The Omega

I know this post sounds like it is going to be full of heavy symbolic poesy, but in fact it simply is to celebrate the fact that I bought a used sewing machine.  It is an Omega 7142.  (I have no idea if I will love it as much as this happy customer, but hopefully...)  It wasn't a complete steal, but it seems to be a fair price for a decent machine that seems to have hardly ever been used.

I wouldn't say that I have had a lot of need for a sewing machine, but from time to time it would have come in handy.  Actually, I carted around my mom's sewing machine for quite some time, but left it (probably in Newark).  Actually I am far more upset that I had to abandon an old Underwood typewriter that I believe belonged to my grandfather, but there are limits to nostalgia when it is just taking up space.  The sewing machine has proven easier to replace and has more actual utility.  (I guess I sort of memorialized the typewriter by putting up a print that is in the downstairs bathroom.)

Very astute readers will remember that one of my remaining tasks at the new house is to create a set of inner curtains for the back room.  That will probably be the first thing I do with the Omega, after I make a few practice runs with some other fabrics.  (It has been a long, long time since I sewed on a machine, and never using this particular brand, though I did track down a very helpful manual on-line.)

If that goes well,  I will probably make curtains for my daughter, and then just possibly a skirt for her (I've been investigating some patterns, as well as checked out a few fabric stores on Queen St. W -- I might as well since I work nearby).

If this all goes extremely, extremely well, I've had in the back of my mind that I might make a few quilts, mostly so that I can take a few t-shirts that remind me of my mis-spent youth (mostly joking) and make them into the backing.  This machine is supposed to handle quilting relatively well.  It's so interesting that as time has gotten so tight, today you would get very high praise for doing machine quilting whereas that was sort of pooh-poohed in the 1970s and 1980s (ok, there is probably a very small circle of quilters who still do it all by hand, but I imagine they are a dying breed).  I know right now that I don't have time to invest in hand-quilting, but if the machine does a halfway decent job, I might see how it goes and ultimately make a quilt for each of the kids.  (I still have a book or two on quilting patterns (designed around the strengths of sewing machines) and can dig that out, as well as keep my eyes out for fabric sample sales, though the store I dropped in on today had hardly any cotton samples available.)

At some point I will get back to the rug in the office, but that really does have to be done all by hand, so it is not something I can really tackle now, though I should see about cleaning up the loose end a bit more.