Treadle Machine

A Ram's head drawer pull.

Like a lot of folks that are probably my age or older than me, I grew up in a home with a treadle machine.  I don't know the history of it; like how my mother came to own one, or if it was just picked up on a whim or if it was passed to her through a family member.  She used it consistently throughout my childhood.  Never making a fuss with it, but relying on it solely to repair anything or make something we otherwise could not afford.  It simply was a fixture, a tool that prettied up an otherwise unsightly space (our homes were a bit dismal).

Hers was a Singer 27/127 Memphis with the Sphinx decal.  I don't know the year but it is likely it was between 1906-1930.

I had some impatient lessons on it and never could get the damn thing to go in the same direction for any length of time.  The treadle rocks gently back and forth while the wheel (ideally) cranks in one direction (some odd ones roll towards you, most roll away).   Goodnight! My sister and I couldn't keep our mitts off the thing.  We were always screwing with it and got beat hard a couple times for doing who knows what to it.  I'm sure a thousand tangles had to be cut out of the threads and the tension was probably always a bit off because of our playing.  If was the most alluring of all the forbidden things in the house.

So since I've been thinking through a life and could be a world (You don't have to be right or left to see the system is botched) without electricity is completely likely.  Likely, at first by my own design.  So I went on the list making of all the things I would either miss or need should I not have electricity to make my life simpler.

Some resources for the new treadler and other treadle-lovers:

Donna Kohler  Taught by her grandmother the simple act of a close family activity gave birth to a teacher of what is now thankfully once again a growing population of people that don't just collect treadles, but also use them.  She sells a book for maintaining and rehabilitating your treadle through her site.
Dick Wightman - http://www.treadleon.net/ 
Treadleon is a community of treadlers that share with each other experiences of using, acquiring, maintenance, and basic love for the foot powered machines.
On his site is an excellent guide to getting the treadle suited to you.
A LOT, about an easy to acquire sewing machine. The Singer 27/127 
A blogger who uses treadles to make her things.  Huge diversity,  I'm loving the Indian Orange Peel arcs.


There are not many resources available but these few are enough to get you going and on your way to becoming an expert. 

 

I love the provenance, it has pretty much zero significance for anyone other than the immediate family members who know specifically each person named.

What I have and why I have this particular one.

1906 Minnesota A or a Minnie A.  The cabinet has 7 drawers (6 with flippin' ram's heads for the knobs!) and it came with all the attachments and a million (just shy of...) needles.  Which for this machine is a particular find since the needles can be tricky in getting.  The Minnie A has a longer needle than most machines. Who wants to order and wait for the right needle? boo. The price was a little high for ME.  At 100 bucks.  But I am in the most ridiculously expensive part of the nation and it still was more than a few excellent options.  The average great deal was between 50 dollars to 100 dollars all smoothly operable machines just in need of people that will love and use them.  Antique stores almost always call things rare that aren't and have prices on them that reflect their statements and not often the machine's worth. Silly enough the more expensive I found, the less operable they were.  I have no clue what gives with that.  I suppose folks who are trying to pay the mortgage with outmoded objects?  I didn't need a boat anchor.

I got mine from Craigslist from a more than reasonable person!  Your treadle should not cost you more than 120 bucks.  The market from most reasonable folks' standpoint is plain and simple.  A trumped up ponzi-scheme.  The housing market which made credit and the credit life seem like everything would grow in value forever has imploded.  You can't have infinite growth in a finite space.  So collecting isn't of much use when people are losing their shirts.  Just get a good machine that requires only your sweat and maintenance and you'll at least be able to sew shirts for yourself.  Folks who say it is worth "blah blah blah" are usually blowing smoke for the most part because it shouldn't be a shelf for a big bowl of fobs.  It should be your sewing machine!  And worth to a person who is using rather than collecting has a much different perspective.  Everything is worth precisely to the penny what someone is willing to pay for it.

I CRINGE when I see sewing machine cabinet drawers for sale, or worse just the treadle iron with a slap of wood over the top. This obsession with shabby chic has made everyone into Fred Sandford.  DO NOT BUY A MACHINE WITHOUT A CABINET!!! It simply isn't worth the headache. Often these are folks who've come into the machine head have either obtained it without the cabinet or worse... sold the cabinet as a friggin' table.  Wagon wheels look best ON WAGONS sure they mark a lot of driveways but it would be best that the working wheels weren't tossed on the end of every driveway.  Like there aren't enough tables in the world?  Perhaps that is just me?  The sewing machines that are easier to get cabinets for are mainly Singers.  But it is better to start with a whole machine and go from there otherwise you have to make it fit the table and that is often near impossible.  And second would be to have a singer cabinet and then a singer head.  You can forgo all this mess by getting a handcrank machine!  Handcranks are awesome for teaching children to be people powered!

The handcrank machines are far fewer and the prices are even more wild... anywhere from 50 - 1000 bucks.  phew!  I know less about them other than their ease of use versus learning the finesse of the footwork required on the treadle machines.  I believe you can convert treadles to handcrank and to electric models (misses the point of sewing without power then). 

Make it happen!  Whatever IT is.

Quilting - Or as I like to call it - Quiet time away from everyone

 

I just got this one this past week, very reasonably from The Cherry Chic where others I have were gifts or just great finds.

