Repairs made - time to resume sewing

I've been using my mom's old Singer 774 for the past 4 years for the majority of my sewing and quilting. From the information I found on the internet, it seems mom's machine is from about 1975, which makes it about 5 years older than me. A few years ago, mom & dad bought me my very own sewing machine at Big Lots and it sews OK but it's a brand I haven't heard of and only came with a few accessories. Plus I learned to sew on mom's machine and it's what I am confortable with. Mom won't give it to me, even though she bought a newer & fancier Singer about 10-15 years ago. So I borrow it for awhile until she says she needs it back. Then I borrow it again the next time I visit :-)

Mom's machine started skipping stiches recently. It started when I was working on Piet & Kate's wedding quilt but I was zigzagging through several layers of fabric at the time. I tried everything I could think of to get the zigzag working so I could finish sewing down the binding for that quilt ( I was about halfway through when it started acting up) but I ended up having to rip out all the work I had done and stich-in-the-ditch since I wasn't happy with my hand stiching.

A couple weeks ago, I was making a quilt for a silent auction for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and it started skipping on the straight stitch too. At times, over an inch of stiches were skipped. I texted mom and she asked if I had oiled it. That was the one thing I hadn't tried yet so I got some sewing machine oil at Joann's and now we seem to be back to normal! It is still making clicking noises on the zigzag but the stitch itself is coming out OK. More time with the oil & Qtips and hopefully all will be well. Otherwise, a trip to the doc might be in order for mom's machine.

So now it's time to start making those Christmas gifts and making things to get my Etsy shop up and running!

Organized (kind of)

Yesterday, I organized my fabric, some notions and books. Gotta love back-to-school at Target, you can pick up a 3-shelf bookcase for only $20!
Dan was surprised by how much fabric I had on hand. Some of it was in a 15 gallon plastic tub by the dining room table and the rest was under our bed in a plastic storage container. I guess he didn't have an opportunity to see what I had since it wasn't in 1 spot until now. Now its in the living/dining room, next to the bookcase with all our movies.
I am almost done with the quilt for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society silent auction tomorrow. I made it with fabric leftover from previous quilts and it turned out pretty well. Hopefully it gets a decent amount at the auction!

Nearly done...

I'm ALMOST done with the front of mom's quilt. It is gigantic. Or maybe it just seems that way since the largest quilt I made before this was about 48x60. This one will be about 73x85 when I am done.

The photos look extra awesome because I took them with my cell phone, which has no flash. I also apparently need to clean up the living room. The photo with Rory was taken by standing on my couch. My living/dining room almost isn't big enough to lay this quilt on the floor.

The missing section is currently with my mom. It was all I had done by her birthday last month and so she is mailing it back to me so I can finish up :-)

I wish I had taken some in-progress photos but I didn't. Next time, right?

I also need to figure out how to quilt it. I am still a "stitch in the ditch" quilter. I figure I'll go around each star but I need to figure out what else to do. Suggestions please!