Callin' all Texans!

Hi y'all! I have a very special request. I am looking for some quilt bloggers in Texas that would like to participate in a super special project. Christina over at Pretty Little Quilts and I have something up our sleeves and need your help. If you live in Texas and would like to help out, please shoot me an email (myfabricrelish{at}gmail {dot}com) or comment below. If you know of any bloggers in Texas, please send them over OR if you just have lots of love for Texas, please let me know as well and we would love to have you participate. Stay tuned and if you want to show your Texas love, please grab a button to put in your sidebar!

Thanks so much!

Melissa

<div align="center"><a href="http://www.myfabricrelish.blogspot.com" title="Texas Button Blank by Melissa Eubanks, on Flickr"> <img alt="Texas Button Blank" height="150" src="https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2927/13955980784_9ac7613138_q.jpg" width="150" /></a></div>

Springtime in Texas...

It's that time of year again! It's getting warm and things are getting colorful. As most of you know, I live in Texas and Texas only just two seasons: cold and hot with a two week transition of nice weather...haha!

I love making dresses for my little relishes and they both love them, too! There are so many fun and happy fabric collections out right now to chose from. These dresses are from Tula Pink's new collection, Fox Field.

I used the Popover Sundress from Oliver + S for little relish's dress and guess what?! It's free!! This is a great pattern that uses little fabric and can take less than an hour from start to finish. I actually cut these pieces from big relish's dress scraps.







For big relish's dress, I used the Ruby Ruffle dress from The Cottage Mama. I originally made a smaller shop sample in the same fabrics for Urban Spools and big relish was upset that I didn't make her one. What does a mother do? Duh!



For this version, I added a long vertical ruffle (not in pattern). She loves it and I she has worn it three times this week so far. Sweet girl!

Here is the shop sample version...



Eeeeekkk!

Hope everyone had a great weekend and Easter! I want to share a few more pictures from our Easter weekend...









Melissa

Sewing Machine Revivals: Part 2

I bought a....Singer 327K! There really isn't anything cool about this machine except for the gorgeous color! If I could custom select a color for a sewing machine, it would be this color.

So here is the story of 327K...

While checking out eBay for some Featherweight goodies, I came across this vintage teal Singer 327K. I really loved it and wanted it. It ended up selling for $200 at midnight while I was fast asleep (priorities), but the next morning I was mad at myself for not getting it. I also kept thinking that $200 was too risky for a vintage sewing machine off of eBay with not much of a return policy. So later the next day, I came across another one, but this one was only $100. Hmmmm. I sent the buyer a few questions regarding its working condition and ultimately bought it. Ok, immediately. {I really need to work on my impulse buying - next week}

Ok! What the hell was I thinking!?! I just recently got the Singer 221. I don't need another sewing machine. I already have 4 and now 6!

(Photo source: eBay listing linked above)

So less than a week later, the machine shows up and it was working (whew!), but the bobbin case was missing the tension screws. Dang it! So, back to eBay I go and I found one for $10. In the meantime, I start cleaning this big girl up. She was well taken care of before and had very little lint build up, but she did need a little polishing here and there. I took apart everything to give it a good cleaning (even the tension assembly!). I was quite pleased with myself. Check out all my dirty work..

(Before cleaning tension assembly)

(After cleaning)

(Before cleaning inside)

I thought I was finished with Ebay and then I saw a sewing machine table that someone was willing to ship, but it had the 328K (327K's big brother) attached to it. I reached out to the buyer to ask if she was willing to separate the two and she said "sure" and within a day I was the owner of a sewing machine table. It arrived it a box and it was HEAVY! I opened it up and lo and behold, another dang sewing machine! I guess she decided it wasn't worth the trouble of removing the machine before she shipped it. Unfortunately, this machine is not in very good shape but at least I have one for parts (even a bobbin case...dang it!). Also, one of the bolts that attached the machine to the table was busted and back to eBay I go again. Fortunately, Singer was pretty consistent with their sewing tables and used the same bolt for decades. It was fairly easy to locate a pair for $12.

