Close to Nowhere

I used to have five sewing machines. Now, I’m reduced to three, and I really was considering adding one, but ripping the quilting out of a baby quilt for my brand-new great-granddaughter has discouraged me greatly.

I’ve sewn since the fifth grade; I learned from my mother, who was an incredible seamstress. I had given up on daughter Dana and both granddaughters, Mere and Remy, wanting to learn to sew.

Then, Dana discovered quilting. Now, she makes the most intricate, tiny piece, quilts imagineable. She has also discovered the joy of numerous sewing machines. She has several really old Singers, including her great-grandmother’s.

Pop’s grandmother quilted on that old Singer until she broke her hip.

Now, Dana has fixed the machine and uses it frequently. She has a couple other old Singers also.

But she also has a couple of Baby Locks. New machines – one, a “Jazz,” I have envied since she bought it. It has an incredible throat (the distance between the needle and the opposite end of the machine) and I lusted after it.

Dana decided she wanted a different kind of machine. She likes to piece more than quilt and her Jazz is basically a quilting machine.

She brought it over and I was so happy. A newish machine at half the price and it quilted!

I immediately threw Ruby June’s quilt on the machine and went to town. I’d quilted half of that quilt in no time flat.

Then I looked at the underside. The tension is off or something because the entire underside was covered in snarls and tangles.

Now, of my three machines, I only have one that quilts — a Juki. I also have a Baby Lock serger and I have (my prized possession) a 1949 Singer Featherweight.  It sews beautifully but I’m afraid to try and quilt on it. The throat is very small.

I’m still ripping out the miles of quilting on Ruby June’s quilt. As soon as I’m through I’m going to put it back on my Juki with the normal size throat and be happy quilting.

Oh, wait, I do have a fourth machine, my mother’s old Singer. But, my sister kept it in a shed for 15 years after our mother passed away. When Dana was cleaning and fixing it, she found a mouse skeleton in it. That’s the machine I learned to sew on. Some day Dana will get it completely fixed and I can sew on it again.

That will be a good day!