The first quilt is coming along very nicely.  The sewing machines I have used in making this quilt so far are:

1891 Singer model VS2 treadle

1923 Singer model 128 handcrank

1937 Singer model 15-88 treadle

1952 Singer model 15-91 electric

1968-1972 Singer model 237 as an electric.
and
me- at least 1/2 of this quilt was hand-quilted by me, which is what took a longer time than if I had done it all by machine.

A few more blocks to quilt, then the borders and binding.

This quilt is now finished.  The last areas of quilting and the binding were sewn with my 1891 White model VS2 b sewing machine, shown below.

This quilt was also trimmed on my new (old) re-painted board that was our train board and is now my quilt trimming board.  It is painted with an American flag.

A note about this quilt- being the first, it is special.  It is also special because many different machines were used in the piecing and in machine quilting.  Additionally, many of the squares were hand-quilted by me.  The quilt met with a slight accident toward the end of quilting - a grease or oil stain got on it from somewhere on the antique White sewing machine treadle, even though I take a lot of precautions to prevent such an occurrence.  In removing the stain, a variation resulted in the fabric which means this quilt will not be given away, but I will keep it as the "first" quilt in honor of my father and his Service. In addition, I may be doing more hand-quilting on this quilt, even though it is finished as it is.  My original work in quilting, many years ago, was as a hand-quilter, on muslin whole-cloth quilts.  I may add a touch of that to this quilt by adding more hand-quilting.

I will be adding the motif shown below to the blocks of Quilt 1.  The flower motif will represent American soil.

"When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again"

Our National March - John Phillips Sousa's "The Stars and Stripes Forever"

 

American Experience - The Battle of The Bulge (The video on YouTUbe has been removed, the PBS DVD can be purchased at this link)

at minute counter 1:12:51 is my grandfather, Chester T. Fickett

Here is another good documentary of The Battle of The Bulge

4Troops - "For Freedom"

Documentary  Films : The History of Sewing Machines

 

God Bless America

 

The Honorary Sewing Machine

My father's 1883 White VS2a (BS) sewing machine, that I am using to piece quilt number three.

A short video showing me piecing the quilt top with this machine.

Yankee Doodle

My Country 'Tis Of Thee

 

This Land Is Your Land, This Land Is My Land

Boston Red Sox at Oakland

America The Beautiful

I have decided to assign a "task" to each of the sewing machines that I will be using to make the Quilts For Veterans (c).  The four oldest machines will be for piecing the quilt tops.  The two machines from 1919 and 1926 will be for joining rows together, and two machines from 1952 and from 1968-72 will be for machine quilting should I decide to machine-quilt the quilts.

Below:  1872 Wheeler and Wilson No. 3, 1872 Howe (Stockwell) Model A, and 1897 Singer model 27 (against the wall) and in front of them, on the right is the 1891 Singer Fiddlebase model Vs2.  These will be for piecing.

On the left in the foreground in the photo above is the 1919 Singer model 66-3 that will be for joining rows.  Below is the 1923 Singer model 128 Hand-crank machine that will also be joining the rows.

And in the photo below are a 1952 Singer model 15-91 on the right and a Singer model 237 from 1968-1972 on the left.  These will be doing the machine quilting.

In addition, I have my 1937 Singer model 15-88 in the portable treadle which will be the machine I use should any of the other machines have a sewing issue.

I will be adding my 1931 White Family Rotary electric to the line-up as well.  The labels will be sewn on with a modern desktop portable sewing machine, shown below.

Update:  The 1931 White model 31 was donated to honor my father's generosity.  The model 237 electric has been sold, as has the 1923 Singer model 128 hand crank.  These machines were "extra" in that I wasn't using them enough for the quilts.  I have added a newer, modern machine, the Brother LX3014, a fairly inexpensive but sturdy 2016 machine.