I can sew! Well, almost...

(1) Kenmore sewing machine with Bubba relaxing by the window. (2) Front cover of the manual. (3) Back cover of the manual - note the date I circled in red.
After lunch with Mom yesterday, we went back to her place and dragged her sewing machine out of the back closet where it has been for the past 10 years, and...and...she showed me how to use it! Cool. She and I went to a quilt show at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton months ago and I've wanted to learn to quilt since then, but didn't know how to use a sewing machine. So, now I do...and it seems it may need some work since it worked for the first 30 minutes or so and then got tighter and tighter and the wheel wouldn't turn so the needle wouldn't move up and down anymore. Gonna have Bill take a look - maybe the belt (which is the original belt!) needs to be changed (after 40+ years, I wouldn't be surprised).

Mom bought the sewing machine for $49.00 after she and my father got married - which will be 43 years ago in February 2004 - so it's older than me! It's very heavy, stitches only in a straight line, uses a foot peddle and bobbins (do modern sewing machines use these?), and has a large wheel on the right side that you turn to start the needle moving as your foot presses on the peddle. The instruction booklet was printed November 1, 1960 (circled in red in the third photo above).