Old Movie Scene

         I've been watching old movies on YouTube recently while sewing and doing chores in the house.  I found one called "The Madonna's Secret"  with a very unusual scene in it.  There is a scene where one of the characters goes into a night club.  There is an act on the stage when he walks in.  It's a knife throwing act.  The girl was standing in front of a board painted like a tree.  She stood very still with her arms at different angles gripping the board.  She has a beautiful sexy glittery costume on and she sings a slow ballad while the man throws knives at her from across the room  I had never seen a singing knife throwing act.  It was mesmerizing.

   Here's a link to the movie. The Madonna's Secret - Old Movie.  This scene starts at 9:58 minutes into the movie.

A Short Post About Irons

    My old faith Rowenta iron bit the dust last week.  It was over 9 years old and I have used it in my sewing and quilting for the last 6 years.  I didn't buy it for my sewing/quilting hobby, but it worked really well for a long time in that capacity and I was very happy with it.

    I bought a Black and Decker Classic Iron about 3 years ago as a back up iron in anticipation of the end of my Rowenta.  I thought that a $25.00 iron would work just as well for me as my $90.00 Rowenta.  Yes, price does make a difference when you buy an iron.

    I was disappointed in the Black and Decker Classic.  It had several problems and these are things I just don't want to deal with so I'll keep it for a back up but I will not use it every day.  This iron got very hot, not a problem, but it stayed hot for a couple of hours after unplugging it, which is a problem.  This iron does not glide over my fabric the way my Rowenta did and the Black and Decker iron also had balance problems.  I set it down a couple of times and it just fell flat.

    I went to Target this afternoon and purchased a Rowenta Professional, Model DW8061 (link to the Target description and price here) for my quilting needs.  I hope it will last as long as my other Rowenta did.

Packaging That I Can Recycle To Hold Needles and Pins

   I've been trying to find a decent container for my used sewing machine needles and bent pins.  I had a pill bottle that I filled up over the last four years which I disposed of last month.  I currently have two pill bottles that I prepared and are ready to fill with old needles and bent pins.  Today I found some packaging that would work really well for this job.

   Burt's Bees makes a tinted lip balm that comes in a plastic blister package.  The blister package holds a cardboard tube that then holds the separate plastic tube of lip balm.  I bought the lip balm because I wanted to try it.  I had no idea that the packaging would be this cool.  The cardboard tube is closed on both ends and is the perfect size to store old needles and pins or you can even use it for your traveling sewing kit.

  The lip balm was $6.62 at the store.

   Here's a picture of the tube.

A Little Featherweight Maintenance

   I read a lot of posts on the Quilting Board about vintage machines and I learned about the vintage sewing machine bed cushions from the folks that refurbish vintage machines.  

    This morning I replaced the bed cushions on the bottom of my new Singer featherweight.  Two of the cushions was flattened on one side and all of them were very dry.  I also replaced the screws because I wasn't sure what condition the old screws would be in.  The old screws are in good condition. I'll keep them in my featherweight tool box for spares.  The machine will sit better on the table and the cushions will absorb some of the vibration from the motor.  This was an easy inexpensive fix.  

    I bought the new bed cushions and screws from april1930s.com.  She specializes in vintage Singer machine parts.  

   The new bed cushions and screws are on top.

Replacing Old Hand Sewing Needles

   I have had my collection of hand sewing needles for years and I think some of them are older than me because I inherited some from Great Aunt Margaret's sewing box.

   It's time to get new, sharper hand sewing needles.  Funny, I never thought of them getting dull like a machine needle does.

   I just purchased a large variety of hand sewing needles from Amazon.com including some self threading needles.  Amazon.com carries a nice selection of brands and I ended up getting several different sets, but the one I'm most happy about is the John James 100 needle assortment.