Tag: Pfaff 130-6

Mega Rainbow Quilt

This enormous rainbow quilt was a collaborative project with my mum, pops of colour all the way!

What do you do when your mother asks you if you are willing to make her a quilt? You say yes and ask ‘how big’.

And then I asked what style and colours and patterns and what is it that you want exactly and at least 20 more questions. And then she says: “Big. I’ll leave the rest up to you.” Oof, interesting prospect that was. So I set out to buy a bunch of 10x10cm fabric squares. I figured that would give me a nice starting point. Of course I couldn’t make any decisions by myself, so once my squares arrived, I set off for the parental house with two boxes of fabric and forced her to make some decisions with me. We ended up planning out and pinning together 16 rows of 20 squares in a sort of diagonal rainbow pattern.

  • First attempt
  • Final design

Then I took the whole load of pinned squares back to Zeeland and got to work. First sewing together all the rows and then adding the columns together. I managed to fit my walking foot under the antique machine, which made life so much easier. Because the quilt was so big, I had to move the table to the middle of my living room to be able to get all the fabric under it. After finishing all the columns and rows, we had to decide on the border. Since we liked the vibrant blue of the sheet we used to position the original squares on, I got some of the fabric I’ve been using for masks and used that for the border.

  • First half
  • Top with first attempted border

For the back and eventually the binding we chose some different blue stuff from the internet. I wanted the quilt to be warm(-ish) so I first tried two centimeter thick batting, but that was an absolute horror and I would never have been able to get it under the machine. So I chose some batting that was a centimeter thick. I quilted approximately in the ditch from left to right. There was so much fabric to maneuver that I sometimes missed the ditch and decided that ‘rustic’ would do. Then I added six rows of ‘rustic’ stripes along the sides for some extra.. flair? Then hours and hours of hand-sewing the binding on. (Yay for YouTube!)

  • Quilting
  • Adding the binding

And FINISHED! The entire thing is ~2.00 x 1.65 meters. I had to move quite a lot of my furniture and plants around several times to be able to even lay out the backing, batting and top. I then shifted everything further around when I went to take the finished photos. While the repetitiveness was sometimes frustrating, the fact that I managed to finish and gift it in time for Christmas was amazing. My aim was to have it all done by the end of December, but I astonished myself by getting it finished on the 9th and gifting on the 19th.

  • Front
  • Back

As a mini reminder of who did this labour of love, I sewed a piece of ribbon with a lovely sentiment to the bottom embroidered with my name. Right now, this quilt lives on a couch and brightens up the place and that’s absolutely lovely.

  • Dedication

Leg Workouts

I bought a new-to-me treadle sewing machine and I love it!

I bought a new sewing machine in June. A Pfaff 130-6 treadle machine from 1942 that I got from a local second hand store. It’s built into a table and everything. It’s been a little bit of a learning curve though, not because it’s actually difficult to sew with it. That’s been easy, it’s just got more features than I anticipated…

  • Pfaff 130-6!

When I got it home for the first time, I played around with the settings etc. by googling and got it to sew. It does a much better job at zig-zag than my electric machine(!). Then I accidentally touched some part of the table and discovered a drawer that I’d completely missed when I bought the machine. In it was a bunch of feet, bobbins, other accessories and gross old pins. It also had a manual in German (- not sure how I feel about that with a machine from 1942…). My German, as discussed before, is pretty bad, so I found another manual online in English. The only thing that didn’t work on the machine was the bobbin winder, it was completely stuck. A few weeks at the sewing machine fixer and 10 euro later and I had a functional bobbin winder (yay!). It only took a few more weeks to figure out how to disconnect the needle to get the bobbin winder to operate safely… Check it out here!

  • Zig-zag!
  • Secret drawer (It’s not really hidden, I’m just not good at finding things)

Other learning experiences included being told that the cord that connects the footpedal/wheel and machine could actually come off. This allows the machine to tip backwards, which is needed for oiling. It also let me figure out the serial number and therefore the age. Only a few weeks ago I figured out that it also tips forwards and can be hidden inside the table. It also explains a weird side panel to the table with a keyhole that I couldn’t figure out. Turns out that that goes on top of the hidden machine and can lock it inside!

  • Inside the table
  • Hidden!

Once I got less scared of the machine, I’ve been sewing everything on it. I did make a few improvements by adding an Ikea swivel lamp which can illuminate whatever part of my sewing that I need in the moment. There’s a magnetic pin-bowl underneath the handwheel that doesn’t move when I accidentally poke it. I also jury-rigged a little basket to the side of the table to act as a catch-all for threads and other debris. Somewhat anachronistic, but very useful.

In short; it’s wonderful! Added benefit, it gives me a miniature leg workout. It’s also a lot more quiet than an electric machine. Still makes noise of course, but not nearly as much. I might just be moving my electric machines back upstairs to my ‘office’ since I’m not using them at all at the moment and therefore they do not need to live in the living room, right?!