Author: Teresa

Quilts, good books and dogs. Plus a cup of tea. Life is good.

My essential Featherweight feet

February 13, 2024

Intended audience for this post: Newer Featherweight owners.

Your machine may have come with a single presser foot all the way to a blue velvet lined box full of different feet. The Featherweight Shop does a great shop of explaining each foot and its purpose. That said, you really only a need a few presser feet to handle most quilting, garment and home dec sewing projects.

These are the feet I keep with my Featherweight at all times:

  1. Original presser foot
  2. Original zipper foot
  3. Modern low shank snap-on adapter with 1/4″ foot, scant 1/4″ foot and “open toe” foot
  4. Modern walking foot made especially for the Featherweight
  5. Modern low shank FMQ foot with feed dog cover

I use my FW for piecing quilt blocks, quilting small items, mending and making home dec projects. The one separate attachment I highly recommend is a buttonholer with as many templates as you can find.

Collecting vintage feet and accessories is fun! I do have a complete set of original feet that would have come with my FW in an original Singer box that’s seen better days. It’s put away for safekeeping, along with the original foot controller and cord with the bakelite plug. I also have several other accessory feet that I’ve found while antiquing, including a Penguin foot. My collection includes a zigzag attachment with several pattern cams. It’s fun to play with, but not exactly designed to be used for precise zigzag stitching that you might need in applique. If I’m at a retreat with my FW and our project involves applique, I utilize the Lori Holt solution – hand applique or use a straight stitch. If I know in advance I’ll need a zigzag or blanket stitch for a project, I’ll bring my 3/4 size Elna STAR edition instead. It fits in the same Buc-cee’s travel bag!

Playing the waiting game

February 9, 2024

On Tuesday morning, I officially applied for retirement. A short while later, I received a document outlining additional tasks I needed to do in order to complete my retirement application package. It took some time, but everything has now been submitted. I’ve done everything on my end. Now, as with our health insurance, we wait while everything goes through the prescribed processes. Unfortunately, at this stage, there’s no tracking mechanism in place for me to follow the status online. I’ll actually have to call and speak to a rep to find out where we are in the process – or wait for the mailed document. Maddening. Quilting keeps me focused on other things while I wait.

Yesterday, Sadie & I participated in the Middle Georgia Shop Hop. It took nearly 2 hours to reach our first stop off I-75 with all the traffic getting out of Atlanta. The shops were really busy. A number of vans were taking shop hoppers to the venues this year. Three of the shops were so crowded, I didn’t even look around. I merely had my passport stamped, purchased my blocks and left.

Of course, we made the obligatory pit stop at Buc-cee’s in Fort Valley before heading across the state to the shops along I-85. Around 3:30 p.m., I turned in our completed passport to Hometown Quilt Shop – we were the first completed passport to be turned in! 

Today, I helped a friend spray baste her first quilt and learn how to do straight line quilting using a walking foot. She finished quilting her top right as we needed to pack up and vacate our space at the library so the next group could use it. Perfect timing! She’s going to trim her quilt and make the binding this week. If she’s brave, she’ll try to attach it. I’ll guide her through machine stitching it down and joining the binding ends next Friday.

My CraftLAB kiddos will be stitching with me on Saturday afternoon to complete their cross body bags. I’ve already advised them that the next project will be to work on their blocks for the kid’s exhibit at the June quilt show. Speaking of which, I’d best get started on quilting my own entry.

Happy emails

February 4, 2024

On Friday, the email began “Dear Pending Retiree” and it made my day. Today, I received the official email notification to enroll in “pending retiree” health insurance benefits once our current benefits under COBRA expire at the end of February. You bet I completed enrollment shortly after receiving the email! I now have confirmation in writing that our existing health insurance will continue with no break in coverage. This is exactly what we needed to happen. Now, I’m just waiting on my letter with the new login details so I can set up the new account to pay premiums electronically.

Once my active employee – COBRA – state extended coverage – retiree journey is complete, I’ll write a detailed post to share with my fellow teacher friends on how to navigate the process. Once friends learned I was able to take my insurance with me to fill in the gap until retirement, two other teacher friends did the same thing. This option is available to any GA teacher/state employee who meets certain criteria and you can keep the insurance in place as long as you are willing to pay for it. Yes it’s expensive, but it was the only option for our particular situation unless I wanted to continue working full-time (nope). I was able to leave two years early and meet the requirement to keep my health insurance coverage active from last date of employment to my official retirement date. At that point, premiums will drop back to reasonable retiree rates. This has been the goal all along. I’m so thankful this option was available so I could join hubby in early retirement. We’ve had a blast!

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