Driving in the Snow

On Friday, I had to get my brother-in-law to the train station in Newark which is about 45 minutes away in normal weather. He needed to get to the London airports to catch a plane. His flights and trains had been cancelled due to the snow all week so even though the roads were bad we still went for it.

I love snow and I don't mind driving in it. In Baltimore, we had lots of snow most winters. And when I was learning to drive, my dad taught me how to drive in it. I remember going to an empty parking lot the size of a baseball pitch. There I could practice skidding quite safely and figure out how to pull out of it. He taught me to go easy on the starts and stops and to keep a steady even speed, not too slow or fast. As long as I kept everything easy and steady and avoided any sudden or jerky movements I would be fine. The most dangerous thing would be the other people on the road.

Just after I got home from the train station last Friday, I had a meeting with a quilter and her husband who were keen to try out the New English Quilting frame. As I was going through the motions with the JUKI on the New English Quilting frame, I was struck with how much free motion quilting on a table top frame is like driving in the snow! Start slow, get up to a working speed, not too slow, not too fast; keep the speed steady and flowing, avoid any jerky movements and you'll be fine.