Four Winds

Four Winds, February 2026

I can't believe we've already started the second half of 2026. I stitched this quilt back in February when it was cold.

The rose and gold prints blend nicely with the off-white burlap background. These spinner blocks are quick and easy to sew and I designed, cut, and finished the whole quilt in 3 days.

Piecing was done on Violet, my beautifully painted Singer 99. I've added a link to her story. She's now sporting a custom modified spool stand, courtesy of my in-house sewing machine expert. I truly love using all the machines we've repaired and restored.

Using Janelle (Janome MC 9450) I quilted diagonal double rows of serpentines across the blocks with cream thread. 

Four Winds finished at 49” square, and was quilt #10 for the year. I've been full of ideas and using tons of fabric from my stash. I just started on #29! Could be going for a record here, we'll see.

Dies used:

Blue Wren 6557 Spinner 8”
Accuquilt 55017 Strips 2½” binding

New Beginnings

This was the first quilt designed and completed in my new sewing space during October 2025. It was wonderful to get back to sewing, especially in my freshly organized room.

A variety of navy, blue, rust and orange prints were pulled from current inventory and scrap boxes to make triangles in a square. Medium blue blender fabric was used for sashing; a vintage blue checked sheet provided plenty of yardage for borders and the backing.

Quilting was done in serpentine stitch rectangles with blue thread. Appropriately named New Beginnings, this one's 55” square, stitched completely on my Janome Horizon MC 9450.

Dies used:
Accuquilt
55820 and 55821 Triangle in Square 5” finished
55017 Strips 2½” sashing
55032 Strips 3½” borders

Camping, Scraps, and A Clever Substitute

Obey River, Dale Hollow Dam Campground

We're home from an interesting trip to Dale Hollow Dam Campground. First, it rained every day...Hurricane Helene remnants...but thankfully no flooding or wind damage at our campsite or our house. I'm so sorry for everyone who has been devastated by this unbelievable storm.

After we determined we were safe, our stay was actually very quiet and relaxing. Soft rain on the roof was nice and the campground was less than half full because of cancellations. A few days there were only a dozen sites occupied. We had plenty to do: tablets loaded with books, movies on a hard drive, and fairly good internet access. We cooked some nice meals, ate delicious Mexican food at Los Primos in Celina, and walked the trail in between showers.

Of course, there was sewing! I brought along my Featherweight (Annie), bins of cut pieces for blocks to make two quilts, plus some random scraps. As I set up my sewing station, I realized that I forgot my thread stand. Huh. I tried putting the cone thread in a cup, but it wasn't working well.

My clever husband pulled two items out of his tool kit: Vise-grips and a long screwdriver. I added a little binder clip to the top as a thread guide and it worked a treat! It never hurts to have a backup plan or the ingenuity to create an alternative.  A bit of redneck in us, I guess.  We could have gotten extra points if we had also used wire-ties and duct tape. 

We made the best of a rainy escape, plus came home relaxed and happy. And I have two nearly finished quilt tops ready to sandwich and stitch. That's a story for another day. See ya next week!

 

Sail The Caribbean

Summer is nearly over; we've had a couple of mornings below 60° to enjoy. That's unusual for August in Tennessee! Still, today's lovely quilt brings thoughts of tropical island breezes.

Classic navy and white prints contrast nicely with Caribbean green. I adore these colors and have made several quilts with this combination. The chisel blocks were wonderfully quick to cut and sew.

I chose light aqua thread and a zig-zag utility stitch to quilt vertical lines 1½” apart. Sail The Caribbean finished as a 48” x 54” rectangle.

Once this one was finished, I straightened up my sewing room, updated fabric inventory, and cleared the decks for the next project. 

By the way, thanks for all the nice comments on Facebook about last week's blog post, our refurbished Singer 404 (Midnight). I'll be using him to stitch something soon. 


Accuquilt dies used:
55039 Chisels 3” x 6” finished
55017 Strips 2½” binding

Midnight: Singer 404 Restoration

Midnight

How do you like this for a complete restoration? I think he's beautiful!

It's been a while since we restored and painted a sewing machine. We bought this guy from Goodwill for $45 in December 2021. It was a cabinet model manufactured in May 1960. The motor was frozen, paint spotty and filthy with dings and chips.

Before

My resident repairman went over it, replaced the handwheel clutch spring, oiled, lubed, cleaned and polished. After that TLC, the motor freed up. He took the machine completely apart, ordered a few parts, and worked on it off and on between other projects in 2023.

