Tag: sewing

Quilting on my Singer 301A

March 25, 2025

I LOVE piecing and sewing on my Singer 301A. Like most vintage metal machines, the more you use it, the more it purrs. My 301A is a straight-stitch only machine. Locked away in someone’s shed for several years, it came with the trapezoid case and several presser feet. I purchased the buttonhole, zigzag and blind stitch attachments separately.

Machine quilting is fairly straightforward with a walking foot. You merely need to make sure that said walking foot is made for slant shank machines and will fit the 301 (because not all of them do). My walking foot does not have a place to attach a quilting bar. Bless the folks online who share their hacks for quirky sewing machines. Painter’s tape to the rescue. The sliding plastic quilting guide I use for my Elnita EC30 should work fine. I’ll need to experiment to find the best place to tape it on the 301A’s walking foot.

This machine also has the ability to drop the feed dogs. Original darning & embroidery attachments for the 301 are hard to find and pricey when you do find them. So, I searched for a modern alternative. I tried a plastic darning foot I purchased at a quilt show. Nope. Next was the common spring loaded FMQ foot but in a slant shank version. It works, but the foot will need to be modified with a rubber band (idea from Leah Day) so that it just skims the surface of the quilt sandwich.

While researching for a better solution to FMQ on my 301a, I read in a quilting forum (from nearly a decade ago) about an original slant shank darning foot that could be utilized on a 301. It’s Simanco part #161596. I found one for sale on eBay and it was mine within a week. The foot was made for the 400/500 series slant needle machines. I did have to modify the 301 just a bit so the presser foot would work. Once I hit on the right combination of needle and thread, the machine did its magic.

Machine straight line and FMQ tips:

  1. Oil any vintage foot before using. Anywhere that metal touches metal, douse liberally. Let the foot sit overnight on a paper towel.
  2. If using the vintage 161596 darning foot, you’ll need to remove the thread guide wire attached to the needle bar clamp. Simply remove the bottom screw on the right side of the needle bar clamp and slip the wire down. Set wire and screw aside for safekeeping. If you encounter resistance, it might be because the needle clamp screw is hitting against the right corner of the metal presser foot body. Tighten the needle clamp screw just a bit to rotate the screw head out of the way. Place a drop or two of oil on the edge of the metal part where it was rubbing.
  3. Insert a 90/14 titanium topstitch or quilting needle. Tighten with a screwdriver. My 301A will let me know with random skipped stitches that I don’t have the correct needle installed.
  4. Use same thread top and bobbin. I use Glide thread for FMQ.
  5. Test FMQ as you normally would.

Random fact: The 301 and 301A are the same machine. The “A” designation means that the machine was made in Singer’s Anderson, South Carolina plant. Mine is known as an LBOW – light beige, oyster white color scheme.

Life after Joann’s

March 10, 2025

Like many of you, I’m disappointed that Joann’s is closing. I’ve gone into the Alpharetta and Kennesaw locations to see what’s on sale. Not really anything. Liquidation “sale” prices are actually higher than Joann’s normal sale prices. Puh-leez. The new Joann’s owners aren’t serious about selling through the merchandise just yet. Even if huge markdowns begin, I doubt I’ll buy anything else from them. However, I’ll continue to take Sadie to walk the Kennesaw store as long as it stays open. Then, we’ll head up the hill to Home Depot to do the same thing. It helps with her therapy dog conditioning.

Tonight, I challenged myself to see if I could find what I needed at the Woodstock Wal-Mart on Hwy 92 to make my version of the infamous Beth Dutton quilt from the Yellowstone TV series (red/gray/black 9 patch quilt set on point). I spent $31.00 on fabric – (1) 3 yard cut of dark gray, (2) 1 yard cuts of patterned black fabric, (1) red & white dot, plus assorted FQs of red/black/gray prints. The rest of the fabrics will come from my stash. I have thread, backing and batting at home. Lest the quilt po-po decide to chime in, the quality of the 100% cotton Waverly branded fabric at Wal-Mart is much better than most of the cheap stuff sold at Joann’s.

In an earlier post, I listed alternatives in the Atlanta area to shop at instead of Joann’s. I’d also like to add estate sales and de-stash sales of sewists and quilters in your area. Many long-time quilters are card-carrying members of the fabric acquisition team and have the stashes to prove it. News of an estate sale with a lot of fabric travels fast. Check with your quilt guilds, ASG chapter or search on estate-sales.net for sales near you. FB Marketplace is another source for garage and estate sale listings.

Other updates: Shirt Off Your Back quilt shop in Roswell will be closing down in early summer. Even their Innova long-arm machines are for sale. Stash Fabrics in Alpharetta (more like Cumming actually) is now offering classes and offers local pick-up at no extra charge. Scraplanta is an organization I discovered while attending the OSQE this past week. They offer donated fabric and notions for sale, plus offer classes in repurposing said scraps and materials.

Change is the only constant in life. Joann’s closing is sad, but I imagine most of us living in larger towns and cities will still have local access to craft and sewing supplies. Keep an eye out on newcomers, too – a new indie bookstore opened in Smyrna and a stitch lounge opened in East Cobb this past week. New places to explore!

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Go with your gut

March 8, 2025

When you work on a quilting project, it’s normal to second guess your choices with regard to color, thread and block placement sometimes. But have you ever had your inner voice get a hold of you and say, “Girl, fix that before you go any further!”? I have.

Summer camp @ the SQTM is coming soon. I won’t be volunteering in June. I listened to my gut – I’m headed to Pigeon Forge to take classes with 3 teachers on my list. I probably won’t have this opportunity so close to home ever again. Volunteering at July’s camp is TBD. If they’re not holding an a.m. spot for C, then we’ll do CraftLAB-summer school edition that week instead. It’s 100 mile round trip every day and commuting to the p.m. session only is not an option. Traffic is too brutal. I did that my first year volunteering. Most days, I spent more time commuting than I did mentoring my camper. Never again.

By listening to said gut, I fast tracked the new SUV purchase after realizing it simply wasn’t worth it to sink any more money into my previous vehicle. I’d already narrowed down the list of potential new SUV candidates a few months earlier. Now, I don’t worry when I travel to quilting events or therapy dog visits with Sadie. Nor do I have to worry about the effect of tariffs on repair parts and vehicle prices.

Sadie and I are in our own therapy dog bubble with school and library visits. We do affiliate with a local group, but I also do some visits independently. My local group usually has an influx of visit opportunities every spring. When checking the visit sign-ups today, I noticed there weren’t that many for my side of town. I also noticed I wasn’t seeing Sadie’s usual friends signed up for visits. My spidey senses started tingling.

My gut was correct. Made a phone call to another handler who confirmed something was amiss. The very active contingent on my side of town decided to focus on visit opportunities in the far northwest suburbs. They have now officially formed their own group separate from the original group. Well, that certainly explains a lot. I told the handler to include me on the group’s email list. We miss seeing them and might be able to join them for some future visits.

Years ago, there was a nasty split in local therapy dog circles. One leader wanted to stick with READ programs only while the other wanted to branch out to include other forms of therapy dog activities. Teams were forced to choose sides and it got ugly for a while. Hope there’s no repeat of that this time around. We’re all into therapy dog volunteering for the same reasons.

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