This week I began climbing the stairs up to my studio and sitting at the machine for half an hour or so at a time.  My knee is not pleased to be bent that long, much less push on the foot pedal, so I have to take breaks and walk around to stretch it out.

I did succeed in making a dozen 10 1/2″ string blocks for Kat’s October drive.  A good way to get back into sewing.

And yet, I can’t see any reduction in my strings…

My Bernina machine has been away at the spa while I was healing (getting her back today!), so I used this one instead.  This is SueAnn, a White, from the ’30s, I’m guessing?  Help me out if you know.

This is the machine on which I learned to sew.  When my parents were first married, my dad worked at the Boston Store in Erie, PA.  They took used machines on trade-in, and had a sale on treadles for, like, $10.  My mom had no machine, so she asked for one of those, but instead my dad brought home this used electric and the cabinet, which I don’t have.  All our clothes were made on this until my mom won a new machine when I was 11, and I started sewing on this one.

I had a moment of panic when I went to thread her, but I just went ahead and let muscle memory take over, which seemed to work.  It’s not much different from a modern machine, but on the end instead of the front, and the bobbin and needle are turned sideways as well.

I have put the feet away somewhere, a very safe place, Jaye suggests, and I still can’t find them.  I used this walking foot, and, really, it wasn’t a bad choice for stitching the strings to a muslin background.  I like the way this machine purrs along.  In my dream studio I’d keep it set up in a cabinet.

Now I’m working on the design of that neutral Christmas quilt, and hope to do some cutting and organizing until my knee wants to sew some more!