Fast forward to May of this year. We decided to paint since I already have a nice Singer 404 (Elizabeth) in original condition. Jerold filled the chips, sanded, keyed the finish, and primed the whole machine. Wet sanding the primer makes a really smooth finish for paint.

He used three coats of Rust-Oleum 2X Ultra Cover in Midnight Blue and Silver. After a week, wet sanded to smooth before layering three coats of Ultra Cover Clear. Two days under a heat lamp, then a final clear coat for a mirror finish.

After two weeks of curing, Jerold reassembled, wired and fine tuned bobbin tension. He did the majority of the work on this machine and it's certainly a job well done. 

Midnight sews great now! I'm happy, loving the classy color scheme and can't wait to stitch a quilt or two.

 

Wine Country

Here's another lap quilt made with a busy print fabric in grape, tan, and green. The overall design is almost modern, even though the material has a vintage country vibe with little star blocks.

Solid olive green makes the triangles stand out next to the signature shapes. I normally don't sew two fabric quilts, so I forgot how relaxing they can be. No worries about color placement, just merrily stitching along.

I sewed the blocks on Black Betty, our restored Singer 201. She's a sweet quiet machine that makes such pretty seams. 

For quilting, I switched to the Janome for her walking foot accuracy. I sewed straight stitches in green thread, following the zig-zag lines. Wine Country finished at 48" square. Quick, easy, and done! I celebrated with a glass of sangria. 

By the way, leap day is this Thursday. What will you do with your extra day? Here's a link to a previous blog post for some fun ideas to celebrate!  

Dies used:
Blue Wren 6656 X-Quisite 6” finished
Accuquilt 55017 Strips 2½” binding

Sewing and wine

make me happy

Ready For A Reset

Happy New Year, everyone!

Taking a look back at 2023, it seems I was a busy lady with lots going on. After checking my lists and inventory, here's a summary of last year's work:

• Quilts & projects finished: 54
• Quilts donated or gifted: 21
• Fabric acquired: 647 yards (purchases + gifts)
• Fabric used: 253 yards
• Fabric left (not including scrap boxes): 2651 yards

So, I have plenty left to stitch. It's difficult to turn down free or low cost quilting material. I'm thankful for my friends who generously share fabric and sewing machines with me, and for my sweet husband, who actively encourages me to get whatever I want, from fabric to sewing machines and quilting supplies.

Quilting is my passion! I design and sew for pleasure and to keep my brain active. I don't take custom orders, publish or sell quilt patterns. I know I could earn money selling, but that would take the fun out of it and cut into my sewing time. I just want to enjoy my hobby, not run a business. Been there, done that.

Thanks for reading and sharing my blog. Although people have asked for videos and more content, it will remain the same weekly post for now. That takes up quite a bit of time already and I don't want to expand.  

So, I've reset the counters, made a few resolutions, cleaned my studio, and started off the year sewing.

Hope you all have a fabulous 2024. Take time for yourself, and do what makes you happy!

 

Restoration: Singer 127-3 Mary Margaret

Singer 127-3 Mary Margaret finished

This lovely machine is a 1923 Singer 127-3 in the original oak cabinet. She belonged to Mary Margaret for years, and was generously gifted to me by her son Ervin. We believe this treadle machine was converted to electric at the dealer or factory. We decided on a sympathetic restoration to get her sewing well and protect the finish.

Singer 127 before

Amazingly, at 100 years old, the Memphis sphinx decals were nearly perfect, just a couple of places showed a bit of wear. The finish had a little checking but was mostly intact. She had been stored in an attic, so not too much rust, but there was dried oil/grease and dust.

The handwheel, shuttle and feed dogs moved easily and I actually sewed a few manual stitches before we started work. 

The tiger oak cabinet and ironwork are in great shape, check out that gold paint detail on the logos!   I gave it a good clean, a coat of Howard's Restore-A-Finish, and beeswax.

Here's what Jerold did to spruce up Mary Margaret:

Cleaned handwheel using wire wheel & scotch brite, leaving the brownish patina. Polished all the plate covers to a shine.

Disassemble and clean motor. Rewire with new plug. Disassemble needle box, very dirty, years of gunky oil. Cleaned parts with foam degreaser and WD40.

