Close to Nowhere
My little Singer Featherweight sewing machine got lots of compliments at the Happy Quilters group last Thursday.
The ladies in the group meet every other Thursday at the MSU Extension Service office on Spring Street. They (won’t be long and maybe I can say we) do a lot of work for the community.
At the September meeting of the Lady Landowners, they are raffling off a quilt to raise money for making more quilts to be donated to various service agencies in the county. Their next project is making quilts for Trinity Mission.
I don’t use a Singer sewing machine at home. I have one of those computerized machines that even cuts the thread for you. My Featherweight doesn’t do that. It just sews, forward and in reverse, quietly and efficiently, purring softly along.
I learned to sew on my mother’s Singer. It wasn’t a Featherweight; it was set in a cabinet and originally was worked with a treadle. My mom had it electrfied before I remember sewing on it, so I never learned to work the treadle. My brothers and I did play on the treadle a lot. I remember my youngest brother Danny spending hours sitting on the treadle with both hands on the big wheel/pulley that used to run the machine. He sailed or drove that machine countless hours.
The summer before I started the seventh grade, my mother let me make some blouses to wear to school. I believe I was prouder of those shirts than I have ever been of anything I’ve ever made. (Unless maybe my granddaughters’ christening gown.)
All the ladies at the Happy Quilters were happy to see my little Featherweight, which actually weighs a ton. But it is portable and has its own carrying case. Most of the ladies told me that their mothers had Singer machines like mine. Fond memories were the theme of the day.
As long as my health lets me, I plan on joining the group when they (we) meet. It was a peaceful, happy gathering. And I was even assured that once in a while someone would bring a cake or something to share.
For more information on the Happy Quilters, please call the Extension Service at 662-252-3541. Experienced quilters to those who want to learn how are welcomed. I surely was!