OurWorkbench

I have some sad news to share this month. John peacefully and unexpectedly passed away this month. As I have mentioned before John was the one that would collect the notes and pictures from the group and then write a short introduction. I will try to continue in his footsteps.

The kids are headed back to school, so fall must be around the corner. Denver, however, is headed into several 90 degree days.

Leon and Dianne have contributed this month.

Leon

Leon, our member at large from Kansas, hasn't been heard from for a bit. He has added some machines and vintage sewing related items.

I have not been devoid of machines in my absence though.
But last things first: Marketplace advertised a Boye Needle shuttle and bobbin display case. thought to be from after WWi and before the depression. Mine now it is partially loaded and has given us one shuttle. Much more exploring to do. Heads on the next post.






heads
I had ignored this 101 at an antique shop for months, till I finally figured out what it was. It was filthy underbed and I have cleaned it, but not oiled it. The VS2 was so rusty it took me two weeks to get a full revolution. Two more weeks to get the presser bar freed up. It sews now.





... to be continued

OurWorkbench

Dianne

Dianne, who wasn't actively looking for another machine, tells of the one that has recently joined her herd.

The Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum in Golden, CO has a “garage sale” of donated fabric, notions and such every August. This year I was looking for camel colored fabrics, which I define as medium golden-brown. There wasn’t much of that around, despite heaps of fabric, but some lighter golden pieces and other interesting chunks jumped into my shopping bag. There are usually a few sewing machines also, and looking at them was interesting. No photos (no camera) but a very old Singer treadle, and a White of the large 30s or so chunky style were there, and this aluminum Bel Air Bantam. It was too cute to pass up, despite a sad base in need of work or replacement. It is B5359112A, although there are likely not records for these post-WWII machines made in Japan during the 1950s. An aluminum Singer 99 has been on my radar for years, but they seem to be awfully rare, so this will have to do. The machine was dusted off, oiled, and sewed - until a hiding wad of thread stopped it cold. The problem was found, in the bobbin area, and she is back to sewing. The machine has been rewired sometime in the last 70 years, and what is probably a replacement foot controller added.

Research on this machine has not happened yet, except one reference says it was actually made by the Consolidated Sewing Machine Company, and that there was no such entity as the Bel Air Sewing Machine Company. Consolidated still makes machines, badged Consew. Those I have seen in advertisements. At least, that is what appeared in a quick search online.

Obviously some work needs to be done, including mitigation of a few small spots of aluminum disease, but that will not happen until winter arrives. Shown below, she is sitting on a Free treadle, the one with peacock decals!
Dianne





In Closing

I'd like to thank Leon and Dianne for their contributions. Also, thank you for those who follow these monthly postings. See you next month.

JoeJr

[QUOTE=OurWorkbench;8614871]I have some sad news to share this month. John peacefully and unexpectedly passed away this month. As I have mentioned before John was the one that would collect the notes and pictures from the group and then write a short introduction. I will try to continue in his footsteps.

Janey, I am so very sorry to hear this. I have always enjoyed your monthly "column." I know you'll be able to keep going. Joe

Quiltwoman44

Ah ya'll. I used to live in Colorado! back in Texas now though.

Bettia

I might be interested

Bettia

That sounds fun. I might be interesred.

amalia64

I am in TX but will be in Colorado Denver/Fort Collins area on Sep 15-17

OurWorkbench

Thank you, for your interest. We have only had two in person get-togethers since March of 2020. We have collected emails and pictures to post each month. If you are still interested, please PM me.

What antique or vintage machines do you have?

OurWorkbench

Well the leaves are starting to turn colors and some are starting to fall, so it must be fall. Denver had many 80 plus degree days the last week of September and into October.

This month we received notes from a new member and a couple of travelers. So lets get started.

Loraine

We have added a new member to our group. Loraine took the Featherweight class that Courtney had the end of July. She sent the following note and pictures of a treadle she recently got.

Here are 3 photos of an antique treadle machine I recently acquired and which I hope to make functional before the end of this year. It sews when we hand-turn the wheel & we anticipate sewing success when it is once again connected to its treadle cable.







Thanh

Thanh tells us of his getting a couple of machines and of his travels that included being able to see an antique industrial Bradbury machine.

I have a short update for September which includes a couple acquisitions.

I had picked up another featherweight earlier in the month which will be the last one unless I see a super deal on another one. It needs a lot of cleaning and the case is in bad shape but it turns freely.

I also bought an Elna Lotus SP through an online auction. I’ve had my eye out for one for some time and was happy to have won this one at a good price. It sews well and came with original accessories except the seam ripper and lube tube. The only quirk is that the hand wheel sometimes needs a little manual turn to engage. I suspect it’s the friction pulley not quite catching the hand wheel and will look to buy a replacement soon.

