I own a Singer Sphinx hand crank sewing machine! Who knew???

When did I buy this?
Why can I NOT remember?
I am sure I was infected by Our Bonnie Hunter of www.quiltville.com fame.

The scary thing is I have bid on a couple hand cranks for the last month. Well, after she sewed on her hand crank sewing machine during a quiltcam broadcast.

I did know I had a machine major buried in the quilt frame room. And I also knew it seemed much longer than my other wooden case Singer.

I was looking for my 800+ Spool blocks that I had made earlier this year. I hate it when I clean because I cannot ever find anything. More to follow on the cleaning urge...

And here she is! A very clean and beautiful Sphinx hand crank. Wooden case with key that works. ( this is sooooo heavy I had to have Hubby carry it out for me)

But what is the model #?
HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am guessing a Class 15.
Am I right?????? I need a manual but they do have her threaded.
Serial # says she was born on January 12, 1923.
She has a round bobbin case that looks like the Featherweight's case.

No pin rash...some rust on the bobbin slide cover. And there are decals on the crank wheel too!!!!

The decals are in amazing shape. There are some paint spatters on the wooden case. Not bad at all...

Isn't she lovely? They had the crank wrapped up...I never unwrapped her! Never tried sewing on her! Sure could have spent some quality time with her when we lost our power for 6 days last year!!!

See the rust??? It looks as if the finish was scraped off from pins and then it rusted. Should I or can I replace this one lousy issue?

And this is what I was looking for!!!! A stuffed full box of 3 1/2" Spool blocks that were last year's Leaders and Enders challenge. We even swapped spool and background fabrics.

I rotated my sewing area. My back is now to the front door. I am facing the TV and the computer. I swept and dusted and organized...that is how I misplace my things!!! GRRR!!!!

My definition of a neutral.

It seems as if I get a sleepless night once a week. I used to hate them. Now they are great! I can play in my stash. I mean really deep digging and sorting.

I am currently making lots of Bonnie Hunter's spool blocks. Then I was getting bored with the neutrals I was sewing with. Enter one sleepless night and I have 30 new neutrals to sew with.

I went through and tore 20" from each fabric. I will get them washed as I plan on making a new swap on the Quiltvilleswap Yahoo group. We have already swapped spool fabrics but not the backgrounds. So I asked and got  favorable replies from nearly all the swappers. They are up for an extra swap this summer.

And the definition of a neutral seems to be a personal preference. I agree with Our Bonnie on what she considers a neutral. It really does make for a more interesting quilt. But I know that is uncomfortable for some quilters.

The photo below is what I/we will be swapping.

Aren't these fabrics great? I included a few of my precious conversation prints.

And there is a method to my madness...I have made 4 Log Cabin quilts using only creams and browns with pale pink centers. I have been feeling the call of making a Log Cabin quilt without being color controlled. These neutrals will fit in perfectly for this future project.

Here is an example of a pale pink fabric being a neutral in one block and the spool in another block. It all depends on the spool color.

I now have 646 spool blocks made. If memory serves me, Bonnie said she wanted 800 spool blocks for the design she is working on. I am almost there!!!

I went through one swappers yellow strips. I cut them down and made these yellow spool blocks. Light to dark. Aren't they precious?

And since I always do a Leader/Ender as I am sewing I am using 1 1/2" squares that were extras cut from whatever.

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washed fabric quiltvilleswap Hostess

Use it up and wear it out!

Use it up? fabric strings...way down the food ladder but still very doable.
I sent in 20 right/left sets to swap. WHOHOO! Other quilters' strings!

Wear it out? My Organ titanium 80/12 sewing needle. It sewed/pieced 4 butterfly quilts. Then quilted the same quilts and still is sharp! So paper piecing will dull it up soon. But then who knows? I buy them for this very reason. They seem to last forever!

It sure makes a mess but it is controlled chaos. I keep my strings in baggies by color families. Those baggies go into the plastic containers..big ones!

Happily I have 400 spool blocks made now! nice full container.

Our guild does a Secret Sister during our calendar year. My Super Secret Sister gave me a container full of half square triangles. What a great gift. She worked a long time to fill this for me. I played a bit with them. And I love the container too!

I found a few balls of crochet cotton and made 6 doilies. I gifted them to a sweet quilter who made me a special pin cushion at a quilt retreat. They were starched and then dried in the sun.

Hubby found this toy race track. Being a curious man he set it up on the table to see if it worked. It did. It also became Maggie Mae's favorite toy for 2 days until he sold it...poor Maggie Mae!