Before

After

First clean surface with sewing machine oil. Shellac intact, so carefully cleaned entire surface of machine with GOJO hand cleaner. Daubed amber shellac on the few bits of painted decals that had begun to silver.

Pulled drive shafts & shuttle mechanism, cleaned in Coleman fuel, buffed & polished where needed. Replaced a locking screw missing from the shuttle drive shaft.

Removed feed vertical shaft & stitch regulator for cleaning. Finished cleaning other parts. Re-assembled machine. Adjusted feed dog alignment & height, presser bar height. Checked all other adjustments. Test sew - worked the first time!

Isn't she goregous?

Sprayed with 3 coats of shellac: not a perfect mirror finish but shinier than she was and it will protect the finish.

Re-assemble items removed for painting, mount light & motor. Put back in cabinet & wired controller up. Wound a bobbin. Cleaned shuttle. Threaded the machine and she sewed a perfect stitch without any tension adjustments.

I've already put Mary Margaret back to work: just finished piecing a quilt top. What a pleasure to sew on this wonderful vibrating shuttle machine, thanks Ervin! I hope she lasts another hundred years.

Spin-Off and more FABRIC

Spin-Off

Here I go again, experimenting with scraps and dies.

I started with four 2½” x 6½” cuts of three different scrap fabrics, sewing them together. Then I cut that square with the X-Quisite die to make the signature shape. White on white dotted triangle corners were added, then the four blocks stitched together to make the spinner.

Rockette, my trusty Singer 500A needed a little exercise and she handled all the piecing with ease. I separated the blocks with 2” sashing and added 4” borders around the perimeter to make Spin-Off 48” square. I used a utility stitch to quilt in rows using off-white thread.

It's a perfect little quilt to add to my ever growing donation stack. That doesn't mean my scrap collection is shrinking, because I believe they are multiplying like bunnies while I'm not looking. Or maybe I'm collecting more material than I'm using. Did I mention I was gifted 14 tubs of fabric the other day? We're either gonna need a bigger house or I have to find a way to sew more!

It's National Sewing Month, so I challenge you all to sew or do something creative in your sewing space every day...have fun!

Dies used:

Blue Wren
6047 Rectangles 2½” x 6½” and 2½” x 3½”
6656 X-Quisite 6” finished

Accuquilt
55017 Strip 2½”
55054 Strip 4½”

 

1954 Singer 99K - Violet

Violet: 1954 Singer 99K hand crank

From rusty to beautiful, this little 1954 girl from Great Britain was quite a challenge!

We bought her for $35 in February 2022. Her decals looked good but the shellac finish was mostly gone. Gouges and crazing in the paint, wiring shot, and oh so dirty inside and out. Amazingly, she did sew after oiling. We put her on the shelf while working on other projects, thinking it could be a parts machine.

This February, we got going with a plan to clean, paint, replace missing parts and add a hand crank. Jerold took her apart all the way down to the last screw, then cleaned and polished all parts. He rewired the motor, too, so we can use either it or the hand crank. We got the spoked wheel and crank on Amazon; they both fit and the bobbin winder still works.  

We tried to sand the finish but it was too uneven, so ended up stripping her to bare metal. After primer came the gorgeous Rustoleum 2X paint in Gloss Grape. I printed and applied new decals in black, using Art Deco style designs.

Then Violet just decided to be finicky. We hit a snag with the clear coat: it wrinkled up on the bed so we had to sand and recoat. It's not perfect but it's good enough. We polished and waxed her to a super shiny finish.

Jerold had to fine tune all tension and bobbin adjustments, but now Violet sews a perfect stitch. I'm happy with how she turned out, even with the setbacks. I couldn't do this without my talented husband. We learned a lot, didn't give up, and I got the purple machine I wanted. It's all good!

 

1942 Singer 99 Restoration

Bogart: 1942 Singer 99 restored

Here's our latest sewing machine restoration: meet Bogart, or Bogie for short.

I found him in June on a local Facebook listing and went right away to pick him up. For $50 we figured it could be a parts machine for the other 99 we are working on. Oh, were we wrong! The nearly perfect wrinkle finish (Godzilla) and blackened faceplate gave us the first clue, along with a 1942 serial number. It's a Blackside, manufactured during WWII when parts were scarce.

1942 Singer 99 Before

The wiring had all but perished, so no idea if it worked. The Bentwood case has a hole in it (to be fixed at a later date when we have our carpentry hats on). Still, it was too unique and complete to use for parts, so we decided to clean, oil, and restore with the least amount of interference.