I knew I wanted to refinish this table, but I spent the entire week deciding how. I actually came across the exact table that was refinished in a beautiful teal, but since the machine was teal I thought that was too much. I also loved the wood and wanted to keep some of that.

After two trips to Home Depot, I had the supplies needed to strip, sand and stain the wood and then the white paint for the bottom {I used Behr Antique White in Eggshell Enamel for all inquiring minds}.

I first took apart the top of the table and put all the screws and hinges to the side. I spray painted the handles with oil rubbed bronze spray pain (Rustoleum I think).

I spray primed the base and began stripping the wood to take off the existing finish. It took two good stripping attempts and then a good sanding.

This spot was a little worrisome, but it was covered up very nicely by the stain.

I picked a dark vintage stain (Jacobean by Minwax) and then finished with wax. I debated on using wax or poly finish, but ended up with the wax. I love the vintage look it gives the wood. I applied one heavy coat and buffed out after 15 mins, then applied a thin coat and let cure overnight and buff once more.

Hurray!

Aren't they gorgeous together?! I have always wanted a vintage sewing table and machine and couldn't be happier! My mom even said she wanted one for her house even though she doesn't sew! Now I need to break them in with a new quilt.

Isn't that wood pretty!?!

A little spot for the foot and other goodies.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, her stitches are beautiful! Check out a quick video...

Sorry about the shaking and did you see some Dolly hair? The curse of black fabric.

I think it was serendipitous that these two items made their way to me and hope you enjoyed reading about it all. Please let me know if you have any questions about the whole process. I'm happy to share!

Oh, and Hoppy Easter!

Melissa

 

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Sewing Machine Revivals: Part 1

Ok! I have something so very exciting to share with y'all! I recently bought my very first vintage sewing machine!






















I first started looking into getting a Singer Featherweight 221 a couple months ago. I reached out to Michelle (owner of Urban Spools) and she told me that her fabulous husband had recently started buying these fantastic machines to fix up and sell. {Doesn't that sound like a cool hobby? I tried to get Mr. Relish interested in a hobby like that and he didn't bite, but someone else did!}

I told her to put me on the list for the next one and she immediately responded that one was on the way and once her husband cleaned her up, she was ALL mine! I picked her up last week and isn't she just adorable? I still need to look up her birthdate.



(fabric is Japanese from Disneyworld's Epcot)





When I picked her up, I had a little secret that I didn't tell Michelle about and that was I was naughty and bought another vintage sewing machine on Ebay. Not a Featherweight, but a....

...to be continued tomorrow!

Melissa

Lala Salama...

...which means safe sleep in Swahili.

I recently finished a very simple quilt that ended up being such a struggle for me. It was a charity quilt for a wonderful organization and cause, Lala Salama - 100 Quilts. Alyce from Blossom Heart Quilts introduced me to this great plan and was thrilled to participate. Thanks Alyce!

They asked for 100 quilts to lay on top of 100 beds in a Kenyan children's hospital. They needed them to be twin size, in a tranquil blue and green color way, and kid friendly (so no scary prints --that part was easy).

I originally planned on making another triangle quilt and got some lovely green and blue FQ bundles from Christa Quilts closing shop sale (also used my generous $25 gift card from Giveaway Day). I took these bundles with me to QuiltBLISS and cut up a ton of triangles. But something just wasn't grooving with me. And I was falling short with the number of triranges cut verses needed. --Dang triangle math! So I decided to go back to the drawing board and thought hard about what a child really appreciates in a quilt and realized it was mostly just the fabrics used. So I looked through my {girly} fabric collection and pulled out prints that had the blues and greens and then pulled some solid blues and greens to get the color scheme down. I went with a simple patchwork using 5 inch squares.

I did a semi-random layout and just made sure the prints were in a diagonal pattern. Love the zoo print!!

This quilt is huge and heavy. Mr. Relish (6 feet tall) was standing on a chair and complaining of arm cramps during the photo shoot. Haha! Then big relish did her usually photo bomb, but the joke's on her because I love the way her pictures came out!

 

 

I'm not in love with this quilt and it's not my best work, but just as big relish has demonstrated, it's snugly and kid friendly and that's what counts. I hope it gives lots of warmth and smiles!

Melissa

 

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