Nurse at Ford Assembly Plant makes quilt in honor of F-150 truck

Connie Henry enjoys quilting. It is a craft that has been in her family for three generations. It was only a matter a time before she combined her hobby with another facet of her everyday life.

As the head nurse at the Ford Assembly Plant in Claycomo, Henry is surrounded by workers who build the popular F-150 truck every day. When Henry is at home in Kansas City, Kan., she sees her husband’s blue 2009 F-150.

“It is a great running vehicle,” Henry said. “It is very durable. We are pushing almost 200,000 miles on it. It still runs and looks like a brand-new vehicle.”

Simply put, Henry has good feelings when she happens to see a blue F-150. One day, almost a year ago, Henry came across a quilt panel that had a barn and an F-150 on it.

“It looked exactly like a blue Ford 150 truck that my husband drives,” Henry said.

Henry bought a panel with the expectation of doing a quilt with a blue F-150 on it like the one her husband drives. But it took her a while to get started.

“It was kind of an odd size,” she said. “I was thinking, ‘What am I going to do with it?’

“I saw a tutorial on a blog called ‘Looking at Grandma’s Attic Window’ and decided that is what I am going to do with that quilt.”

Once Henry got started, it took her less than two weeks to complete the project.

“As the pieces started coming together and I could see a picture of it, I was getting more excited,” she said. “As I was stitching it all together, I couldn’t stop. I was so excited because it was coming together and really looking good. I was pleased how it was coming out. I was like a kid unwrapping a Christmas present. It was that exciting for me.

“I think it turned out very nice.”

Her husband, Dwayne, definitely liked it.

“He has the quilt in his man cave, but he told me if the price is right he would sell it,” Henry said. “I said, ‘What?’ I was making it because I thought it was really cool. When he saw it, he thought it was really cool.”

Henry figures it is just a matter of time before her husband purchases the new Ford F-150 with the body that is made of military-grade, aluminum alloy.

“He is looking at them,” she said. “He said those are just beautiful. And then he goes, ‘There nothing wrong with my truck.’ He wrestles back and forth because he really likes the new features and things that weren’t available in the ’09 model like back-up cameras. He keeps looking and looking, and one of these days he will pull the trigger and buy one.”

Because of the popularity of the Ford F-150 and the Ford Transits that are built at the Ford Assembly Plant in Claycomo, these are good times at the plant.

It’s the people at the plant that make Henry’s job so enjoyable.

“We have really good people as far as nurses, my co-workers and people out in the plant (who) are a good group of people to work with,” Henry said. “It is a very exciting time to work here at the plant.”

This story was originally published December 25, 2015 at 6:04 PM with the headline "Nurse at Ford Assembly Plant makes quilt in honor of F-150 truck."