chris_quilts

I think, for me, quilting colors the way I look at clothing ~ both colors/patterns and materials. I also have a collection of sewing machines and seem to attract the black colored ones. I like the black colored ones so that's a good thing. I alo like working on them so sometimes I have a quilting project going on plus a fixing project & typically a crochet project too. I have found that my yarn stash colors echo my fabric stash colors. Primarily purple but some blues, green too then all the other colors in varying amount.

Long story short ~ yes, it colors my other hobbies.

I too loved watching the blacksmith work with our horses. He could even get the Shetland pony to mostly behave which was a feat worth watching just to see the little buggar behave.

Breeze141

I would have to say that my sewing machine hobby colors my other interests. It wasn't always like that tho. I've been riding motorcycles since I was big enough to climb up on my Dad's bike and hold on. A change in my health has brought me to the point that I slowed down a lot and now have more free time to fill. I've found working on sewing machines to be a great way to fill my time and a stress reliever. I've always been mechanically inclined and all those gears and levers inside a machine just fascinate me.

Yeah I definitely got plenty of snickers and laughs in the beginning when I first started. For some reason being a biker and messing with sewing machines doesn't seem to be a combination people can comprehend. I'm living proof that ANYONE can be bitten by the "bug" LOL After a while my "brothers" in the club began to see a practical side to it. "Oh, you need some patches sewn on your vest?" or "Sure, I can put a hem in those chaps for you." If you really want to see something awkward walk up to a biker with a measuring tape in your hand and measure his inseam!

Sorry for such a long post for my first one. I look forward to learning from all the experience that everyone shares here.

Notwendy

I collected sewing machines several years before I could sew. I like the mid-century Japanese imports that weigh a ton. The colors and design details made them a nice display piece. We collect mid-century pottery, use vintage televisions as side tables, have mid-century decor mixed with modern furniture and collect and display 1960s TV & movie spy memorabilia (Man from UNCLE, 007, I Spy, etc).

So the love of mid-century design/styling came first, I added the sewing machines of the same era as part of our decor and now I quilt. I like that I can tinker with them and get them running with just basic skills and tools.

No blacksmiths on either side of the family afaik. My spouse, while liking the look of my various machines, is totally disinterested in tinkering with them or using them (or talking about their use, their insides or anything related to fabric). Sigh. : )

Cari-in-Oly

Welcome to the group! I lost my Aunt last year, she rode all her life too. Bought her first bike, an Indian, at age 18 in 1963. She had slowed way down her last several years and hadn't ridden at all for 5 years. She sold her baby, a '92 Shadow with less than 10,000 miles on it a month before she passed and she cried. Shortly before that my son found a group(CMA) that thundered into the neighborhood one sunny spring day and took her for her last ride in a side car. Her best day ever she said.

Cari

Sammie1

Okay, get ready. My friends call me a true jack of all trades lol!

I've always loved machines and learning about how things worked. I used to help my dad with his car all of the time. When I got my first vehicle, an old chevy truck, I learned how to do everything on it.

I've done metal working (welding mostly), built custom vehicles, rebuilt vehicles. I started enjoying making something myself because I could customize it. I added carpentry to my hobbies after coming across such overpriced and cheap furniture because I could build strong furniture that could function a certain way. I detest the throw away crap everyone manufactures these days.

But I enjoy crafts and art as well. I do water color paintings, have finished a few projects with knitting.
I'm also a sailor and have sewed various things from canvas for the boat which is what got me into sewing. Then I made some collars for the dogs, then some jackets (they're sighthounds and have very thin coats and about half the body fat other breeds have and get cold easily). From there, I decided to start making things for myself and for others. I decided to do a quilt to practice sewing since it's a longer project and involved more repetition of skills so that I could really get it down. After I made my first one, I realized I had a lot of fun with it.

Also, I love history that I can see and touch and enjoy keeping it alive. I use some cast iron cookware I restored, some of which is from the 1800's. Why? I got tired of replacing teflon pans because they wear out.


So a love of mechanical engineering, arts and crafts, and history naturally translates into being charmed by a vintage sewing machine.

They've always caught my eye even before sewing. They weren't the blocky plastic I was used to seeing for sewing machines. I've always thought they were beautiful and thought that one day I'd get one to use as a display. My house is more rustic in decor so they fit in. Little did I know that my plans would include restoring and using it. I should have known because I hate when things are broken.

Since restoring my 201-2, I appreciate it even more. The precision in these things is incredible. Today, they build things to last so many cycles, which they've calculated would be the amount of use from the average user to get it through the warranty period. Back then, they didn't do such math and things were overbuilt. If you've ever seen the inside of a differential on a pickup, you can appreciate how strong the gear driven sewing machines are. And is why you can bring these things back so long as they weren't crushed.

The ruffler attachment and the button hole attachment (the one from the 30's) are such neat devices.
Now they use computers to accomplish so many things. It's interesting seeing the answers people had before computers were so common, or even existed. Apparently, the answer was ratcheting.

Watson

In my "spare" time I show my horse in a sport called dressage. For those not familiar with it, picture figure skating compulsory figures on horse back that have to be performed to the letter in a 20 x 60 metre ring at walk, trot and canter, along with going sideways and occasionally backwards. What I'm getting at is, it's very precise and takes a lot of practice...much like quilting! (Except in quilting, you're not trying to convince a 1200 lb partner with a brain the size of a walnut that this is a good idea...).
Watson

chris_quilts

Watson, I love this description of dressage. It is so accurate. Thanks for the laugh!!!

Sewnoma

I joke that I have "crafter's ADD" - I get interested in something, dabble a bit, then I either move on or I turn OBSESSED for several years. The obsession moves beyond the craft itself and into tools of the trade and other associated things.

Like, I used to make soap. I became obsessed, opened my own soap company (actually made profits too) and started collecting antique soap molds.

Bookbinding almost went the same route, I got to the point where I was bidding on antique book presses online but never won any and that obsession got subsumed by something else so I never bought one.

Sewing...well, here I am!

I'm a maker-of-things, an artist, a tinkerer, a grease monkey...

Partially I credit my Dad - he was a mechanic and a tinkerer too, always fixing SOMETHING. I was his little grease monkey, always fascinated with what he was doing and asking a thousand and one questions. Some of my happiest memories involve the smell of motor oil.

Breeze141

Cari, I'm glad your Aunt had a chance to ride one last time and had such a great time. The CMA (Christian Motorcycle Association) is a good group of people. I know several of them locally.

redmadder

I'm another maker of things, tinkering, grease, rust, wood, tile. Trouble is I had the worst family in the world for putting me down for creating odd things. At some point, quilting became my focal point and the sewing machines came from that. So while I can crochet, knit, macrame, fix cars, build houses, and find so many ways to make my poor body and hands sore, quilting and sewing machines are how I spend most of my time. I still mourn the anvil we left by accident at a property we sold.