New inspirations

II love these colors - Flower from Maui

Today was full of new inspirations. My new issue of Piecework magazine came in the mail a few days ago and I had yet to sit down and check it out. Inside was an article about an art installation "Roses from the Heart" which involves 25,266 replica's of colonial women's bonnets. Apparently England used to forcibly transport convict women from to America (until 1776) and Australia. This installation of bonnets commemorate their struggle and the artist Christina Henri is hoping that people from around the world volunteer to sew a bonnet as to represent one of the convicts. A pattern is provided on her web page and we are asked to embroider the bonnet roses and hearts as well as the name of the convict on the outside of the bonnet. More information can be found here. Now I don't know really how to embroider but this project really tugged at my heart strings and I e-mailed the artist for additional information. I am totally interested in contributing to such a unique event which will go on display as a part of International Women's Day.

I was really excited about reading the article and checking out the information on the website provided. I think this is an interesting project and I look forward to contributing to it.

I also stopped by a small thrift shop this afternoon on my way home from lunch and stumbled upon a few unique finds: I found some knitting needles, an old knitting pattern book, an old wooden Boyle needle holder, a funky cardboard box for "Puritan" needles, a funky lamp that looks like a mini-spinning wheel and the greatest find.....a sewing machine in the cutest little desk. My sewing machine is a "New Home" Sewing Machine, model K and it was made in Orange Massachusetts. I'm not sure if it is model 5360 or 4122. It has the desk of 5360 but only one door instead of 2, there is only 1 door on the 4122 so I'm not sure which one it is. Either way according to the information I have found so far the pamphlet advertising the Model K was printed between 1910-1940. So I was pretty jazzed. I knew it was pretty old but I didn't realize it was that old!

When I got it home I found that it had its original operating instructions in one of its drawers and when I stuck my head under the table to look inside I found a small old woven basket with little bobbins full of thread. It was quite the find. I absolutely love it. I'm trying to research more about the sewing machine to narrow down the dates but still I'm pretty jazzed about it!

I'm looking forward to fixing up (or I should say begging my Dad who can fix anything to help me fix up) my "new" sewing machine. If I can get it working I think I'll try to sew my bonnet for the "Roses from the Heart" project, obviously the time frame is a little off but I still think it would be pretty cool.

Now I just need to learn how to embroider.....but hey if I can knit socks how hard can embroidery be? (I'm hoping that doesn't come back to bite me in the butt)