I also went to England this month but I was in London on the last Saturday of the month and missed the Sewing Machine museum by one week. However, I did spot an A1 Repairer made by Bradbury & Co. at the maritime museum in Falmouth. These machines were manufactured for boot repair but this machine was modified for sailmaking.



Courtney

Courtney was able to get a namesake machine.

Dear All,

It doesn’t feel as if I have spent much time on sewing machines this month but when I look back quite a lot has happened. An old friend, who coached gymnastics with me many years ago, is teaching her eleven-year-old granddaughter how to sew. Her granddaughter is named Stella and towards the end of the month I came across an Elna Stella TSP in very nice condition in its original box. I couldn’t pass up the chance to give Stella a Stella for Christmas! I only needed to oil it, it was starting to be a bit stiff, now it is running very smooth.



to be continued...

OurWorkbench

Courtney

Courtney continued to tell of his travels.

The Stella arrived while my wife, daughter, and I were in England during the first two weeks of the month. I did not do much playing with sewing machines while I was there but did visit the London Sewing Machine Museum on the first Saturday of the month. It is only open one afternoon a month! I had been there before about 6 or 7 years ago. The first time we visited we met the fellow who owned the museum, and we were about the only visitors all day long. This time there were several people waiting for it to open and the museum remained quite busy all afternoon. The museum has displays of both domestic and industrial machines. The largest machine had to be about 6 feet tall and 6 feet long and I would guess weighed nearly a ton. The domestics included the usual Singers, Jones, and Moldacots as would be expected along with a number of other brands I was not familiar with. Here in Colorado everything is pretty much a Singer or New Home, but in England there was a much broader variety of machines. The highlights of the collection are a machine given to Queen Victoria’s daughter for her wedding. It was a Wheeler and Wilson side stitcher design made under license by Frister and Rossmann. It had silver plated stitching arms and even royal crests on the spools. Perhaps the most historic of the machines was an original Thimonnier sewing machine from the 1830’s. It included the (wooden) machine as well as Timonnier’s original had written instructions. It apparently was purchased by a firm in South America but after a few years was walled up in a small room during when the building was repurposed and left there for over 150 years. When it was discovered about 15 years ago there was lots of interest in the only remaining Timonnier machine as most of the rest had been destroyed in his factory. The museum paid £55,000 for the machine (a lot of money!) There was one of the Kimbel and Morton lion machines, which looks like a lion sculpture but opens out into a sewing machine. I was also very jealous that they had a couple of Ward Arm and Platform machines as they are the machines I would most like to have.

Finally ,they had a machine that looked very familiar. Earlier this summer while visiting a quilting museum in Hamilton Missouri I came across a machine I had never seen before, a Singer model 76. The Museum also had an identical looking machine, but it wasn’t a Singer. Both machines are running stitch machines which push fabric onto a stationary needle. There were several different running stitch machines, but these particular machines were apparently patented about 1880 by J. Heberling. Singer must have bought out Heberling or something as the two machines look identical, but the Singer was much later from the 1920’s. I can’t seem to get an idea of how they worked but at least I know more about them now.











After I returned from England, I got a call from A Quilter’s Corner in Erie asking if I could do a couple more of the Featherweight Maintenance workshops. We set them up for October 15th and November 11th. I have been quite shocked with the number of women who have been interested in these workshops. About 8 years ago, I did a couple of classes here in Greeley, but these will be the third and fourth workshops in Erie. I think perhaps because Erie is closer to the Denver metropolitan area the number of Featherweight owners is much larger. I mostly just talk about how to oil and lubricate the Featherweights and how to keep them in good shape. I charge $25 which is about what it costs me for all the supplies and handouts. I don’t try and make money just have a good time.

I finally ended the month with a week at Greeley Museum’s History Fest. We have about 2000 fourth graders come through and they get to watch a blacksmith in action, wind rope, and eat beans from a real chuck wagon. I take down a car full of sewing machines and talk about the early days of sewing machines. I also have the kids sign quilt squares and I make a quilt for each History Fest. This time the quilt theme was Yellowstone National Park which was 150 years old last year. I am still trying to catch up after not having History Fest in 2020 and 2021. I am just starting on some interesting new projects, but I will talk about them next month.

Enjoy the fall!

Courtney

P.S. I got a quilt accepted for display at the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum’s men’s show starting in January!

In Closing

Thank you, Loraine, Thanh and Courtney for the contributions to this months post and thank you to our readers. See you next month.