This is what the little Singer Featherweight Sewing machines were made for…travel! They were advertised as portable, and while in today’s terms, eleven pounds may seem heavy, they really are easy to take along. They are perfect for piecing quilt blocks. I love them! This one is a fairly rare 1961 Tan Featherweight… named Barbara Ann for my mom. She’s traveled with me to the last two retreats. I try to rotate the Featherweights I have so they all get used and I can keep them maintained. I have 6 now…Oops, how did that happen???!!! Did I mention that I love these little machines?
Last year I posted about finally finding the last Featherweight that I had been searching for in order to have one of each color. Read about that here. And with that I thought I was finished collecting these wonderful little machines. But as it turns out I needed one more…..The Centennial! These machines have a special badge that marks a hundred years of sewing for Singer….1851-1951. Not too long ago I had a chance to buy one…and you guessed it, I did! Here she is! And she is beautiful. I took her down to the river earlier this week to sew with her. She did a great job. I realized as I was sewing that I had now shared her yet here so I wanted to show her off as well as the Featherweight Table that I bought not too long ago at an auction thanks to the sharp eye of my friend, Jackie, who picked it up for me.
If you read the blog link above you saw that people who collect Featherweights name them. My first three are named Barbara for my mom and Lucille and Nola Mae for my grandmothers. The three of them taught me so much about sewing, crafting and creating. I am forever in their debt for that. So as I thought about what to name the Centennial just one name came to mind….June. I am naming her for June Winn Thomas who was my Home Ec teacher in high school and a great friend. Even after all these years she still cheers me on commenting on what all we are doing at The Studio. So meet June…the newest addition to my Featherweight collection. I would say I am done buying these little machines but never say never.
We saw the Andy Griffith Mural on Moore Avenue in downtown Mount Airy when we visited earlier this week. It is created with spray paint! The mural displays four aspects of Andy’s life and career against the backdrop of Pilot Mountain. The mural, done entirely with spray paint by Greensboro artist Jeks, was completed in May 2022, in time for what would have been Andy’s 96th birthday. Our tour guide told us about watching the artist working with spray cans of paint to do it. That is pretty amazing for spray cans!
We had a couple of days away to recharge our creative juices. On the way back home we stopped at Poplar Forest, Thomas Jefferson’s Retreat. They are doing so much work there restoring the structure to the way he had it originally. It’s so amazing that they have so many documents that Jefferson wrote to tradesmen describing what he wanted. It will be even more amazing when completed. Click here for more information on Poplar Forest.
The Singer Featherweight is a model of domestic sewing machine made from 1933 to 1968. They are portable, with a flip up bed that allows them to fit into a neat little box. They are highly valued among quilter’s as they make an amazing stitch. They are also fairly quiet. Singer first made them in black. Then they added white and tan. Several years ago I acquired my first one at an auction. It is the black one made in 1946. Last year I added the white from 1964. And I search for quite some time to find a 1961 in tan. I recently got it. (They are shown in the photo here with and without their cases.) There is a tradition of naming Featherweights after women. I named the black one Nola Mae for my paternal grandmother, the white is Lucille for my maternal grandmother and the tan is Barbara Ann for my mom. These three women taught me to sew and to love crafting. I feel like I finally hit the TRIFECTA of Featherweights! I love these three little beauties.
Twenty-six years ago I used this ticket to attend Game 6 of the World Series in Atlanta. That night in 1995 the Atlanta Braves won the World Series. It was such an exciting evening and one I still remember so well. My mom was a huge Braves fan and she had passed away the year before. I had a feeling all during that series as I watched that this was their year…and it was! And when the Braves won in that 6th game I felt like Mama was there in Atlanta with me. It was a wonderful feeling. And now, the Braves have done it again in six games. WooHoo! And what better year to win after the travesty of moving the All-Star Game out of Atlanta earlier this year….something that should have never happened. Go Braves! Your the best!!!!
We took a little trip yesterday to pay our respects to James and Dolly Madison at Montpelier, the Madison home. It’s a short drive from Front Royal and an amazing place full of history. The foundation has done a beautiful job restoring and recovering the history of the time. “Via interpretation, research, and civic education, Montpelier engages the public with Madison’s most powerful idea: government by the people.” It’s worth a visit. (Click here to see the visit I made there 4 years ago.)
On my drive back home today from a short trip to North Carolina I came through some backroads and ran across a few tobacco fields….and tobacco barns. As I grew up working on tobacco farms as a kid I was interested to see these. I got a few photos. I’ve been wanting to do a painting of a tobacco barn. Maybe this will get me started.
And I was interested to look up the Tobacco Barns Project. They are trying to save some of the old barns. See about that here.
We are continuing to paint local landmarks….this time it’s the Old Feed Mill….known as the Main Street Mill today. Join us on August 23rd at 2 pm and paint along with us. Click here for more info and to register.
Some family stories just stick with you no matter how young you were when they happened. One such story in my family involves camping…which we did a lot of while I was growing up. The story I refer to involves when we switched from tent camping to a trailer. I don’t recall the year but I was young…maybe 6 or so so it had to be the late 1960’s and my mom, brother, sister, an aunt and uncle went to Fort Clinch State Park in Fernandina Beach FL and set up our campsites. It was a Friday and my dad had to work and was coming down to meet us after work. Just before he was to arrive a terrible storm blew in….seems like it may have been a small hurricane or at least that is how the story goes….and there was my mom holding on to my young sister as well as a tent pole while Brother held a pole and so did I. We were practically flapping in the wind! It passed quickly but not before the tent was gone….except for the three poles we were holding. About that time my dad rolls in on his motorcycle (which he had rode through the storm) and my mother greets him by putting us kids in the station wagon and driving all the way home. I don’t ever remember seeing her that mad ever again. That is the week we bought a camper and upgraded our camping experience. It seems like something was said like “if you want to camp it is not going to happen in a tent ever again!” The view you see in this photos is the very campsite where the incident occurred. I was small but I remember it well. It’s been fun coming back to the park to see what has changed and what is exactly the same!