Emergency Truck Sewing Repairs

The husband has been working on his older work truck this week (he has two). The driver’s side seat needed a new foam replacement seat, and in the process of taking the factory cover off to get to the foam, he noticed that the factory cover needed some repairs. The factory cover had been covered with a twill aftermarket seat cover, but the twill cover didn’t protect the factory cover completely and the wear wasn’t apparent until he took the twill cover off.

I have no pictures because this was a rush job. He wanted to get the seat taken care of yesterday. I patched one hole by sewing a piece of thick scuba knit on the inside (to match the base fabric) and stitching around the hole to keep it from fraying any further. There was also a broken plastic clip that hooked onto the base of the seat frame to hold the factory cover in place. That clip had been sewn to the cover—by a much stronger machine than anything I have—but the piece of thin backing plastic was broken and the clip was falling off. I substituted a piece of Peltex interfacing for the backing plastic and used heavy-duty upholstery thread to sew the clip back on through the existing holes (by hand). Peltex is used for bag and purse bottoms.

[This is why I have the equivalent of a small Joann Fabrics store in my house.]

“You just saved us $160 for a new factory seat cover,” he said when I had finished. He has to buy a replacement twill cover, but the factory cover should last a few more years, at least.

We also looked at and measured the Honda generator on his newer truck for which he requested a Cordura cover. I have the fabric, but he wants a slightly different style for this generator than the cover I made for the other generator. This is not a complicated project. The front zipper will be the hardest part and even that isn’t that difficult. I just need to set aside a few hours to make it, probably next weekend.

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The tumbler quilt is all finished. I am very happy with the way it turned out. The border looks even better than I had hoped it would:

I did stars in the corners with one of my Amanda Murphy star rulers. That was done more out of desperation than anything else, although someone at Ruler Club noted that a few of the tumblers were made from star fabric, so perhaps I was channeling an unconscious design idea. (Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while.) The binding is navy blue Kona.

I didn’t have time to work on the Candy Coated quilt yesterday. I finished prepping the backs for the comforters because Pat is bringing them to church today, and I cut a few more 5” blocks so she could make one more top. We have scheduled the comforter-tying party for the afternoon of February 26th from 2-5 pm. We’re planning a meal afterward, probably a baked potato bar. Any Kalispell peeps are welcome to join us! We’ll be working in the fellowship hall at the Mennonite church.

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I am a premium member at Living Free in Tennessee (my favorite podcast, by far), and as part of my membership, I get access to monthly webinars on various topics. I attended the bacon-making webinar yesterday. The presentation was excellent. I am undecided, though, about whether or not I want to try it. The process is not complicated; I just don’t need yet another project. However, I did learn a few things about the cutting process, and I will be better able to let the processor know how we want our pork processed in the future.

People tend to get fixated on “bacon,” meaning the bacon that comes from the pork belly, but almost everything except the ham and the picnic shoulders can be made into some form of bacon. I already knew this, because our previous processor would make Canadian bacon from the loins and Kansas City bacon from the roasts. We do try to maximize the “bacon” we get from our pork. I did not know, however, that the cheek/jowl meat can also be made into bacon. That’s standard practice in Italy. I suspect both processors we have used just took that meat and added it to the sausage, which is fine, but I’d like to try making bacon with those cuts next time we do pork.

I hate to waste anything from the animal. I always take the organ meats (dog treats), the fat (lard), ham hocks (soup) and neck bones (stock). If we’re going to put in all that work raising the animals, it just makes sense to get our money’s worth from them.