W.I.P.: Brown Bear | Singer 66 | Baby Quilt

7:30:00 AM

>IF BY CHANCE MY SISTER IN LAW IS HERE, COME TO VISIT AND SIT A SPELL, GO AWAY PLEASE. LOL. THIS POST CONTAINS SURPRISES FOR YOU :D <

Welcome to WIP Wednesday. Where I never seem to get anywhere. LOL.

I promised myself at the beginning of the year I would sew more for myself. HA! Who was I kidding?! I crack myself up sometimes >chuckles<

... but the other people in my life are so worth it. So my WIP list grows!

Today I'll be linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced :)


In no particular order:

1. Singer 66-16 Project (continues):
Okay. So. I was so proud of myself when I managed to get the motor on my 1941 Singer 66-16 rewired and working. (If you want to read any of my previous posts on my shenanigans re-wiring the light, power switch, and wiring a foot pedal to it and disconnecting the knee bar, click {here}).
my workstation: an ancient tinfoil covered cookie sheet on top of our cube freezer.

All set up to solder the wires. Motor is on the left (the big black thing) and I have a Helping Hands clamp holding the base of the wire on the motor end (acts as a heat sink) and the other clamp holding the free end of the wire.
Wires all soldered together, heat shrink wrapped (color coded)

putting the motor back together, with a tidy underwriters knot to keep the wires out of the way of the fan blade.
ooh! look at all my new wiring coming out the back of that machine.
motor is back on, ready to work away with the new belt. 
I hooked up the motor, ran it for about 5 minutes while I oiled the heckadoodles out of the machine over and over, and

KA-PUT!

Motor died.

BLARGH!

Posted my predicament on Instagram and my awesome bloggy friend Lisa in Port Hope offered to send me her old Singer 99 motor she replaced because of some faulty wiring.

Sold! Motor on the way.

In the meantime, I contacted my Bee friend sfredette, who had commented on a previous post that if I ever needed help, I should drop her a line. Line dropped. Let's just say that she knows a *lot* about this kind of stuff...

sfredette is a *genius*.

I explained the situation to her - that I thought the motor was overheating, that it sounded great when it did run, etc.

She explained that the motor was probably getting too much voltage from the wall, given the fact that the motor was built for 1941 household wiring, not 2014 wiring. We needed to increase the resistance to decrease the voltage hitting the motor, which would take care of the overheating problem.

So! I put an extension cord with a dimmer switch built in between the wall and the motor:
DIMMA cord with dimmer, IKEA.
BAM! Works. Ran like a dream for a good 20 minutes with the power 'turned down'. The only problem is that when I 'dim' the power to the motor, the light on the machine dims as well. I may have to end up picking up a magnetic LED lamp or something. We'll see.

Next on the list is cleaning up this beauty (gah! >le sigh< - look at the (no doubt) 70-year old tape on the deck! NO! It'll probably strip the finish when I take it off (insert sad face here),


 sewing a few stitches and getting the tension just right. Oh. And I need to learn how to wind a bobbin with it.

2. Brown Bear Eye Spy Mat
It's all pinned up, mostly quilted, and will probably be ready to be bound today. I always find trying to decide how to quilt my quilts is always the hardest decision I have to make, so this slowed me a bit yesterday in actually finishing.


I decided to pick up some of this Quilter's Green Dream batting while it was on sale about a month back, thought I'd give it a try:

It's actually green (literally). It's made from recycled plastic bottles converted into the polyester batting.

I don't usually use poly batting - only cotton (or a combination therein). I have to say - I am not very pleased with it. I found that despite relatively heavy pinning, there was a lot of slippage and puckering going on. I don't think I'll buy it again - I'll spend an extra few pennies and go with my usual 100% cotton batting.

Anywho. My sister in law won't notice a few puckers, and my future baby niecey or nephew sure won't notice. Still. The perfectionist in me is itching to rip out a *whole lotta* stitches. But it kills me to do that when I used my blessed (limited supply of) Aurifil. Gah.

3. Baby Quilt:
Okay. So I've decided what I'm going to do with this panel:

I'm going to put triangles all the way around the outside, and then across the back. And I'll cray-cray it all up with some super fabulous quilting. I just don't know what kind of super fabulous quilting yet... heheh. I've started cutting triangles (on my lap at night on my June Tailor Quilter's Cut 'n Press II! hehe) while we sit and watch TV. Which, actually, has been great, since I *do love* a good chip bag, and the contents therein, and you can't cut triangles whilst consuming Kroger-brand Doritos rip-offs...

4. Car Seat Cover:
I managed to drag the family down to the local quilting hole (heheh - as apposed to a watering hole ;) ) to pick up some super fab buttons for my sister in law's car seat cover:

The fabric is a flannel from Joann - it's owls in reading glasses standing on books. She's a librarian, so I thought it was perfect. I bought some bright orange buttons to go on the handle straps. I'll post a finished pic of the cover when it's done.

5. Classic meets Modern June & July Blocks:
Blargh! Need to get a move on with this. I've got the fabrics pulled, and cut...

If you've made it this far - BRAVO! Have you entered my Sew Mama Sew Giveaway yet? >here<

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7 comments

  1. I am hesitant to use polyester in a child's quilt due to how it acts in a fire (it melts). Since the label on Quilter's Dream Green doesn't mention it, maybe I'm overly conscientious. Quilter's Dream also makes a fire-retardant batting which is my go-to for kids' quilts.

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  2. I think you're right--owls in glasses standing on books is the perfect fabric for a librarian! I might have to get some. That panel for the baby quilt is super cute. Can't wait to see the finished version.

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  3. Your sewing machine challenges intrigue me. I find that sort of thing fascinating.

    The green batting sounds interesting. You will have to let us know what you think after you quilt on it. I love the owls with glasses fabric. That is perfect.

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  4. So its actually the current....not the voltage. :D But great job! Also, we can solve the light dimming issue. Just requires a little resoldering and a few cheap parts. Or, you can go with a stick on LED light. :D

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  5. you are certainly good with your machine repairs, it is all double dutch to me! I have recently been given an old elna that is very light for taking to workshops and elna has a yahoo group which is for old machines, lots of members giving out info, wonder if singer does the same. I was wondering about the green batting but will avoid it after reading what you said about it. Quilt looks good and the wall hanging is nice too, the triangles will really set it off well.

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  6. Goodness me - look at you fixing machine motors! That's very cool! Love you eye spy quilt too :)

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  7. use goo gone to remove the tape, it will not damage the paint but be sure not to get it on the decals. good luck.

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