My Green Machine

I have fallen under the spell of the vintage Elna. This one, that I am free motion quilting on, is the Transforma. It is a straight stitch machine with the option, when the purchaser had saved up some coin, of being made into a Supermatic. The Supermatic uses little black cams that allowed for zig zag and other decorative stitches and is the coolest thing since sliced bread. The beauty is a 1958. I cannot describe how lovely it is that something made before I was born is still humming along. I had to find a vintage machine technician to get to this state of bliss. The Elnas have one fault- there is a hard rubber gear that strips out, or gets a flat spot if left unused. I am considering stalking my machine technician, because he has the special tool needed to to perform this life saving--err- machine saving maneuver. I hope he's healthy, I need him around for a long, long time.

The quilt is one where I started out stretching my artistic comfort zone and ended up falling flat on my artistic face. The center is visible, and I like it a lot. After that, it gets worse. Thankfully, and ugly quilt is still a serviceable quilt. I take much comfort in this. If I were a painter, I would just have an ugly painting. Knitting is even better in this regard. An odd project can be made back into raw materials, wound up into balls, and be used again without a trace of the misstep. Makes for a lot of fun in experimenting.