:
Need Help Dating Helvetia
A woman from the next table even came over and admired the machine for a while, taking a picture of it for herself with her smart phone. Among the accessories was this small item, whose function no one could guess. Does anyone reading this have any idea or suggestion as to what it might be?
Unknown Item
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Courtney headed out from our meeting a little before others, going to purchase a Singer 12 with hand crank that he saw on Craig's list. He later emailed us that he got it.
We are changing our monthly meetings to the first Saturday of the month, to better accommodate people's schedules.
More next time.
John