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Butterfly quilts and kitties

Maggie Mae has a favorite perch in this house. She wants this wooden stool put in front of the screen door so she can watch her squirrel and bird friends.
She will stretch and even lay down on this small stool.
But...the air is on now and her stool has been returned to the kitchen where it belongs. Poor Maggie Mae!!!

With four cats in the house it is not rare for one of the cats to be "helping" me quilt. And they LOVE the Minkee backings. This smaller butterfly quilt went to daughter #2 for her 40th birthday. WOW! Time sure flies!

I work in controlled chaos as I sew. Making these 4 butterfly quilts was a labor of love. And as they were assembled I made 35 spool blocks as Leader and Enders per Our Bonnie Hunter of www.quiltville.com fame.
Then as I prepared to move to quilting mode I cleaned/straightened up a few things. Then somehow I lost my 35 spool blocks! ARGGGG!!!! I should have left the mess alone!
I sold my Janome 3160 QDC to a very good friend who needed a thread cutting machine for piecing the Bonnie Hunter Virginia Star quilt. I only sewed on it a few times...a waste to have it and not sew on it.
So, I got my my 1932 scroll face Featherweight and set her up for piecing in the back bedroom where I do all my cutting. What a fine sound she makes as she sews. I love that sound. And I made 30 more spool blocks. That back room is closest to the air conditioner and gets very cold. I love that fact! And as I was cutting more backgrounds for the spool blocks I found the missing 35 blocks. I am very near 300 blocks so far. WHOOT WHOOT!!! I have promised myself that I will try to not straighten things up too much in the future.
I have another butterfly quilt all pinned up and ready for quilting. And did 6 loads of laundry today! I am bushed!

This is butterfly quilt #2 and is destined for daughter #1's birthday in July.

This is butterfly quilt #3 and is going to my great son-in-law Kevin for his June birthday. He is such a fine man and a great father to all of Lisa's children.
My goal is to have two quilts that can be displayed in her family room which is decorated with butterflies everywhere!

Okay, DH is hungry and I need to make him something to eat.
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Cats, squirrels and spool block progress

Our Macy is so special. She fetches toys like a dog and we know she understands what we say. When her food bowl gets near empty she brings the bowl toys.
So funny. Her newest favorite toy is a piece of string from a grass weed whacker.

DD#1 braided my hair yesterday. I so need to get a trim to straighten up my self mutilation. It lasted all day and overnight.

This is some of the fabric that I bought at Quilts and Friends in Roanoke Indiana. We were hired to play during a sale day for the above shop. Of course after staring for two hours as we played and sang I could not NOT buy fabric.

The quilt is still in it's design mode...more to follow.

As I work on the butterfly quilt I am cutting into the swap strips and making spool blocks. Some of the fabric were too light for the spool body but I was able to use them as the backgrounds.

The paper shows 190 made but with yesterday's sewing session I now have 200 even sewn. 1/4 of the way to the 800 needed...

Here is a closeup of our newest squirrel family. The mommy squirrels all bring the babies from their birthing nest to our trees. I am sure it is the food supply. We have two families right now in the front trees. There are occasionally some territory squabbles. But we can stop them by adding more peanuts to the argument. They then get so busy eating that they forget to fight with each other!!!

But this little baby has a very gray cast to her fur. It will make her easily recognized when taming. She is already quite comfortable with me being close to her. I make them peanut butter sandwiches and slices of apples with peanut butter. And tons of raw peanuts and sunflower seeds.

I have all of the quilts quilted that I made from Craig Robison's shirts. He would have been the grandfather to the new arrival (due in June) SO I thought it was appropriate to use the shirt fabrics as baby quilts. I managed to squeeze 4 quilts and all have Minkee backing!!!

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Borders added to the Eye Fooler quilt.

Did not sleep at all last night. Lots of things on my mind but most of it was sewing related. So I just got up at 3:00 a.m. put some music on and added 2 borders to my Eye Fooler quilt. Hubby says it looks "royal". And that is a good thing. Anyway, it is now ready/done. I need to piece the backing and cut some batting and wait for the next delivery from my Long Arm quilter, Lisa Olinger.
Did I tell you she picks up and delivers????? Too cool!

I found these hexie boxes at a Borders. This large square one hold all the rotary blades and that electric sharpener. (which I love!)

This box has a neat notebook and a pencil case with hexie pencils too! So far it is just looking beautiful. I have not decided what to store in it.
Love the interior color....

