Excitement in Big Boxes

 So a week or so ago, Hubs and me made the journey to Carroll, Iowa to pick up a hunch of boxes from the APQS store.

We borrowed my sister's horse trailer to fit the long boxes-10' long- but wouldn't you know it, there's a small issue. The APQS folks pack everything in a 12' box-no matter what length it really is. 

Thankfully, they've been around the block a time or two and quickly used the saw to cut off the excess box. All went well and we got home safely.

Here's the boxes ready for me to unload. Now you may be wondering, gee Bonnie, why didn't you have it delivered? Well, let me tell you. Because it costs $650 for delivery-that's just freight delivery-they'll dump it in the driveway! So If I have to move it into the house, then I might as well save my money!

Those long boxes are a challenge! There are two of them with the quilting frame rails in them. They are HEAVY- at least 100lbs each! 

Anyways, I got them all in the house and started assembly the next day.

The directions aren't too awful-a little hard to follow which steps should follow because you have direction in more than one manual.

But the table supports are on and the front and back rails are on.

I measured the room to make sure I'd have room and it's a good thing I did. It's a good fit!

The next day I got the support bars installed-kind of a hinky way to do that if you ask me. 

I find it hard to believe that this little clamp on the support bar is going to hold up for much. 

Anyways, more progress....the lights above are installed-they come with short cords-there's no way to plug them into an outlet, so I ordered extension cords........time to switch manuals.....

Time to install Quilt Path-that's the computer link to the machine.

And look at that! I'm level!

Time to set the machine in place!

Awww, they sent Freddie with a bow!

And there he is in place.

And look after a little issue getting the quilt path part on the correct rail, it all fits together!!!

Here's the quilt path part on the correct rail.

But see in the picture, I marked the wrong place to set the it on the rail-oopsy, took me a few minutes to figure that out!!

And here we are all complete-I'm waiting for my UPS(uninterruptible Power Source) to come from Amazon. It supposed to act like a surge protector as well as a power source in the event of a power outage or other power interruption. 

So all together, over the course of 3 days, I spent about 13 hours on assembly. SO if you're wondering if APQS offers assembly, yes they do. It's $750 to come to your house and assemble only. Yes, they probably get it done in 5 hours or less, but I now know where everything is at!

I took a picture of the tablet connections, because you're supposed to be able to use it off the machine to work out designs and stuff. 

Here's one of the first test designs I made!

I'm getting the hang of it, and actually made a little project. 

I had this panel around for awhile, so I thought I'd practice on it.

I need to figure out the ending, I thought I had it set, but I guess not!

Pretty good for a starter!

I'm sure I'll do better as time goes along.

Shopping and Iris

 We have a new kitty at our house now. Iris is a polydactyl-she has extra toes on each paw. She was living at DD's house, but she couldn't keep her so now Iris is at our house. 

She's a little thing-not a year old yet.

See those paws? She's also very playful and limber and loves to knock things over and plays with anything on the floor. She went to the vet today to get scheduled for a spay. 

In other news.... I went over to Mom & Dad's Saturday, the Quilter's Shopping Spree was in Nevada, Iowa, so we drove over there to have a look around. 

There's always a lot to see at the Shopping Spree. 

Lots of quilts and gadgets. 

We also drove over to Ames and did a little shopping. Mom got a new purse! 

On the way home we stopped at the new Dollar General Store that just opened in Albion, Iowa.

It's a nice store, I hope they continue to staff it so they can keep it nice. 

A Little Road Trip for Socks

So Hubs and me loaded up and drove to Osage Iowa to get some socks. Every year the Fox River Socks Company has a big sock sale run by the Lions Club.  I've ordered socks from  Fox River Socks on line before. And really like them. They are really nice quality and work really well with my work shoes.

All the socks are $1-about $5 a pair. And all the proceeds go to local charities. And the socks are made here in Iowa-huge win there. The sock sale is held at the Mitchell County Fairgrounds, and there are quite a few other events at the same time-lots of yard sales, and vendor booths too. 

Volunteers set up the room with socks in all kinds of sizes and colors. They help folks find what they want and they make the whole process so easy!

There are soccer socks, baseball socks, kids socks, fancy socks, and mostly tall socks. Obviously Fox River makes socks for Duluth Trading Company and LL Bean and a lot of different companies. 

I found some for a few Christmas presents, and I found a few for DD and other family members. 

Here's my big sack o socks.  We'd never been to Osage before-it's a very nice looking town. Lots of tidy businesses on main street and all the parks are very nicely groomed. 

This guy went with us for the 2 hour trip-he did great. 

There's a Cedar River access just south of town, we let Ringo out for a break there. He was very pleased with the facilities!
 

Sunday-Things Are Changing

So it was Mom's birthday on Sunday, so I popped over there to change a light bulb for her. Dad's not so great on a ladder these days and so , well....I did it for her.  While I was there she said she wanted to change her sewing machine table.

 

 SO Dad and I measured all the tables available in the basement, and decided the old enamel top table would be the best fit.See it does fit well!

 And across the street, the school building in Albion, Iowa is being torn down. Sad, but decades of no maintenance and the roof was pretty much shot and there was asbestos and when the school district consolidated and closed this school, that was all she wrote.

 This building was the background of my childhood-I attended from K-6 grade there, and we played over at the school all summer long! We'd climb that fire escape stairway-so daring!!

 Playing on the merry-go-round, the teeter totters and the monkey bars and the highest slide! Well it probably wasn't that high in reality.

 The pile of rubble is where the gym and lower grades had class. It was a "new Addition" probably in the 50's I guess.

 You can see the sunshine through the windows in the upper floor in this picture-the roof is just gone...Mrs. Black's class room if I remember correctly.

 Really beautiful old building, but like so many old things that need a lot of maintenance, it would be cost prohibitive to keep it.

 Good bye my dear old school.

The view from the front yard will not be the same.