Trial run: it sews!

Jerold oiled the creaky old guy, cut off the nasty wiring, and hooked it up temporarily to find the motor runs just fine! Threaded it and it sews pretty good, better after a bobbin adjustment. He took off the bobbin winder, bobbin case, hook, and other pieces to clean and oil. The handwheel was nicked terribly, so he sanded and used satin black to repaint it. The bobbin plate was missing, so he blackened a spare Singer one to replace it.

Love this Blackside scrolled faceplate

I cleaned the dirty finish with Goop and a soft toothbrush. Lots of nicotine and dirt! There are no decals, just simple paint stamped Singer lettering. I was careful not to scrub too hard around them. There were about 6 small nicks in the paint and I used a mix of black and satin black to dab on so it wouldn't rust. These don't have shellac, so I polished (using Jerold's suggestion) with Kiwi shoe polish and buffed with a soft brush. I used the same technique on the foot control.

Rewired, all parts cleaned and oiled, wood base cleaned and polished, Bogie is looking pretty spiffy and running fine at eighty-one.  He has some wear, but who wouldn't at that age? I'm so happy I found him, even though I really wasn't looking. I'll be sewing something with Bogart soon.

We had so much fun working together on this! Next up, we finish complete restoration and paint on the other 99. Then on to a  clean/oil/polish on a 1923 Singer 127 with gorgeous Sphinx decals. 

 

Just Flying Around

Aqua, pink, yellow, and coral prints look great sewed into traditional 12” flying geese blocks.

All piecing was done on Black Betty, our beautifully restored Singer 201. She was humming right along in the dining room. I set up an ironing station on a folding table next to the machine. I really enjoy using my vintage sewing machines; their stitch quality is unbeatable.

The blocks are separated with narrow sashing in the same aqua fabric, also used for binding. Backing is a cream swirl material. I quilted with white thread, making a grid of serpentine stitches using the Janome machine.

Just Flying Around finished out at 53” square and only took a few days from start to finish. I decided on the name after watching one of the Blue Angels practicing over our neighborhood on Wednesday. (Nashville's Air Show was this past weekend.) I'm used to seeing them when we vacation on the Gulf, but how amazing that they were flying around over my own back yard!

Dies used:
Accuquilt 55456 Flying Geese 3” x 6” finished
Blue Wren 6015 Strips 1½”

Cappuccino Blues

This yummy quilt features creamy vanilla, rich brown, clear blue and navy prints. The design may be simple but it spotlights the fabrics so well. 

Each Economy block is sashed with cream and caramel swirls, which is also used for backing and binding.

All the piecing was done using Laney, my custom painted Singer 301. I quilted on the Janome with ecru thread, stitching an allover loopy design using a circle ruler.

Cappuccino Blues is 53” square. It certainly makes me want to snuggle up with a hot beverage and listen to soft blues.

I love sewing vintage blocks. This one was popular in the 1930's, and is still seen often today. Depending on fabric choices, it can look modern or traditional. I think Granny Hill and Granny Rose would both approve.

Accuquilt dies used:
55106 Square on point 3 11/16”
55147 Half square triangle 2¼”
55398 Quarter square triangle 4½”
55017 Strip 2½”

Not A Singer, But...

This vintage find is not a Singer, but it sure was an irresistible Goodwill bargain at $30.

Japan manufactured clones of the Singer model 15 and others after WWII. Universal is one of the brand names they used. 

My Granny Hill used a Universal, but I'm not sure which model. This one was shiny and fairly clean, no scratches and just a couple of paint dings. Gold decor and lettering is near perfect. Not bad for a 1951 era machine.

We've named this one Tojo, after famous Nashville wrestler Tojo Yamamoto. Tough little machine, but the original covered wood carrying case looked like it had gone 10 rounds and lost. It may not be salvageable, but Jerold is going to try to glue it back together. In the meantime I'm using a plastic base.

As for Tojo, he was missing the bobbin case, needed a v-belt, LED bulb (E17 screw in), and a replacement foot control. After a good service by my favorite mechanic: grease, oil and polish, he was ready to sew in just a few days. Stitches look great after adjusting the tension.

I did the final quilting for last week's Back To The Sixties throw on this nice machine. We've found a few more Singers over the summer, and they're currently on the shelf waiting for their chance to be tuned up.