Made Them Again

These buns are even better with the pastry cream!

Light and delicious, difficult to eat just one.
Bon Appetit!

Seeing Roses

California has the blue sky and golden poppies.

Idaho has the mountains with the mountain blue bird.

And Illinois is coming up with roses.

Winter Returned

Winter returned today, it was cold and rainy. To keep the kitchen warm, I baked raisin buns. They were almost like pain aux raisins, but they were missing the cream. I substituted the pastry cream with cinnamon and light brown sugar, since I didn't have the whole milk to make the proper pastry cream. This was a first for me in making a puff pastry. Will I do it again? YES!! These light, croissant, buns are the best!

And by evening, the family and I were all craving a Nabe to warm us up. So, my day was spent cooking to keep the house and hearts warm.

I'm still nibbling on my raisin buns...yummy!

Replacing the Race Wick on 66-1

Here are photos of the process of getting to the race wick that helps oil the race. While cleaning the bobbin, case, and hook/race on the Singer 66-1, it is important to check the wick and replace it if necessary with a new felt one.

Remove bobbin plate, needle, foot, and feed dog cover plate.

Turn machine over to work on removal of the feed dog screw underneath the bobbin area of machine.

Screw is located on right side.

After removal of screw, pull out the feed dogs from top side of machine.

Now work from top side in bobbin area. Take note of red piece of material which is the oil wick inside the wick screw (located right side of ejector button). To get to this wick screw, numerous other items must be removed first.

Start by removing the pin that holds the ejector mechanism bar which is located right of wick screw on top of bar.

What pin looks like.

Take a flat head screw driver to lift finger on ejector bar, located on left, that helps keep bar in place.

Grab hold of case and ejector bar; twist them to loosen from race, then pull them up and out of race.

Clean all items. I used rubbing alcohol.

Now it is time to remove wick screw from ejector bar. Using small long nose pliers to hold screw, gently turn screw counter clockwise to remove wick.
Removal of wick may take some time and require soaking in alcohol to loosen the red wick from the wire screw. Be patient, it will come out with time.

Now that all is clean up, it is time to cut new wick from thick red felt spool pin holder.

Cutting the red wick into a V aids in getting the new wick into the very tiny screw.

Leave some wick out long enough so that it will be able to touch the race (that is the purpose of the wick).

Insert back into hole that you removed it from by turning it in clockwise.

Drop a little oil on wick.

Now drop a little bit of oil in the case groove before putting case and ejector bar back in place.

This is how the wick should look resting against race.

Put feed dogs back along with all other cleaned up parts and screws that were removed.

Simple as that!! Have fun sewing!!!

P.S. There are some very old Singer 66-1 that do not have a race wick screw. One of my machines is this way. Here is a photo of that ejector bar without the wick screw.

Kins of the Novas

The family is growing. The new additions are...


Georgia

Alaska

Arizona

Hawaii

Arkansas

Spring Cleaning!

I needed to clean the lint out of my Singer 201 since lots of lint has built up under the feed dogs. Well, I took it one step further in cleaning. I decided to tackle cleaning the hook, case, and race area. I had heard how difficult this can be to reinstall the hook. So, I hunted for an excellent tutorial to follow. Luckily for me, someone was very kind to post photos on removal and installing these parts. From that tutorial, I discovered that this job wasn't daunting at all. It was extremely easy to do! Here are before and after photos of the race:

Happy St. Patty's Day

My March block from BOM. Wishing everyone a day of joy!

Meet the Novas

This is my latest group of paper piecing state stars that I have completed.

Alabama

Colorado

Connecticut

Florida

The Eldredge

Last year, I took pity on a machine that had been listed on CL for months by rescuing that poor thing. It sat in the garage through the winter looking dejected. Well, last weekend I cleaned the machine, cabinet, and treadle just enough to bring inside the house.

Trying to bring life back to once a beautiful machine started with a spa treatment on a warm sunny day. While sitting outside working on the machine, the sun provided the needed heat for me to loosen some screws that wouldn't budge. A blessing from the heavens!

She still needs more cleaning, but that will just have to wait until a later date.

I found a space for her. With all her weathered flaws, she graces my dining room.

The machine seems to be missing it's soul, but the treadle irons have a beautiful, smooth, rhythmic balance. I asked myself, How could a machine once so gorgeous lose its will for life; and yet, the treadle that is married to it breathes?

And with time will that change?