Come on in happy quilters! I'm so excited about today's new project. This is something I've been wanting to make for over a year. As soon as I saw this pattern I knew what fabric I would be using. SEW CHERRY 2! Love, love, love me some Lori Holt prints. My color pallet is getting harder and harder to find in a full line. Lori is one of the few that is sticking to her guns and not going with the very warm muted colors. I hope she continues to stay in the cute cool pallet. The newer lines of fabric remind me of the 1980's and 90's which I do not care to revisit. Any guesses what I might be making with this jelly roll?
A Jelly Roll Rug! The HUGE one called The Colossal Round Rug. Not sure if I should make it round or oval but it's going to be amazing either way. The reason why I've finally decided to make the jelly roll rug is because I was sent a new tool to review that will help with the construction of this rug. So make sure you come back Friday for a new Nifty Notions review. You can find my previous reviews by clicking on the Nifty Notions image in the sidebar of this blog or here.
Now for the something old part of this post. As many of you know every week I visit my dad, fix him a nice home cooked meal. This week dad had a surprise. While I was cleaning up after lunch he ran off to the other room. Normally he helps me clean up. I knew he was up to something. My first thought was he had a new DVD(movie). He loves watching movies, me not so much. I like to sorta watch movies while I do something else like quilting, of course. After finishing up the dishes I strolled into the living room where dad was grinning from ear to ear. He was so proud of his sneaky little surprise. I'm sure some of you recognize this old metal Whitman's Chocolate tin. There's no chocolate or sewing notions hiding in there. I recognized it from my youth and knew what was inside. We had talked about finding this way back in September or October. Dad never forgets anything, he's one of those people who takes mental notes all year long about what you say. Then he uses that information to buy you the perfect gift or as in today the perfect after dinner surprise.
I bet most of you have seen these and know exactly what they are. But for the younger ones let me fill you in. These are silent 8mm film. I haven't seen these in years. Such a blast from the past. Not only do we have store bought movies dad has home movies of Easter egg hunts, vacations and family get reunions. What a wonderful surprise! I can't wait to watch them.
As dad loads up a reel on the projector he tells me how he took apart the projector earlier in the week. Cleaning it and making sure it was working properly. Then he sat and watched every one of the movies in one day. He was so proud of himself for finding all of this stuff mom had hidden in a closet.
Lights, camera, ACTION! And then nothing. The film was moving but their was no light. The bulb had burned out. Poor dad, he was so disappointed and felt he let me down. I felt so bad for him, and myself truth be told. I really wanted to watch the old home movies. It was still fun. All we need to do is find a bulb for this old Bell and Howell. Nothing that a good ole Google search can't fix,right? I found several of these old projectors for sell. $10-$50 each. But wouldn't you know it, all of them said "NEEDS BULB". After finding the bulbs online I understood why folks were selling the useless projectors. One tiny bulb is $100 and more! On Amazon they are almost $200. WHOA! Do we really want to watch these that bad? Of course we do. Here's the bad thing about the $100 light bulb. There's a no return policy. What if it doesn't work? Sounds like a good way to scam me out of $100. I'm going to search around locally to see if I can find one that can be tested before I put out $100. Wish me luck and if you have one(that works) you would like to sell let me know.
We inherited all the 8mm movies and here is an option as the film degrades with age. There are places that will transfer these films to digital on to DVD. I think that you and your Dad would find the film very fragile and would break many times while going through the spindles the film just gets brittle with age. We had the equipment ourselves so my husband spent hours transferring the film to DVD's, we had 100's of 8mm film boxes, which we were able to share with many people in the family once we transferred to digital DVD. My husband suggests looking for a professional video editing service who are able to transfer 8MM movie film to digital. That can then be put onto DVD's or in files and clean up some of the flickering and fuzziness. Certainly would be far less expensive than the silliness of the price of replacement bulbs. Big benefit is that the fragile film now is preserved. Smiles from Idaho, Onalee
ReplyDeleteWe had lots of movies from the hey days and did just as unknown said. We showed the DVD at my folk's 60th anniversay. We had ours done by Walgreens and it cost about what one bulb would.
ReplyDeleteOMG! Maybe there is a compatible substitute for the bulb? Sure wish I had a resource for those....I'd gladly send you one....for free!
ReplyDeleteI grew up with this projector and those silent home movies. What a gift to share with your dad. They can put them on dvd's now you know. I wonder if those little repair businesses one sees and ignores, might have something like the bulbs? We used to also watch cartoons on the reel to reel, old forties cartoons.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to be there to watch those old movies too. I watch old films on the youtube library of congress site from edison.
LeeAnna
OOOOoooHHHhhh, FUN!
DeleteI was hooked on your fun and happy story until the end when I discovered your dad's disappointment in the burnt out bulb. Maybe you just need to find an electrician friend who can wire together a different bulb somehow. I would agree that the outrageous price does sound suspiciously like a scam.
ReplyDeleteI think it is wonderful that your father does not forget things. My mom is really struggling with memory loss. I feel sometimes like I have lost her.
P.S. I don't want the style of those fabrics to come back to my sewing room either. I absolutely love your choice of colors ALWAYS!
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful "gift" he had prepared! So sorry you have to wait till... hopefully you can get them digitalized! Somewhere, I hope, are family films similar to yours, that Daddy did of me and my older siblings when we were young. And hopefully they can be found and digitalized for each one of us, as well. Both parents are gone now, along with is second wife, and to my knowledge, the films are lost.
ReplyDeleteso sad that the bulb wasn't working. :-( I hope you find a good one: I agree with you about it sounding like a scam that you can't return it if it doesn't work!! best wishes for a successful hunt!!! Hugs, H
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