A favorite is a whole cloth styled boys blanket covered in airplanes. (If you look really closely you can see how angry Jason is, while simultaneously sleeping)

Gee's Bend - Made from Old Work Clothes

There are a lot of these past skills that in this economic climate can not only be handy, but could yield warmth, profit, or just livability for your family.  Some of the best quilts were made without quilting frames (structures which keep the designs taught while hand stitching) and made out of retired clothing for a second life (FREE FABRIC, since you've already purchased it).

Gee's Bend

I have had quilts around my family and everyone agrees they are sometimes gorgeous, and always a lot of work - but it seems no one was making them anymore.   Why was that?  If so many people knew of folks who make quilts but then they pass away and then what?  In twenty years time would we be a nation known for our quilts, and Jazz and become one of all things past and longing.  When the younger generation is older what will they make when they don't have to?  Text messages?  The new grannies will have hands withered and curled from swiffering and texting. Not to send you away too quickly, but this is a nice, very short listen. 

The best quilts there are seem to have been born from those groups of hidden people, and those people are as diverse as the quilts themselves.  Long coveted are Amish wares.  With good reason they are a closed culture (respectfully of course - meaning you are born into it, but it is difficult to get inside of as an outsider) and closed cultures are the only ones that can keep traditions strong.  They maintain the values and knowledge of elders and generations past.

Amish made

Amish made

Have you ever winnowed wheat?  Me either.  Woven a basket?  I've done that... but I'm not skilled or diverse in my over under construction.  These are things people knew and shared.  Days filled with just living and loving.  Quilts carrying a lot of that living and loving and sharing with them which is so much of the attraction to them.  It seems most American families have or had someone in them that loved to quilt.  It may have been written off as a hobby not thinking too much about why they did it, when they started or who had taught them.  It was born out of necessity and now is seen as a frivolous activity.  When you can purchase any color and any pattern of any kind of fabric specifically cut for ONLY quilting then it seems it has be reduced by our being spoiled.  But the quilts were an Amish woman's only means of artistic expression, and a major source of income for Southern Black families during the civil rights movement when Black Americans were losing their jobs based on tumult and prejudice.  Born out of old work clothes, dress scraps and patience some very beautiful forms of subtle resistance, shelter, utility, income, safety, and communication.

I think it goes without saying that we are a spoiled nation and since the last major economic shift have been more in the Have category than the Have Not.  So to remain a Have and to stay far from the Have Not, some basic skills may be necessary.  Cooking, you are here - so you're obviously all over that.  Let's see what else you may need?  I made a list of what I feared most and would wish to prevent and what to protect.  I then thought how best I could be prepared for those things.  Not in any rash the sky is falling way, but more like a Boy Scout.  One of those was that I feared not being able to obtain basic things my family may need.  Food, clothing, linens.  So I have chickens, ducks on their way, been canning like mad, I made certain Jason has nearly 20 pairs of jeans,  I'm making myself a quilt a little to get comfortable with a needle (handquilting - just in case of no power).   I found that preparing for these maybe less than likely fears yielded really positive results.  Not just a bounty of tomatoes in my cabinet, but a real sense of accomplishment.  I could know that should the supply chain breakdown either through people freaking out, the broken system breaking further, or whatever shenanigans, I'd have something warm to wear and for every can of tomatoes a week's worth of food and if no power (fridge) a couple day's worth.  People did this.  They prepared for more life, they lived more life and were happier. Studies have proven we get more miserable with more things and more money and better jobs, and that experiences make us happiest.  A dinner in with friends or a trip makes us happier than buying a pair of heels or a car. 

So then the only answer is to do something for you that you can't believe you accomplished.  Of course you got that job, you worked at it, you went to school for it, you had to pay the rent.  So what do you NOT HAVE to do, that you really have to do?  For you it may not be quilting.


This is one I am working on.  It is just the beginning, but the making it is fun... so we'll see.

This is just the beginning of my pine burr quilt, and not sure when that will be done, but it will be fun to just keep plugging away at it.  The real deal pine burr quilts are nearly three dimensional being made of 1,000 -7,000 little triangles.  They often are made of small squares of the burred circles and then joined together after several squares are made then backed with cloth little to no need for batting (the inner layer) as the mass of fabric makes these quilts very heavy.  Some are made of one solid concentric circle of burrs that goes right to the edges of the quilt.  Making it nearly like a carpet in heft.  It is Alabama's state quilt.  (Do other states have state quilts?)

Here are a few great things to check out if this interests you:

Amish quilts The Revere Collection

Amish and a few Mennonite Quilts

Quilts of Gees Bend
the official site - they have since signed some sort of deal with Pottery Barn to have replicas made, although I feel really bittersweet about this since I enjoy the quilters of Gees Bend doing well - but I don't enjoy the thought of the Chinese slaves that now have to make the quilts. I say buy the real deal, make your own or scout out an old timey quilt! 

Gee's Bend samples images

The Quilts Of Gee's Bend: Masterpieces From a Lost Place book 


Gee's Bend: The architecture of The Quilt book

The Code Quilt by Nora Renick Rinehart and Nellie Kurz  What the specific meanings of quilt patterns were during the underground railroad and the hankie code used by the queer community.  Very interesting read.

International Quilt Study Center   A different quilt each month list is fun to go through.

Beautiful photos A lovely time capsule.  The whole site has great photos, this one just happens to be Quilts.

Storytime  So beautiful to listen to, something soothing about hearing other's stories.