2016 NC TOGA day 6: sewing and raffle and goodbye

Saturday is the last day of the TOGA.

but first, a story from earlier in the week.

One of the machines I brought to work on was a lovely two-tone teal (try saying that three times fast) Viscount postwar Japanese zigzagger.  Maureen found it at a thrift store and gave it to me ages ago.  It has been almost a year since I have worked on machines, what with all the fuss over getting brand new knees and all.  On the way out of the house I grabbed it and brought it along.

Wiped off the minimal exterior dirt, oiled and lubed it and that was all it needed.  Very clean inside.

Naomi fell in love with it and asked if she could have it.  She is a petite nine-year-old.  The machine weighs 45 pounds.  So I jokingly said that when she was older and could pick up a 45 pound machine, I would have a nice one for her.  But that would be several years in the future.

You can see where this is going, can't you?

Of course she walked across the room and picked it up.  And held it there.  For a while.

She has named her new two-tone teal machine "Dragon".

Now for Saturday's events.

Susan taught a class on making little zipper bags.

Melissa shows off the bag she made.

Fuzzy photo, but SUCH a nice smile from Susan I had to include it!

The last one is mine.  Proving that we do not discriminate against "tailed" machines (tailing an electric cord--attached to a motor).

and our annual group photo

White haired old biddy top right holding up the pillar:  DragonPoodle

The sanctuary in the church is draped in quilts, all made at least partially on treadles or hand cranks.

The final event of the TOGA is the raffle. Most of us bring things ranging from horrible things that we just want to get rid of (see my Singer 328?) to wonderful vintage treasures.  Proceeds from the raffle go to the church that hosts us.  I won a bunch of stuff, as did Barbara.  And Naomi won that little sewing machine figurine you can see in the front of the photo.  The rest of the photos I took of the table are even worse than this one, but trust me there was lots of stuff there.

I'm still unpacking and photographing all my loot from the week.  Look for that in a future post.

Now for the hard part--waiting all year for the next TOGA!

NC TOGA day 5: sew, buy, sell, trade

Today is THE big day at TOGA.  Everyone is at the church, everyone has brought machines to sew on, machines to sell, machines to drool over, machines to get advice and help with.  And lots of other vintage sewing goodies.

I had a lovely table outside with all my vintage goodies for sale.  And of course I forgot to take a picture of it.  I have been joking all week about being a photojournalist, but apparently I am not a very good one!

so here, in no particular order, and with very little commentary, are pictures from today.

 Connie made a paper pieced block that Edna demonstrated.

Singer 28, La Vencedora decals

Melissa working on a project 

 Beautiful Pfaff accessory box.  The little drawer it is in fits inside the case for....

 This lovely antique Pfaff.  

 A lovely blue Royal 15-clone with original manual marked "$189.50."

Singer 28, I think the decal set is "Victorian". 

 Pretty sure this is a Singer 185.

A Wizard 15-clone.

 Edna taught how to make dusters out of fleece and Susan shows her results.

 Singer Merritt in PINK

Tomorrow is more of the same for half a day, ending with a raffle.

NC TOGA day 4: field trips

Thursday at TOGA are always devoted to field trips.

Morning begins at Mary Jo's Cloth Store in Gastonia NC, about an hour's drive from the TOGA base in Monroe.  Folklore has it that this is the best fabric store between D.C. and Atlanta.  I like to stock up on basic cotton batting.  And I bought some sewing and map theme fabrics.

Barbara dug through the 65 cent pattern bins and found some patterns for me too.

Linda is here from literally halfway around the world and doing some hard core international shopping.

Is this photo blurry?  No, it is ten year old Naomi caught in motion.  And she is often in motion!  She found cute fabrics for doll blankets.  She does her own sewing, btw, and has done for YEARS.  A seriously impressive kid.


Next stop:  lunch at Kyle Fletcher's BBQ, recommended by Susan.  Awesome BBQ.  Pork BBQ.  I will stop here again.  Who knew that this was going to turn into a food blog?  At least I didn't take a photo of my sliced bbq sandwich with slaw.

On to Long Creek Mills, also in Gastonia.  Thread, thread, thread and more thread.  And stabilizer. And other things.

anyone who has seen my studio knows that I have a serious thread fetish.

TOGAteers attempting to make a serious dent in Long Creek Mills thread stock.  Barbara and I did our part.

just one of many aisles at Long Creek Mills

The group went on to Harry Berzak's private antique sewing machine museum.  I was sorry to miss it this year.  Harry claims to be only one of three serious collectors in the U.S.   If you want to see it, check out my post from 2014.  Lots and lots of pictures there, well worth a click.

Singer 328, convert it if you dare!

Now for an update on how to treadle a Singer 328.  Leila wrote to me to say that she has done this and provided me a link to her blog post on how to convert the 328 to treadle.  She warned me in her email that "it is not an easy conversion."  That's pretty much all I need to know, because I also agree with her assessment that the 328 "looks like an ugly alien grasshopper."  For me it's the yucky color and I have wondered what one would look like painted a cool color.  But thanks to Leila now I won't bother.  If I want to treadle a cam machine I have a lovely Singer 306.

Naomi added her own display to the motel room window.  Her Singer 20 is named "Betsy" and it sews very well.









and her proud mama.  Look closely and you will see not only Linda's shadow selfie but another shadow selfie of me, taking a picture of Linda taking a picture of Naomi's display.

NC TOGA day 3: the hordes arrive

Well, maybe not hordes. Several people anyway, including the ones I was waiting for.

Checked out the church first thing, and Edna was continuing her teaching.

Some quilty goodness was laid out on the tables.

and I took photos of a couple more of the machines I worked on yesterday.

Singer 66

Rusty and frozen when I got it.  After a few drops of oil it is now rusty and turning freely.  Want it?

Singer 328K

I know that the Singer 328 can be treadled and people are often looking for zig-zag machines to treadle.  This model take Singer flat cams, so it can do a lot more than just zz.  What I DON'T know is how to disconnect the motor for treadling.  So I brought it along in the hope that someone else will know.  and I hope someone takes it off my hands--I have another 328 at home.

Another classic Singer turned up in the church hall, a black 301 short bed model.  .

then I headed off for more thrift store shopping.  4 stores in 2 days but only one sewing machine, a nice Domestic zz in a cabinet and already marked "sold".  However, pretty much the minute I walked into the Salvation Army store in nearby Indian Trail I spied THIS

I didn't even need to turn it upside down to see THIS.  I knew just from looking at it.  $2.99, btw.

Not a chip nor crack nor scratch nor any crazing.  I know it is not a sewing machine but I just had to show it to you.  You either get it or not.  It's another Ohio-girl passion of mine.

By this time my friend Barbara had arrived.  I picked her up and we went back to Indian Trail to a Peruvian restaurant I had spotted on the highway, La Cancha.

One daughter once lived with a chef, so I know that taking pictures of your food is a thing.  But not a thing that I normally do.  But this food was fantastic.  And I am stopping again on Saturday to take some home with me.

Barbara left her Singer 626 with me to check out.  Linda and Naomi arrived around 5 and we took a look.  All metal gears, which Barbara reports is only true of the early 626s.  Part way through the run they began introducing plastic parts.  And I am sorry I did not get a photo of the front of it, which has a PINK faceplate.  I'll get a pic on Friday.

Singer 626.

It is TOGA tradition to put a sewing machine in the window of our hotel room.

another DragonPoodle shadow selfie

Two-tone teal Viscount Zigzagger.  

The four of us went to Knife and Fork for dinner, where I had the eggs again and they were just as good as last time.  Barbara proclaimed the country fried steak excellent, and the fried okra fresh and delicious, not formerly frozen and all slimy like frozen okra gets, ugh.

Back at the hotel Linda showed me a gem of a sewing machine from the 1870's restored by her father.  From the shape I thought it was a chainstitcher, but no, it is a lock stitch, boat shuttle machine.  I don't remember the name and Linda and Naomi have been sound asleep for an hour now.  I'm not going to wake her up to ask her, but I will come back tomorrow and edit this post and put the name in.

I have been admiring this adorable car all week in the hotel parking lot.  isn't it cute?

and one more non-sewing machine thing.  I found this dragon at the thrift store today.  Pretty sure the wizard had his other hand when I bought it.  Oh well, at least it wasn't the McCoy vase that took a hit.