What's in the Black Box?

Could it be treasure? It is, it is!

This is one of the "goodies" my mom sent home with me. Pretty cool, huh? She told me a few years ago that she wanted me to take it, but I felt that she should keep it. Or maybe I just felt it really wasn't something I should have. You see, my mom never let me use her machine. She said she was afraid the tension would get out of adjustment and she'd have to send it into the shop to get it fixed. To this day, I don't know whether it was just an excuse to keep me away from it or whether she truly was unable to adjust the tension herself. It wasn't that she didn't think I should sew, because she sent me to sewing classes during my summer vacation one year when I was probably around 12 or so. Oh, and a year or so later, I had to make a skirt for a school home ec project. I WAS allowed to use the sewing machine for that project. But I never had my own sewing machine until I was 17, when my first husband (then my fiance) bought me one--a newer Singer that lasted up until about 10 years ago.

Have you ever seen the buttonhole attachment for these? It's almost as big as the machine itself! I remember when I was a kid, I was fascinated by the metal things in the small box on the bottom right and wondered how it all worked. I still don't know, but I'm sure I'll figure it out at some point.

My good friend Eileen, who lives on the other side of the country, knows a lot about Featherweights and she'll help me with whatever I need to know. In fact, she's sending me some information now and it should arrive in a few days. From what I can see, everything seems to be in good condition. I was worried the belt might be dried out, but it looks fine. I've plugged the machine in and made sure it runs but I haven't sewn anything yet. I think I'd like to take some time to clean it first of all. Maybe I'll play with it this weekend--compared to my other two sewing machines, it kind of looks like a toy! LOL!

Oh, and just so you know I've been busy, here's a picture of the strips I've been cutting. All done, and my scrap drawer is about half empty now. I have plans for these scraps. The next step will be to do a little sorting because I don't think I want to use all these colors in my project--I want it to be scrappy but I want to control the colors a bit.

I don't know about you, but I have a hard time knowing when it's time to stop playing and go to bed. It's waaaay past my bedtime now, so I'll say goodnight. Thanks for stopping by to visit!