My New Machine :)

T oday wasn’t an n^th as busy as yesterday – Thank God for small mercies! It was an exciting day, but not stupid crazy.

Weapons of Choice

My darling son convinced my dad to take him to Tim’s to get me a coffee for a kick start .. what a sweetie, eh? Yeah I had a hard time waking up this AM .. but with eyes burning and bloodshot, I hauled my tucas to the car to go look at some sewing machines for me 🙂 .. I brought with me, my walking foot, freemotion foot, ¼” measure and a sandwich .. quilt sandwich ..

Click to see bigger pic

I get there shortly after they open at 9am, and talk to Johnny (tech I spoke to yesterday) .. I asked him to show me the used Singers that he had in stock that were short shank and in the $100 range he told me about yesterday .. I asked that he show me the newest first .. well that one was $125 – and I nixed it as I was already $50 over what I ‘planned’ to pay for the repair on my machine. He had about 8 machines in the $100 range. One was a 247 (older sister of my dead one – the 248), stylist 514, and another I didn’t even see as it was behind – are you ready for this .. a touch n swear LOLOLOL .. he had bout 4 of them in there .. so I said to make this easy for me – what is the newest model you have in the price range that is a short shank. He shows me the Stylist 514 – brings it off the shelf and sets it up for me. Heh .. good thing I was testing my walking foot .. I couldn’t get the foot off it was so bloody tight … he had to use pliers to turn the screw knob LOL .. well get my foot on and start to quilt away, testing stitch length, zig zag (yes I said zig zag) and just LOVE the fact that the reverse is a button you push **sigh .. boy did I miss that! I liked what I felt with that machine and didn’t bother with the freemotion as my 15-91 freemotions like a dream. The last test; would my existing 50 million bobbins that I have for the 248 work in this one .. WOOO HOOOO Yes sirreebob! That was the part that sealed the deal for me .. my criteria – short shank, $100 price tag, bobbins I have MUST fit! Oh this one also has built-in stitches .. no more cams .. granted there is only 3, but if I want to do more decorative stuff, I do have mum’s machine (OMG, was THAT out loud????)

He went digging and got me a freemotion plate so I didn’t have to cover the dogs for freemotion quilting .. sweet of him wasn’t it (these dog covers are like $15 – $20 if not more) .. and that was free of charge .. I didn’t ask about feet .. I do NOT need 4 of each foot I already have – seriously .. how many zipper feet do you bloody well need?? You can only use 1 at a time, and I’ve never heard of one of those breaking! I have a button foot (great little foot that you can machine sew buttons on with .. it is SOOOO cool!, my walking foot, freemotion foot, 2 ¼” feet (1 came with this machine), like 4 zipper feet, 2 rufflers, binding foot, hem foot blah blah blah .. you can see where I’m heading on this .. I didn’t need anymore feet!!

The only thing he couldn’t find for me was a manual and he spent a good 20 minutes digging in his filing cabinet for it **sigh .. I won’t have to worry about oiling this for a few weeks as it was clean, adjusted, oiled, lubed etc already.  I can guess some of he spots, but each machine seems to have it’s ‘secret’ spot.  I think the bobbin case for the 248 will fit in here too .. but until I can get an exploded view of the guts, I’m not 100% sure.

I called Singer to find out birthday / place of this machine. Well the closest I could get with this one is 1973 – 1975 in Great Britian, altho it says Made in Canada on the back 😐 .. The lady at Singer said because Canada was part of the Commonwealth at the time, it’s all under Great Britian .. So it was made in either Quebec or Nova Scotia …

If anyone has a manual to this can you let me know please .. I am interested in the oiling diagrams, threading diagrams, cleaning diagrams, and exploded view of the bobbin . I can buy one from Singer for $15, but would rather try to find FREE means first

This machine has a nice sweet feel and stitch to it .. I’ve not quite got the feel of her, but am working on it .. you can see in this block (which I did today), that my seams are a wee bit wibbly . that could also be due to sleep deprivation ..

I think that this machine and I are going to have a nice long happy relationship together .. will it replace the one that mum bought me – no – but it will create it’s own special place in my heart.

Oh and I ran a load of dishes thru the dishwasher today .. works like a dream 😀