Multi-tasking

Last week I hauled the 1934 Singer 128K out of the corner of the sewing room.  It is just as well I did, because in doing so I discovered that my star machine, the 1927 Singer 99K was growing a fluffy handle. 

My intention is to use this machine for the next big quilt I am planning, so I wanted to give it a little run in.  Because it has two spool pins I can save time by winding a bobbin while I am sewing.  This felt like a great juggling act, doing mitred corners and bobbin winding at the same time.  I can't understand why some people need to go bungee jumping for a thrill. This did it for me.  Safer, too. 

This machine is probably one of the most intriguing machines I have.  The decals are fascinating. 

Linking with Connie's blog Freemotion by the River for Linky Tuesday

Indian Star Decals - Singer 128K

This is my 1934 Singer 128K with the Indian Star decal in the centre of the bed of the machine. 

The Needlebar website gives information about the different decals found on Singer machines, and it was there that I found out that in each point of the star is written the word Singer in a different Indian language.

This machine was bought from a couple in Shropshire - it had belonged to the wife's mother.  They had no family connections with India and had no idea how they came to have a machine that had been manufactured for export there.  My guess is that it was originally sold in India and was  brought back to this country many years ago.

A Doll Quilt From Barbara in Tennessee

This close up shows the detail of Barbara's work of art.  Isn't it amazing!  

Barbara worked from a photograph of my 1934 Singer 128K that I had posted on Quilting Board. She looked hard at every detail and reproduced it in appliqué, with machine embroidery for the decals, hand stitching for the spool of thread, with the thread then following through the hooks and tension discs to the needle and a bobbin thread popping up from underneath.  For detail on the metal she used fabric marker pen, and even put the serial number at the base of the pillar.

As you can guess, I was thrilled and excited to receive such a wonderful quilt.  It soon went on the wall, and I took some photos with the machine in front of it.  We happened to have two bunches of roses in the house at the time, and they matched the border fabric perfectly.  I posted photographs on Quilting Board as a special thank you to Barbara, and as you can imagine her quilt caused quite a stir!

Thank you again , Barbara, it is an absolute treasure!

How to Adjust the Tension on a Long Bobbin Machine

If a machine has been well looked after, the tension should only ever need adjusting on the top thread.  However, when buying an old machine you never know what tinkering has gone on in the past, and there might be a problem with the bobbin tension.  Adjusting the tension is very difficult to explain without showing the shuttle dangle trick, which I show on this video.

Once you are used to adjusting the tension discs, then regulating the tension on the top thread is a very simple job.  I have been able to remove tension discs for cleaning, replace them and have them set for the correct tension first time, with no further adjustment required and perfect tension when doing the first test stitching.   

However my most beautiful machine (a Vesta transverse Shuttle) was a complete primadonna and it took me four evenings working to past midnight to get it right.  That's when I found out about the shuttle dangle trick.  I hope I have saved people time and headaches by passing on this nugget of sewing machine knowledge.