Saturday, September 22, 2012

Sewing Friday

Yesterday Mrs. Nakazawa and Rumi-san came for a patchwork day.  They had two purposes.  One, to work on their Works In Progress.  In Rumi's case, a small applique wall hanging and a daisy quilt, in Mrs. Nakazawa's case, her Kitty applique quilt and the same daisy quilt.  And both ladies still have blocks to make for their Bible quilts.  The other purpose was to try out their new sewing machines!!!

Back in June, just before I went to the States, I had researched and visited machine shops and with my friends in mind, recommended a couple of sewing machines.  The three of us tried the machines out and Rumi-san and Mrs. Nakazawa settled on a make within their budgets (well... a little over their budgets.)  They bought their machines, but then I went to the States and neither lady had even taken the machines out of the boxes!!  Can you believe it?  I would have torn into that box within minutes and started trying out the buttons and levers and nurturing a love affair with the new sewing machine.  But my friends waited, unwilling to explore alone a terrifying world of bobbin winders, automatic threaders and tension dials.


So both ladies came lugging their machines to my house and we un-taped, removed Styrofoam and pulled out the instruction booklets.  And then began the sewing... Rumi-san sewed strips, Mrs. Nakazawa tried her hand at free-motion sewing.  Yum!  I am very envious of my friends' new toys!


As the afternoon went on, Mrs. Nakazawa went back to finishing up her Kitty quilt.  She needed to sew on button eyes.  And Cleo offered to help.


 "Ooh!  What are you doing?  I want to help too!"

Mi came over to watch.


"Cleo, I think the buttons need to be closer together.  What do you think?"

It's a good thing Mrs. Nakazawa believes that a true quilt needs a lot of cat hair.  There are not too many of my friends who would actually rejoice at having such enthusiastic 'helpers'.


And here is Mrs. Nakazawa's finished Kitty applique quilt!  Isn't it a beauty!  She did such a fantastic job!  I wish I'd made it too!
 

No comments: