A playdate with Myra (aka Learning to sew)

Several months ago I decided I wanted to learn to sew, with a long term goal of making quilts.  After mentioning this to my father-in-law, I was given the sewing machine that belonged to my mother-in-law and I set out to find a cabinet for it.  I found a cabinet with a machine in it on craigslist and made arrangements to go look at it.  The machine wasn't working properly, but I liked the cabinet and made a lowball offer.  The seller accepted, so the machine and cabinet went to my mom's house for short term storage.

Well, it turned out that this machine, a Singer 500 "Rocketeer" was the sewing machine Mom coveted back in the early 1960s.  Mom called me daily with updates on what she had found in the cabinet, how she had cleaned it, what features the machine had and (most importantly) that I had to get the machine fixed.  When I didn't immediately run it to the shop, she started calling her friends to come over to look at it and get their opinions on whether I should take it to the shop ("Yes!" was the unanimous opinion - though that's not really fair, since Mom bribed them with cookies).
 
One of the items Mom found in the cabinet (and probably my favorite) is the original bill of sale.  A woman named Myra purchased the machine new on May 9, 1962.  It reads:

Machine: $299.50
Cabinet:       67.50
Trade-in:     -60.00
Total:       $307.00

Down payment: $100
Amount owed:    $207
24 payments of $10.12
For a total cost of $342.88

According to the DollarTimes Inflation Calculator, that would be $2,468.15 in 2010 terms.  That was quite an expensive purchase for 1962!

While Mom was poking through the cabinet, I discovered that my other sewing machine (a Singer 301A) is a 3/4 sized machine and won't fit in the cabinet unless I buy a special cradle.  I also read that many quilters like the 301A because it is lightweight and portable, so it can be carried to quilting groups.  So, I gave in to Mom's pressure and took the big machine in to be fixed.

Now Myra (in honor of her first person) is up and running and I am trying to figure out what's what on her.  It would probably make more sense to start on the simpler machine, but I haven't taken that one in for servicing yet (it's been sitting in a closet for a long time, I think).
 

Myra, in all her space age glory

For my first project, I decided to make a pillowcase for the queen-sized pillow I bought by mistake a few months ago.  The standard pillowcase I've been using didn't cover it completely.  The silly dachshund fabric I purchased to practice on doesn't match our sheets, but this pillow is always under the coverlet anyway, so why not? 

The completed pillowcase

In retrospect, I'm not sure a diagonal print was the best choice for a beginner, especially a beginner that discovered there were no straight pins amongst all the stuff in the sewing cabinet.  But I was determined to sew something, so I just managed with what I had on hand.  I'll worry about perfecting the next one.  :)

Detail of the fabric

Sourdough and seed starting

Obviously I've fallen off the blogging wagon, but I'm gettin' back on today! 

The fall garden is still producing at a trickle.  The collards are doing very well, as are the cabbages (no cabbage heads yet), spinach and tatsoi.  The broccoli has a little freeze burn, but we should be harvesting the first flowerets in the next week or so.  The broccoli rabe, lettuce and radishes froze, but the dinosaur kale, carrots and rutabagas are still slowly growing.  Corn salad is another one that has made it through the cold, but I don't care for it, so I've been feeding it to the rabbits.  Ironically, the snow peas were crushed by the snow and only one vine is alive.  I guess I'll have to plant some more.

I've been taking advantage of the cold weather to indulge my baking habit.  This year's obsession is sourdough and I think I've finally managed to get a good healthy starter going.  As a matter of fact, I have 2 healthy starters going: regular white flour and rye flour. 

White flour/whole wheat flour loaf baked under a metal bowl

Rye sourdough baked with steam at 425F.  It was a little over-proofed, so no real oven rise.  Very tasty, though!

 A close-up of the crumb of my first attempt at a sourdough baguette.

Even though it doesn't seem possible, it's time to start tomato plants.  I'm trying to use all open-pollinated varieties so I can save the seeds for future years.  I've heard that if you grow a variety for several years, saving the seeds and replanting, you'll develop a strain specific to your soil and growing conditions.  Sounds good to me!

Paper pots planted with tomato seeds.

First raised bed in the garden

I had intended to build raised beds last winter, but never got around to it. This year, after battling weeds, root knot nematodes, weeds, stink bugs, squash bugs and more weeds, I've decided to move my garden up a little higher. Maybe it won't help with the bugs, but at least I'll be able to run the mower between the beds if the weeds get out of control again.

Farm Boy and I (but mostly Farm Boy) spent the better part of Saturday building the first bed, which is 4'x15'. I filled it in with topsoil from around it, added some mineral sand, crushed eggshells and 150 pounds of composted cow manure, then crammed as many plants into it as possible, including broccoli, cabbage, collards, lettuce, corn salad, tatsoi, snow peas, beets, carrots, rutabaga, parsnips and spinach. It might be a little late for a good fall garden, but they weather was so nice I had to try. :)

Sorry for the bad photo. It was too bright out to see the screen.

We have chinquapins!

Or chinkapins or Allegheny chinquapins or dwarf chestnuts or more specifically, Castanea pumila. Whatever you want to call them, I am happy to have them growing here, especially since I was tempted to buy a couple this spring when I saw them on sale at Bob Wells Nursery.

Farm Boy and I noticed the funny spiky balls yesterday while walking the dogs. We actually walk past this spot every day (and have for four years!), but two small trees among 7 acres of big trees have to really work to stand out to us unobservant humans. I have to assume that this is the first year they have fruited, because I really don't think I could have missed this:





According to what I've read, the chinquapin is a great source of food and shelter for wildlife and the nuts were once extremely popular with people, as they are much sweeter than chestnuts. I'm not sure why they have fallen out of favor, except that they are so small and a little difficult to collect.

Originally we only noticed the one tree, but there are two trees a few feet apart. One is shorter with multiple small trunks and the other is a single trunk, about 4" in diameter at the base. They are mixed in with American beautyberry and some (annoying) rattan vine. We'll have to see if we can get that cleaned out a little bit to let the chinquapins form a nice thicket.


The foliage is dark green, glossy, toothed and...


apparently, very tasty. I noticed there were chunks were missing from many leaves, then spotted this guy. Another reason I'm happy to have chinquapins: they are a larval host plant to the orange-tipped oakworm moth.


I spent a few minutes liberating some nuts from the husks. Even when they are fully opened, it can be a painful operation. I've read that they are really good roasted, so we will have to try that with a few. The rest I'm going to try to propagate, since they are a fairly rare - and in many areas, endangered - species, due to chestnut blight. The chinquapin isn't as susceptible to the blight as the American chestnut was, but it can still be severely damaged by it.