My Family Treasure...

When my mother was maybe five years old, her mother, Gramma Fisch, started teaching her to sew on an old treadle sewing machine. They lived in a home in the country with no running water or electricity. When we were little girls, my grandparents bought feed and flour in sacks made out of cotton fabric with beautiful prints on them. Gramma Fisch would wash and iron these pieces of fabric and kept them in a nice stack in one of the back bedrooms. When we would visit, my mother would carefully go through the fabric and pick out enough matching pieces to make each of us girls play clothes or dresses. I loved these moments and the clothes. Never had a problem telling others that beautiful fabric they admired was feed sacks. 

When my Gramma Fisch passed away, my mother inherited the sewing machine. It worked all the time my mother had full faculties but I'm not sure after she had Alzheimer's. While having Alzheimer's she kept a green plant on top and over watered it. There was a scarf on the top so this was never noticed by Papa. When I went to clean out their home for them to move to Kentucky, my sisters and I divided up Mom's things that we each wanted. This treadle sewing machine was something each of us girls wanted. We put names in a hat and drew out one. Amazingly, my name was drawn. We brought the sewing machine to our home when we moved my parents to Kentucky.

Claude put it in the basement. Eventually we took it apart to restore. The wood from the top was ruined an posed a problem as to what to do with it. We came up with the idea of making a new wood board cover for the top. I truly wanted to keep it as close to original as I could so it would retain some of its value. Several years went by with it in pieces in the basement not sure how to handle the restoration. Claude wanted to do it right and we just weren't sure it could be like it was originally with all the damage to the wood.

This year, Claude decided to finish what was in pieces in the corner of the workshop. He has diligently taken it further apart, replaced decorative wood that had come off and was in the drawers, sanded, stained, repaired, and tenderly cared for this beautiful antique. He even found plastic coverings for where the rollers were on each leg of the machine. He made a wood board that could be used for the top. In the end, he opted not to use this piece of wood because of the treatment he was able to give the top. 

This last Monday, it was finished and he moved it up to the breakfast room area where I have left a place for it all these years. It is simply beautiful.

I know my mother and grandmother would love how he lovingly and carefully worked on and put back together this treasure from our past. In keeping with its history, I placed a doily I crocheted on the top and on that put a beautiful ceramic bowl Claude gave me with green turtles on the outside and pine cones in the bowl. Inside the drawers are the manual, some old wooden spools of thread and bobbins. There is a wooden case of tools and parts for the machine. These are also treasures. 

I love having this piece in my home where I will enjoy it each and every day. So grateful to Claude for working so hard and making this happen. It will be a treasure for my children someday, until then, I shall truly enjoy it being in our home.