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.

Shop Hopping

 So, It's that time of year once again! The All Iowa Shop Hop has begun! I've been perusing the magazine for a few weeks and decided that this year instead of shopping my home region, I needed to see some new shops, so I told Hubs, we need to go West!

So here's my haul from the two days we spent driving around Iowa! We drove through dozens of small towns that I never heard of! Such a pretty scenic drive too!

First stop a couple of shops in the South Central Region, The  Redfield Quilt Shop in Redfield, followed by Gap Creek Quilting in Guthrie Center. 

And on to the West Region, 

 Log Cabin Quilt Shop in Elk Horn then, Annie's Quilting Bee in Harlan, 

then on to Denison Wise Monkey Quilting, then Acadia Quilts in Acadia. Each shop gives you a block pattern for free, so they're in the pictures too. 

Over to Lake City we stopped at Towne Square Quilt Shoppe, we were kind of in a rush to make it to Sac City and Tin Ceiling Quilts, but we made it!

I decided we would stay overnight in Sioux City. Besides Hubs, I'm traveling with our four legged kid, Ringo. I booked us at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Sioux City. We're testing Ringo to see how he does -he's a great rider, he just lays down and goes to sleep for the most part. 

Here he is relaxing in the Hotel room. 

The room was nice, the pillows have guitars on them.....

and the comforter has guitars on it......

Trace Adkins was hanging above the pet food dishes....

and Bruce Springsteen was in the bathroom.... 

and, I made Ringo drink tap water, because, well........$4

The bed was very comfy and Ringo and Hubs were both great! No barking and no issues!

Ok back to hopping! Sioux City has two participating shops

Heart & Hand Dry Goods Co was a huge shop, and Tri State Sewing and Quilting was just a real treasure-so many machines and thread!

Then the last shop to complete the West Region, Cherokee has Quilt n Kaboodle! What a nice shop!

Before heading home we hit two shops in the North Central Region, Clover Cottage in Emmetsburg and then The Quilted Steeple in Lone Rock.

Here's the whole haul! I'm planning to make a 4th of July quilt so my mission was to collect red and blues and whites. It's good to have a plan otherwise I come home with a pile of cool fabrics, but they don't go together and there's no plan, so this is much better. 

I got this fireworks print to use as the background, but I'm not so sure now that I see it all together. 

I also got a free sample of pins and a little ruler too. The fabric for the Hop this year is Iowa State Fair themed.  SO in addition of the red white blue combo, I'm getting some of the fair fabric too. Here's what I have so far.

 It has a panel with the fair on it and then the prints with the main buildings and features of the fair, It's pretty cute fabric!

There's a lot more to shop Hop, but that's all I'm doing for now. Off to sew a flag or two!