Let me explain--.
Back in the day when Lyndon B released started releasing the boys from the big NAM thing, and we
gladly packed up and moved from Navy Life to back home, we were sure that all things would be lovely.
DH went back to his factory job with the good money and worked at it for a couple of months or so.
He was working the three shifts, graveyard, swing and whatever the normal one was called and changing them every two weeks. It was not a happy time. He soon found that he could not stand working indoors anymore, his family life was nix and I was out spending whatever money he made out of sheer boredom!
So he quit the good money and we limped along in the middle of winter trying to survive while he tried to do construction work. It is now a wonder to us, but at that time in central valley California when the temps dropped below 32 so did the construction work. We struggled. It was also a rough time to be with the family. We loved them and spent a lot of time with them, but it was hard watching the travails of his sibblings growing up and to keep your mouth shut.
So we moved. to Washington state just before Thanksgiving in 1974. Then we really struggled- but it was interesting and fun and we were happy.
That spring when work was up and running and looking up, I convinced DH that I needed a REAL SEWING MACHINE. I had earlier bought a Singer because that was what I had grown up with. But SINGER was now a problem child and it wasn't working for me.
I bought a BERNINA 830 on payments and high interest and it was the smartest move that I have made..
Bessie and I weathered alot of things with Joy and Singing.. I made all the clothes for my skinny -slim girls in a time when they still didn't understand that all children weren't built for just sizes and chuncky. So Bessie made jeans, shirts, pj's, jackets and home decorating. Thankfully the fashion industry got smart and I didn't have to do that anymore. So when my 4th child was in junior high, I made my first quilt. It took awhile before I made another one. But Bessie continued through the familys growing up. She mended jeans ad nauseum, repaired zippers and tried to make a flattering tent or two for me. She stayed busy. My husbands knees wore out doing concrete work and Bessie and I put leather patches on the knees and the levi gave out before that knee patch ever did! When we opened a retail nursery and I left home several hours aday to plant seeds and such, Bessie peiced shade cloth to cover the greenhouse roof.
I am not sure just when I started piecing quilts and promoting quilting and harrassing a group of the gals at church into quilting, but it was probably about the late 1980's. I would have to count it up and it is not necessary for this tale..
Bessie and I played then, and played hard. We had some real exhilerating times. Bernina said that Bessie would never die with her steel cams and innards and I looked forward to a marriage of good times with Bessie for life. But Bessie finelly just kind of couldn't keep her tensions to gether anymore and I was constantly trying to adjust her.She would only use Egypts finest cottons and then Italian threads and after a long struggle, it became apparent that she must retire. What a sad sad day for me and my closest friend.
The new machines were computerized and slick and sleek and so tech. The prices were pretty mindless too.
Granted, I had paid a fortune for Bessie in the day on our wages, but realistically, with my age, health and eyes how much was reasonable to invest in a machine now?
So after much web study, reading, and soul searching, I purchased a Phaff 150th Anniversary edition Expression. Her name is Susie. We really haven't had a chance to get to know one another. Life plunged us into working on two baby layettes and many receiving blankets.at full speed.and like a new marriage-- this just wasn't my Bessie. She seemed to have all kinds of quirks and doing the daily with her was kind of irritable. She wasn't Bessie. It will take a while for me to adjust to her rhythumns and needs so that we will be a satisfactory partners and we can share that exhiliaration that quilting brings..
The type of triangles that are in the Celtic Solstice Quilt are nearly new to me also. I have done very few of these before, though I have a quilt on the want board that uses lots of them. So, practice, practice and seam ripper, at hand, Susie and I are moving toward a better understanding. Celtic Solstice is hardly moving at all.
But there is yards of fabric available and I can always toss these and make new. Life has choices. Susie and I are kind of doing dates right now.
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