Clean and Green

In Which I Abuse a Centenarian, and Am Appropriately Punished

This is my main treadle sewing machine.  Her serial number begins with the letter D, which means she was manufactured in either 1908 or 1909.  Because of her Egyptian-inspired decals, I named her Aida, from the opera by the same name set in ancient Egypt.  Giving her that name was probably the beginning of the abuse.

She is a work horse.  I have pieced quilt after quilt, sitting at her treadle.  I have also pieced bindings, made grocery bags and doll clothes, and even allowed the grandchildren to give it a go.

Occasionally I would oil her, but mostly I just rushed in, pieced for a while, and rushed back out to my busy life.

Then one day, the inevitable happened.  The tension was off underneath.  Weirdly, it wasn't that way all the time.  When I sewed 5 in. squares together, only part of the seam would be bad.  But it would be VERY bad.  Time-To-Get-the-Seam-Ripper Bad.

I ran down my list of What to Do When the Tension is Bad.  I re-threaded the machine.  I changed the needle.   I made sure I was using the exact same thread weight in the top and the bobbin.  I wound a new bobbin.  None of that worked.

Here's why:

This is a clump of lint.  I don't know why it's always gray, but it is.  This little blob was the last of what I finally cleaned out of the bobbin area.  There was at least THREE TIMES this much lint crammed in there.
Poor Aida!  She was struggling to do my bidding, with this mess choking her, and I was fumbling around with changing needles and threads.
I spent about an hour this morning cleaning and oiling, and begging her forgiveness.  A one hundred year old plus machine should not have to put up with such an obtuse operator.
My punishment was the dreaded reverse stitching.  Triangles and squares had to be ripped and put right.  If I had noticed the problem a little sooner, I might have gotten off easier.  Lesson learned.

 The new color for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is green!  I'm laying out the possibilities.  I need bright greens for the zigzag quilt (above)

and reproduction greens for the spiky star quilt.  This is such a fun (and messy!) way to start the month of March.

With my wonderful treadle clean and working well, I got a start on the half square triangles for the zigzag quilt.  After this, I only need 60 more to make the green rows.

Luckily, I have a nice big stack of light triangles cut from the last couple of months.  These will come in handy.
In other news, cooking experiments!

Cherry Kuchen, a yeast-risen coffee cake.

I can verify how well it goes with a cup of tea.

And it's grapefruit marmalade time again.  I've got these grapefruit quarters boiled and cooling.  They will become a small batch of marmalade later today.
We still have snow on the ground here, but the sky is blue and spring is coming.  Things are looking up!
I'm wishing the joy of new and old things for you this week.
Cheers for reading,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:
Angela at Soscrappy
Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Myra at Busy Hands Quilts
Cynthia at Oh Scrap