I thought I’d be sitting down in front of my sewing machine humming away (the sewing machine that is) all day until I realized that today is a very important day. Since I’ve had this partially written post in draft form just lying around, I thought this would be a good day to dust it off, finish it up, and hit publish.

I have two houses in two states that are far apart. This means I have a fabric stash and a sewing machine in each house. But it wasn’t always that way.

Up until last fall, I lovingly carted my beloved Pfaff back and forth between houses. 

Here’s my Pfaff Creative 1475 CD model. I have lots of different feet for this one. I like the way they snap on and off so easily and I like the needle threader. But it has way more stitches and features than I have ever used. I’ve sewn my daughter dresses and hats with it. I’ve sewn my boys lots of pants and caps with it. She’s been through a lot of fabric through the years.

But I knew there would come a time I had to stop doing that (toting the machine back and forth) and decided it was then. Yes, I intentionally, left her behind last fall. It was hard to do as we (us dedicated quilters and sewists) can get quite attached to our machines.

I love that old machine. She works like a charm. I thought I’d be able to find another one just like her at my other house since that is in an area with lots of people and shops. But sadly none was to be found. After looking for a used machine for several weeks, and having a quilt that needed to be finished by Christmas, I decided to take the plunge and look for a new machine.

That took a few weeks and finally I made a decision to buy one, no, two machines: one for home and one to cart to class or work day with the quilting group.

But my husband said that sewing table needs to be cleaned first and then he’d help me lift them out of the box. My sewing space is close to the laundry area and garage entrance and becomes a catch-all place.

I made speedy work of stashing the stuff. Now I was ready to open those boxes.

A little red 215 to tote around.

A nice 740 with scissors (I love that feature) and LED lights (love that feature). But I had quite a time getting used to having a button and not a lever to lift the presser foot.

Both of those machines together cost almost as much as our new car did in 1979. If you add in the cost of all the extra feet I purchased, that put it over the cost of that 4 door Citation. My husband was in shock. “But both of them are on sale,” I pointed out. “And the feet and accessories are 25% off.”

Here’s a shot of her in action. I was working on the Mod Bear quilt, which I did finish in time for Christmas and have yet to write a blog post about.

Today I salute all three of my machines. Without them, I’d be doing it all by hand.

What I Learned Today:

1. According to the internet, the invention of the sewing machine saved countless hours of time (since about 1 hour of machine sewing was about the equivalent of 14 hours of hand sewing). I imagine with today’s impressive machines, even more time is saved.
2. The tailors of yesteryear feared the invention of the sewing machine since they saw it putting them out of business.
3. The first sewing machines cost $15.00 and was still cost-inhibitive for many thus making the tailors feel better.
4. I love the built-in scissors and automatic needle threader functions as well as that 11 inch throat on my new machine. However, the button to lift the presser foot is a bit hard to get used to. Now that I am back sewing on my Pfaff, I am always trying to push the invisible button and wondering why my presser foot isn’t going up. I imagine when I get back to sewing on the new one, I’ll be forever searching for the lever.
5. There’s a day to celebrate almost everything. Today is also:

• National Make Your Dream Come True Day
• National Call Your Doctor Day (I hope you don’t need to do that)
• National Weed Your Garden Day
• National Kitchen Klutzes of America Day
• National Cupcake Lover’s Day
• and International Axe Throwing Day

Question: Which one will you celebrate?

(UPDATE) This post was published yesterday-June 13, 2017. So today we are onto celebrating National Bourbon Day, National Pop Goes the Weasel Day (I kid you not), National Flag Day, National Strawberry Shortcake Day  (I celebrated that on Sunday), and International Bath Day.

Linking to: Sew Fresh Quilts, Midweek Makers, Mama Spark’s World, Katie Mae Quilts, Silly Mama Quilts WIPs, Wednesday Wait Loss