In which we abandon the pretense of quilting all together to just gush about machines

The Milwaukee Public Museum is hosting a Collection Day on the first Saturday in October.  It's an event where local collectors can apply to bring whatever they collect in for the day to show the public.

Well, I filled out the application and sent along some pictures of my sewing machines, and they want me to bring them!  I'm excited, but trying to restrain myself, in case the museum has second thoughts about hundreds of pounds of cast iron resting on their tables and taking up floor space.

So instead of sewing, for the past couple of days I've been oiling my machines, replacing parts that I'd removed, and just getting them ready to go.

It's actually kind of embarrassing that I have so many...it just makes me so sad to see one of these in the discount pile at a flea market, or marked down a bunch of times at a garage sale.  I told my husband that I wanted to unload some of them after Collection Day, but since I've been reading up on them and their history, I'm just growing more attached!

Here's my 115, which has been well-photographed lately.

Here's my 27 (the machine I do my piecing on), my 15 (that I bought for $10 at a garage sale with the intention of re-wiring before I found my 115 that I bought for less than the cost of a re-wire), and my Howard (another marked-down item at a flea market).

And finally, my 66 without its hand crank, my 27 machine head, and my lovely Franklin Rotary, which I've been learning a lot about lately.

I'm also going to borrow back the Singer Spartan that I loaned my sister.  That means I'll be lugging eight machines to the museum for six hours, only to lug them all back. 

I don't mind, though.  If I can talk a few people into dusting off Grandma's old machine and trying it out, or at least appreciating what it meant and what it can do, then it will be worth it.