Anyone in the Ohio area, "along the river, just off of I-70" interested in a machine? I should have pics of it soon, one of my online friends is selling his mother's machine...he's clearing out dad's house... I don't know yet what the machine is....he tells me it's black, heavy, lifts out of a cabinet and is in excellent condition.... I told him I'd help him find a new home for it...he tried to sell it and a couple of guys that were looking the house over took the treadle for $50, but told him this machine wasn't worth anything!! ARGGGGHHHH! He wanted to know if he should just donate it...I asked him to let me help him find it a new home!


On another note...Remember "Mamie"? My New Florence machine in that pretty rose cabinet? The spousal unit was hanging garland last nite, knocked a heavy picture frame off the wall and guess where it landed? HUGE gouge in the wood, thankfully not in the flower decals, but close. ~sigh~ It was hard...those cabinets aren't a dime a dozen, but then neither is my husband....I blew it off and told him not to worry about it....now to decide how to best "fix" it....I don't want to use wood putty as he suggested....will most likely just stain the spot and shellac over it... :(

I love this board. Everyone has such great ideas. Without the pictures with the red line drawn on the box I would have been lost. I did SITD around the tiny border and in the middle of the wider ones. I made a little template of a square on point and just repeat it through the corners and fat borders.

Wow that DVF is pretty cool. I've never seen anything like it before.

Miriam, just because you are a love and have volunteered to help me in the past, I will take my trusty camera in hand and disassemble and reassemble the 319 needle clamp mechanism for you. I will have to don my sweat band and do some chanting beforehand:> But, alas, today I'll be gone all day so will try my best to get to it tomorrow. OK?

Yes, you are correct. The needle has a "foot" behind it that moves with the needle to move the fabric.
Never used the binding folder to attach my bindings, since I have a different method for attaching my bindings.

Here is a link to the different types of Davis Vertical Feeds;
http://www.kelsew.info/domestic/davisVFmodels.html

Yes the stitching on the quilt is from the Davis.

I have to say, since you, Miriam, are having such trouble with getting your needle clamp machanism back together....this is a true friend to take hers apart and show you how to get it back together!! Hope you both are back to sewing in no time!! Best of luck!!

O.K. Miriam I had a spare moment before leaving and got out my macro lens on my camera. I sent you all the assembly photos to your private e-mail. If you want to post them here you can, I just don't have time as I'm out the door. If you have any questions I can get back to you late tonight or tomorrow.

Yes, Candace IS a true friend. I'm hoping she will post on the Singer 319 thing we have going so all can see! Mr. Ed is needing some help there. I brought Mr. Ed home from the shop - I think I will need to be able to walk away from time to time and since we already heat the house, I won't have to heat the shop such as it is. I brought home a Domestic that needs timing too. The light is bad over there and I'm not too thrilled about finding a dead mouse today. DH bought me all kinds of lights for Christmas then couldn't wait so he gave them to me already. I think my favorite is a little flash light type thing. It has a magnet on one end - the other end has a little bendy piece with a tiny LED light on the end. Then there is a little red beam - I'm liking that one a lot. He found it at Fry's. Replacement batteries cost more than the light. He also bought 3 LED clamp lights - what I really wanted was the overhead light he swiped and put in the garage.... sssshhhhhh I still might get that.... just have to locate a ladder, move junk out of the way, nab a screw driver and...... oh never mind....

I'm corrupting the neighbors!
 

My next door neighbor brought me a sewing machine this morning. She'd been at a church give-away, and as they had cleaned up and were leaving, some guy (we assume a fellow give-away-er) approached Sallie and asked did she know anyone who'd be interested in an old sewing machine. Knowing me, she said yes. :)

It's a Kenmore Model 71, in a nice (but dirty) case, and with the manual, ALL the original attachments and a knee bar. It runs, but was dry as a bone, and had the obligatory ball of fluff in the bobbin case/feed dogs. (Honestly, does *no one* ever clean out their machines??) It sounds funny to me-high pitched, almost, and loud. My teenage son said, "It sounds like a Japanese street racer, Mom, all speed and no @ss." It does, kinda. It also sounds like there's something rubbing and/or clunking somewhere that I can't get to. I found a video of one on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbT_pjliOaw), and that one sounds odd to me too, so maybe it's me, not the machine.

According to Ismacs, the 71 was designed as competition for Singer's 301. Like that, this one is aluminum, and therefore light-17 lbs. It was built by White, and is a rotary. The attachments are top-clamping; I've never seen that on a 'modern' electrified machine. It's also got the weirdest bobbin I've seen yet-the finger of the bobbin has the tension spring on it, and so gets threaded. It threads weirdly too-across the front, and the take-up lever faces the back. (Can you tell I've never seen anything like this one before? :) ) I have questions about the timing. It sews pretty well, but the edges of every single bobbin are all chewed up, some fairly severely.

One of the things in the case was the Certificate of Guarantee. It was delivered to a neighbor of mine on 9/23/55. (Ismacs says they were selling for $135 in '56-that's $1070 in today's dollars! 0.o) I still haven't decided whether or not I'm going to keep it, but it's pretty cool that it came from a neighbor of mine. They're long gone, but Ms Etta, who's been here since the neighborhood was built (it's all GI tract housing) remembers them, and said Mrs Vaughn was "a fine seamstress, and always well turned out".

I'd love to know if anyone out there has this one!