Learning to use my new/old machine

This morning I had a chance to play a little with the Kenmore I got yesterday.  It's a model 52, and I'm still trying to dig up information about it.  It came from a local thrift shop.  I'm a shameless thrifter and I was so excited when I found it.  I bought it without really looking at it - for eight bucks, I was willing to take a chance - and when I got it home I was happy to see that it had dropping feed dogs.  I've been wanting to try free motion quilting but since my usual sewing machine doesn't have dropping feed dogs I couldn't.  But now...

I have to admit, I'm a sucker for old things.  I love anything with a sense of history.  I was pretty excited about using it.  And really, it was kind of neat to use.  Below are stitches I made with the Kenmore, and with my other machine, a Brother.  The Brother's stitches are in green, and the Kenmore's are in blue.

My first attempt at free-motion quilting was rough because I had the stitch length set on four (the maximum) instead of zero.  Whoops.

I tried again with the length on zero.  It was kind of fun!  I made some squiggles.

Then I tried to follow a heart I traced onto the flannel.  The right half went okay.  Then I got over-confident and kind of screwed up the left half.

The back is kind of jacked up.  I think it's because the tension is wrong, but I'm not going to count out user error.  I'm still learning.

I also found the Brother machine at that thrift shop (it cost five bucks, and even though it also needed a $130 tune-up I still feel like it was a good deal), and this machine.  I got it just for my son to play with while I sew.  He likes to pretend it works.  I think it's just so cool-looking. 

If I had more space vintage sewing machines would definitely become an addiction.