I moved the magnets in that magnetic pin holder and check out how my pins are behaving. I have my own little magnetic vortex going on here.
I love my TJ Lane thimble. It fits so well I forget I have it on despite the weight of it. It solved my sore thumb issues. I should have used it from the start.

This is my work box for basting the hexies. I can set this on my lap anywhere and have everything handy!!!

I also crochet like there is no tomorrow. I use this little holder all the time. There is a small slot on top for the metal crochet hook and even a small drawer!!!
Excuse the dust. Who has time to clean when there is so much sewing to do?
Yes, I made that doily.

Hubby found this antique sewing box on Craig's list. There is not one single nail in it. The top rolls back like a roll top desk.

I watched Our Bonnie Hunter on Quilt cam today. She is such an inspiration!!!

I did get two of Angela's exchange fabrics made into spool blocks today.

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Clover's Black Gold needles

I am not using this size hexie right now. But I have been saving heavier weight mailers papers to stamp out more papers. This is such a great way to recycle all the junk mailers!!!! Thanks to Our Bonnie Hunter for this tip and the recommendation on the stamper.

I love these Black Gold needles from Clover for slipping smoothly through the batiks. Only issue is that they are black and a bit hard to see against the batiks.
I had to stop sewing/basting because my thumb was getting pricked so much from the needles that I started bleeding on the fabrics. I then went to wearing a piece of waterproof band aid tape. That works well...but my thumb is still sore. So I am straightening up and cutting up fabrics for my Leaders & Enders project.

What a nice clean cutting area. I love working in this room. It is the closest room to the furnace and the outside air conditioner unit. So it is toasty warm in the winter months and as cold as a fridge in the summer. Perfect for me each way!!!!

This is the box that I keep the swap envelopes as they come to me. Believe me that box is FULL and HEAVY!!!!! There are two swaps here. Washed batik strips and 1 1/2" Postage Stamp Swap. Both are on the Yahoo groups. Every third month both swaps are due at the same time. Lots of packages for the Post Office. But I keep telling them (Post Office) it is job security. HA!!

Baskets all ready to receive their individual packages after I count them and check for accuracy. I have to have them by color (baskets). That is the OCD in me. It actually helps in the quilting process too.

Here are some 5" squares being cut up for the Spool Blocks that is my Leader & Enders project. And a NEW friend from Facebook who is also Bonnie's #1 fan and I swapped 10 sets of spool units. Her fabrics arrived today. So neat because I was in the middle of cutting more fabrics too!!!

I have a new great grand child coming. We do not know the sex yet. But Grand Daughter wants a monster theme. Quilt coming soon......

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North Manchester and Our Bonnie Hunter

Yep! Here is proof...Bonnie is taller than I am!!!

 She is slim, lovely and ever so patient with all the newbie quilters. She showed them all how to achieve that "perfect 1/4" seam"! There are many methods that work and she helped each quilter adjust to their specific machine.

Signing books. Her time is sure not her own with 40 information starved quilters waiting with bated breaths.
The room was huge and she even had a microphone to get her words of wisdom to the far corners of the room.

The fluorescent lights really played havoc with my camera's settings. Some are very yellowish. The above photo is my day's work. My baskets are all string pieced in various shades of green. My tulip tips are burgundy.
 Six  7" tulip blocks made and three 3" spool blocks. The spool blocks are Bonnie's newest Leaders and Enders challenge. I even brought her a baggie full of pre-cut spool blocks for her own personal collection.

Here is my "space" set-up. I am NOT good in crowds. So I was in the last row on the end in case I needed some breathing room. I cannot help it. Even loving Bonnie as I do it was really a large effort to be there. 40+ women even with plenty of room was a bit too much for me.
On the chair is my Cinnamon Triangles quilt that is based on Bonnie's Pfferneuse pattern in her newest book, String Fling.  It made a great cushion.
I bought a black TV tray table that has three adjustable heights. It worked flawlessly at level #2. It was the perfect fit for the Janome 3160 QDC with the Janome 6500P's acrylic table that fits!!!!
A fellow guild member made me the ironing pad for the smaller TV tray. I was quite comfortable. When I needed to do some rotary cutting I simply stood up for a stretch too.
Here are a few photos of my neighbor's blocks:

So many nice people and the North Manchester College campus is beautiful. It is tucked into a residential area with lots of large trees and plenty of walking space.

I need to stay home with DH tomorrow so I called and offered my spot in the Crumb Piecing class to the next quilter on the waiting list. No charge of course.
Sorry Bonnie.....
XOXOOXXO Subee