QB member sent a spider
 

I've had sewing machine withdrawal I guess. Anyway I got a present in the mail. It was a spider! Yup a real spider. I have an ancient Standard sewing machine that I dragged over here to Mom's kitchen for Mom to watch Wilbur and I work. All we did was lightly clean it, oil and it sews. I asked Glenn what size needles it uses and he must have got excited that I was doing anything with that machine. Adding the spider was really fun for Mom today. She likes to unravel the chain stitches. Then she recalled that she had a chain stitch machine when she was in college. It earned her a home ec degree. It is good to see her smile.

I have been taking care of my 89 year old Mom since about the first of April. She has diabetes and Alzheimers - possibly Parkinsons. She has been having therapist and visiting nurses in and out for the duration. She has gone from a couch potato to doing things - she was bored. We planted a patio garden last week. She watches me sew and some times she helps. She watches me cook and some times she helps. We have been doing 100 piece puzzles. At first she could do them if I showed her exactly how to fit the pieces. Today she did a Mickey Mouse puzzle mostly by herself while I worked on the Standard machine. We have had good days and we have had horrible days. I really appreciate QB members/new friends who have been very supportive, helped me find resources, helped me by sharing their personal experiences and helped me understand what is going on. Thanks everybody and THANKS FOR THE SPIDER!!!

Back to the spider.
There has already been a lot of discussion of the spider. Ever since I saw that I wanted one but it was one of those things on the back burner. I did get to see Glenn's BEAUTIFUL Standard and play with it's spider back in January. Any way here are the discussion links:
http://www.quiltingboard.com/vintage...p-t179023.html

http://www.quiltingboard.com/vintage...y-t247906.html

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Oh yeah the spider and I don't know why the picture is blurry:
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Getting the spider in the bobbin area was a trick - it took a couple tries but I remembered how Glenn's went in so I did it. I'm still getting loose stitches. I took apart and rebuilt the tension - that helped until I got the tension so tight that the machine skipped stitches. So it still makes kind of over sized chain stitches. Glenn says there is some adjustment to do some time. Mean time I stitch and mom unravels. I am hoping she will try to sew on it a little. It now turns by a rather loosely fitted spinner knob - the motor was there but no controller. BTW the case smells worse than my Dad's car - never mind...........

Oh dear the picture didn't stick... I'll try again another time.

I didn't have much in tools or cleaning supplies to clean that machine - I ended up using a bit of rubbing alcohol and some Dawn on the tension and a tooth pick. Then I polished it up with aluminum foil - looks a lot better now. I don't think I shot a pic of it after I cleaned the tension. It doesn't take much to clean up a tension.

The machine is rather average looking - I told Mom it was still working and maybe as old as she is. I'm not sure of the age at all but we did joke about it a bit. Dad marveled at the technology on that spider.

Miriam what a wonderful influence your presence has been on your mother's quality of life! Good to see that you took time to do something that you enjoy. Thank you for taking time to give us an update and showing us the spider.

I'm still not sure what a spider does :-( I've always called a spider those pieces of fabric you use for leaders/enders when sewing.
neat with your mom doing puzzles- I enjoy puzzles too and often grab a 100-200 piece one just for fun!

A spider is a little piece that goes into the bobbin area. It makes a chain stitch. That old Standard will now do chain stitch or it will still take a regular bobbin. I'm still not sure how this machine threads properly.
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After that picture I cleaned up the tension - it was filthy - I just used rubbing alcohol, a tooth pick some Dawn and some aluminum foil to polish it - sews better but something isn't right with the threading at least it seems like it to me. I'm thinking it needs a place for the thread after the tension. Maybe there is a derelict machine that will donate a piece.
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Please check out the two links below, Sharon did an excellent job of explaining the spider attachments.
http://www.quiltingboard.com/vintage...p-t179023.html

http://www.quiltingboard.com/vintage...y-t247906.html