Never one to turn down a challenge, I’m participating in Cheryl Sleboda’s 31 Day Blog Writing Challenge and following a prompt each day to post a little something. (I put a link to her post down at the bottom–that’s where you can find all of the participants. Heck, you can join in, too, you can post on social media if you don’t have a blog.)
Day 3: My Machine
I know there are people who sew on just one sewing machine, but I’m not one of them. I did start with just this one.
I’m not sure what happened to the Sew Perfect machine, but that incredible Bert and Ernie rug was definitely around until the nineties, and possibly beyond. Heck, it might be in the basement for all I know.
I used a big box store Singer sewing machine when I taught myself to sew as an adult, and used it until about nine months after I learned to quilt. In 2012, I made a serious upgrade.
So now I’ve got a ten-year-old Bernina 550QE named the Notorious BQE. She’s a workhorse.
Most of her pictures are either extreme close-ups for tutorials or all nice and neat and covered up for posts about “organizing your sewing area” and stuff like that.
I also have a backup machine, a Pfaff, which is an excellent machine that I use when the Notorious BQE has a spa day and which both of my kids use. (They learned to use the same machine at their grandmother’s house, so it’s familiar to them.) However, the Pfaff doesn’t have a name, and I don’t think I’ve ever taken a picture. I may start calling her Jane Doe.
But I’ve been using Dolly the 1952 Featherweight an awful lot lately.
Dolly belonged to my grandmother, and my mom passed her on to me a few years ago. Her name is Dolly because she’s a curvy, hard-working Singer, even after all these years. She mostly goes on tour (for workshops and the like) but occasionally performs at home when I feel like working outside the studio–especially for foundation paper piecing, which she seems to like.
I should add that I have a derelict Rocketeer and not-so-nice Featherweight that I purchased with the intention of learning more about repairing and maintaining vintage machines. Check out these online courses if you’re interested in doing the same!
Check out these fun prompts!
Pop down to the comment section and tell me a little about your machine(s). Do you name them?
