Friday, February 27, 2015

Candy for Quilters & What Mountains?!

I don't have another finished quilt, but hope to have one soon!
I do have some Candy for Quilters!

I started calling Fil-Tec Glide thread "Candy for Quilters" several years ago--because that's what it reminds me of--minus the calories of real candy, of course.

 At some point Fil-Tec started calling it "Candy for Quilters" too.  This is my latest order, which arrived Wednesday, but I didn't want to fight with the hard working local post office people and didn't have the tracking number with me, so I had to wait until I got home, just after they closed, to look it up.  I found out they had communicated "attempted delivery" to the shipper, but they hadn't really attempted delivery, because they didn't put a card in my post office box.  However, I was able to pick it up yesterday.

In addition to the 5000 meter spools, I ordered some Magna-Glide Classic bobbins, size L.  I chose colors I thought would most readily work on some awaiting quilt backs.
(I do have some crystal candy dishes/plates somewhere, but this favorite old Taylor Smith Taylor saucer is also one of my favorites.)

I do use these bobbins in my vintage sewing machines.  The magnet side goes toward the metal on the bobbin case (but probably would not have to if the bobbin threaded differently).  The magnet keeps the bobbin from spinning out of control when I'm going fast and just feeds very evenly through the machine. They've done well in my class 15 machines as well as in my machines that use a class 66 bobbin.  I haven't tried them on a Singer Featherweight because that uses class 60 bobbins, and is much too small for me to quilt on--yes, I've tried to quilt on it.  I'm sure I could set the stitch length at zero since the feed dogs don't drop.  But I'm just not a fan of tiny projects, so I've never done that.

Yes, I could wind Glide thread onto bobbins and have often done so, but the pre wound ones are wound more tightly and are ready to pop into the bobbin case.

Now for the mountains....there are none visible today!  I live on a high plateau, sometimes called the llano stacado and sometimes called the Estancia Valley.  We're about 6200 to 6400 feet in elevation and surrounded by mountains.  However, we are in the midst of our third/fourth storm this week and have thousands of feet of clouds and a bit of fog and, currently, snow.  The snow is so low that doppler radar is reporting it's not even here.  The mountains surrounding us are all hidden today. (When the mountains disappear, this little town reminds of the little town in Illinois near our family farm.) We have icy, treacherous roads, and more snow.  I got up very early, recognizing I'd need to do some shoveling.  There is a lot of ice under our snow.  I was worried about getting even to the highway, let alone 40 miles down the interstate to my school.  "Down" doesn't quite describe the commute because first we have to climb several hills (which are like mountains back east) and then descend into the city of Albuquerque. Albuquerque  posted two-hour delays for the East Mountain schools and within a couple of hours posted that they would be closed. Then the district I live in posted a school closure.
The state of New Mexico had already posted difficult driving conditions and some road closures.  The police in Albuquerque began closing streets/roads/interchanges due to ice.  Eventually Albuquerque Public Schools cancelled school for today.  Their closure then triggered the closing of a large number of private and state chartered schools as well as Central New Mexico University and the University of New Mexico.

Perfect license for quilting--except I need to do a lot of other things around the house too.  I really hope I accomplish a lot. Perfect day for a few pots of hot tea too!

May you all be warm, safe, and well-fed!

Happy quiltmaking and knitting,

1 comment:

bunbear said...

definitely a good day to quilt! enjoy the bonus day home.

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