Sew Wonderful

You will never believe the phone call I received from my dear Mrs. Nagy. She called to tell me she had something for me. A sewing machine. This sewing machine was given to her daughter by a friend a number of years ago and now, she was passing it along to me. Mrs. Nagy reminded me of the saying her mother taught her and what she, in turn, taught to her daughter.

Give to others what has been freely given to you.

If you sew, if you are a seamstress, please, just pass right by this post. It will be nothing but sheer silliness to you. I would encourage you to read this instead. Actually, even if you don't sew and you read this post, I encourage you to read this.

These pictures should tell the story. I have added words to help clear-up any confusion, or perhaps, to confuse things all the more!



This is my new sewing machine. It's been sewing for someone for almost 40 years.

This is a bobbin. Do you see the light blue thread? I made this bobbin on my new sewing machine. All by myself.

Side story...

Mrs. Nagy spent an hour or so last Friday morning going over important things I needed to know about a sewing machine. How to oil it, thread it, change stitches and settings, etc. While we did not make a bobbin together, she quickly described what I needed to do. I was so afraid I would forget what she taught me that I went home and did everything (except the oiling part). And as you can see, she taught me well!

This is not my quilt. I repeat, this is not my quilt! I decided the best thing to do was to cut out a stack of 5 inch squares and practice. I even used my new rotary cutter. Mrs. Nagy explained, drew a picture, and then showed me how to sew pieces of fabric together. She explained how important it is to press the seams in the right direction. See how the top row seams are pressed left? See how the next row seams are pressed right? That's important to know. When we went to Amish Country a couple of weeks ago a young Amish girl was showing me a quilt she was working on. She had me feel the seams of the small pieces that were sewn together. She said, "Do you feel that?" "Yes," I answered. "That's how you know you've done it right." I guess the best way to describe it is, it feels like one continuous seam. Honestly, I didn't have a clue what she was talking about. Now I do!



I didn't take the time to press all the seams down since I was just practicing, but that, my friends, is a perfect intersection of four 5 inch squares!

This, on the other hand, is not. See the buckle in the fabric? I found out afterwards that two of my 5 inch squares weren't.

Not pretty is it? It's best for me to learn while practicing on scraps of fabric than to have this happen on my real quilt. Since I had this mistake (actually, there were two of these), I know what not to do.

In all, I sewed 24-5 inch squares together. Three rows of 8 squares each. I have a funny feeling it will be kept in my sewing box for all eternity.

And so, there you have it. My first sewing machine. My first bobbin. My first seams sewn on a sewing machine. My first successful intersection. My first practice piece.

I feel sew wonderful!