Thanks again, Joe. I'll keep you all posted... will probably check it out this week.

Its not absolutely necessary to drop the feed dogs for FMQ, sometimes I get better results when I leave them up.
Sharon W

So how does that work? Do you set the stitch length at 0 so the feed dog doesn't move? I've never FMQ without dropping the feed dog or putting a cover over them.

I set the stitch length to zero and quilt. I use a 15-90 or a 237 treadle to FMQ, usually just baby quilt size. Anything bigger I use my Viking Sapphire875.
Sharon W

Good to know. I've not tried it that way, always thought the fabric would snag moving over the feed dog. But, I'll try it. Thanks for the info.

Flowers and leaves sounds like filligree decals? My cousin gave me our grandmother's 1928 66-6 about six months ago and I haven't done anything to it yet. The handwheel won't turn so it is going to take some freeing up which I will do in warm weather outside. It has the screw for the stitch legnth adjustment, no reverse, and an non-numbered tension dial. Pretty basic. But the 66 started life as a treadle, it was in the 20s they started putting electric motors on them. I didn't have any attachments or manual, but I researched and found the exact number attachment box and found a set on ebay, and an original manual.

Finding this machine really cleared up a mystery. My Grandfather bought it for my Grandmother when my Mom was born. It was in a Number 40 cabinet. My GF died when my my mom was 3, and raising 2 kids in the depression, the sewing machine was one of the few things that my GM didn't sell. Somewhere along the line, probably late 40s, my GM gave it to my mom when she started having kids. Around the time I was born, my Mom bought a 401 and put it in the cabinet. I learned to sew on the 401 but my Mom said the cabinet originally had an "old black machine" but she didn't remember what happened to it. My mom still has the 401 in the cabinet but hasn't used it since the 70s when knits came out (she bought a Kenmore that still sits on top of the closed cabinet). Now, the 66-6, well, it turned up at my cousins when I asked to see the Featherweight she had recently inherited from her mother. I figured out that when my Mom bought the 401, the dealer put the 66 in a portable case and she gave it back to my GM. The case is the maroon and cream that I think dates to the 50s. I doubt she ever used it again as I remember she used to occasionally mend something on my Mom's machine. But she kept it and my Uncle had some of her stuff still in storage when he died.

The 401 and cabinet is promised to me and one day I will put the 66-6 back where it belongs. Hopefully I will find an original case I can put the 401 into.

Kim

Kim,

Don't wait till later to work on the old 66. Go to your local SMG and buy several bottles of SM oil, then hit a Dollar General store or Wal Mart and get a medium sized cat litter box or similar tray. Set the machine in it and pull off all the plates. Then start hosing it with oil. SM oil doesn't stink and it can work as the machine waits on you.

It won't take much to free it up, no doubt it's just dried and gummed up oil that got it stuck.

Great story, I'd try to get the cabinet from her sooner than later to put the 66 back in. But that's just me.

Joe