BOMS Away Monday

As of Sunday morning, this embroidery block was only half finished.  While I waited for my blueberry chutney to cook down, I worked on this block and finished it!  This is the June block for the Promises & Borders quilt.  I guess this means I'm caught up because it's July, and I have the rest of the month to finish up the July block.  I like this one.

It's a good thing I finished because the June Promises block was my commitment for the One Thing, One Week Challenge over at Amy's Creative Side this week.

With that finished, I decided to make up the July block for the Vintage Miniature Sewing Machines block of the month.  I'm loving that these blocks are done by transfer so that I don't have to trace them out.

This month's block is the Casige No. 2, and here's a photograph of it.

The information that I have about this machine is that the Casige (pronouced Ka-see-ge) was the most desirable of all the toys from this famous German manufacturer.  It was introduced in 1910, but had a very limited production run.  Many of the Casige models had variants that were produced by a different factory, but there was only one model of the cast iron Casige No. 2.  Its handwheel was in the front, and this model is often called the "Mona Lisa" of the Casige toy machines.  

Casige was one of the great German toy manufacturers of the 20th century, although the original company was founded a half century earlier and specialized in piano locks.  The company name was derived from a mixture of letters of the founder of the company, Carl Sieper and his town of Gevelsberg, Westfalen in Germany; thus Ca-si-ge.  The company trademark still bears reference to its beginning as a manufacturer of locks with a great German eagle clasping a key.  The company produced millions of machines in a variety of patterns and designs from 1902 to 1975. 

To see more incremental blocks, visit What a Hoot.

There hasn't been much going on in the sewing room this past week.  I'm hopeful that this week I'll be able to get more done.  Today will be a busy day, however.  First, I'm getting my annual boob squashing.  Gotta love that.  And then I'm going to see my dentist who wants to take one more look-see at my shiny new dental implant, which isn't so new any more.  I've been avoiding him.  I wonder if he'll notice.

I have another batch of blueberry chutney on the agenda, as well as at least one batch of zucchini relish.  Even though my garden was a failure, my canning supplies will not feel neglected.  Somewhere in there, I need to make a trek to the grocery store.  Sewing is taking a backseat to other things lately, but I'm hoping to get back in the sewing room by mid-week.  My blocks are waiting impatiently.