Bobbins, Quilts, Ice Road Truckers and Country Whimsy

Here is a sneak peek of the quilt I am going to talk about. More on that in a minute!

Close Up of Hand Quilting on Feed Sack Quilt

Things have been hectic lately. My mind has been a whirl with office stuff, planning stuff, life stuff. You know, the usual. 🙂 And so I have been delayed in posting. Today I am feeling…disgruntled. Crabby. Dare I say it, maybe even a little pissy. :O

So I decided to change my mood and blog.

For Christmas my Super-Duper-Handy-Hubby got crafty again. I love it when he does that. I found some nifty thingies that go on bobbins and keep them from unwinding when not being used. I put a homemade version on my Christmas list and boy howdy did he come through. Not only did I get some fantastic new doo hickeys, he made a how-to video! He makes it look so easy to make these. Really. Go check it out right now!! 😀

Handy Dandy Bobbin Collar DIY video

Here is a picture of one of them. Hard to see because they are clear. Below that is a whole pile of them. Should last me a little while, eh?

Bobbin Collar

Bunches of Bobbin Collars

I have also been busy with quilts. The Feed Sack Quilt is all done but the label! Yay. I pieced the whole thing by machine, but hand quilted it. I felt that since there were vintage feed sacks in the quilt it really needed to be quilted by hand.

Completed Lap Size Vintage Feed Sack Quilt

Close Up of Hand Quilting on Feed Sack Quilt

I really fell in love with hand quilting as well. You can read more about the process here and here. Actually, I went a little overboard with the binding. I put a bazillion stitches in the back to finish it. Way too many. But I just couldn’t stop doing such small stitches!

Now that my Grandma’s quilt is done I started on another secret project. I couldn’t help myself. I will give you a sneak peek. Promise not to tell, ok? 😀

Surprise Rag Quilt. Duck Duck Goose

And now that this quilt is done, I need another project. I really enjoyed such tiny stitches on the binding of the Feed Sack Quilt. Really Really. Strange, I know. So I thought that I might work on learning English Paper Piecing. I cut 272 squares today. I meant to keep then for an upcoming vacation, to give myself something to do. But…I don’t think that is going to happen. Hopefully I will not finish all 272 pieces before I go! Here is a peek. I am using reproduction 30’s print fabric.

English Paper Piecing

Which, of course brings us to Ice Road Truckers!! I know your were waiting with baited breath for this part of the blog! I live in Michigan. In the country. On a dirt road. As I mention in my “All About Me” section, living on a dirt road is different. Living in Michigan is different too. One day it is -20 F with the wind chill and then 8 inches of snow. A few days later it is 45 and rainy. Which would be all fine and dandy if we had paved road or even roads the county took care of. However, we live on a private road. So we get graded 2x per year. (whether we need it or not. And we always need it.) We do get plowed when it snows. And they did a bang up job with the 8 inches. Made it nice and smooth. Then the rain. Lots of rain, but not enough to melt the ice. Oh yeah. Then it got really cold again. The result? A nice slick ice road.

Ice Road

There is a show on cable (which we used to get, but don’t anymore so I can’t tell you what station) called Ice Road Truckers.  In this show these people drive big rigs way up North across the frozen water. They can only go at certain times of the year when the water is frozen and really thick. So literally they are driving these big huge trucks across huge frozen lake or something. Sometimes they show the ice cracking. Personally I think it is for dramatic effect, but it did make me scared for them. Anyhow… I figured that is who I am training to be. An Ice Road Trucker. Not fun going up a tiny hill and your car is sliding out of your control toward the ditch!!

Did you know that it is not effective to salt a dirt road? Me neither. I gather if you salt a dirt road the salt will make a little hole as it goes down to the dirt and that is all. If you sand a dirt road that is better, but the sand blows away.  Huh. Never knew. I also never knew that the mailman wouldn’t come. But he will NOT come for 3 days when we live on an ice road. He will not come when the big grader trucks slide off the road and get stuck. He will not come when little momvans barely make it up tiny hills and people with trucks abandon their vehicles by the side of the road because it is too icy. No he will not. Humph.

One last totally unrelated thought. One comment on a previous post called my name tag “Country Whimsy”. I love, love, LOVE that name. Country Whimsy. I think I will now call all my quilts “Country Whimsy”. What is your style they will say. “Country Whimsy” I will reply. Yup. I love it. I am off to work on my Country Whimsy Hexagons.

I really do feel better now. 😀  Thanks for stopping by.

Livin Life on an Ice Road.

Livin Life on an Ice Road