The long way home

While I was having fun at the cottage, it was time to come home and it took me all day to do so.

I did spend the night at Susan's cottage. What a very nice place. I have to laugh - People have cottages that are way nicer than where I grew up as a kid!  Anyway, I decided to sleep in the bunkie despite the warnings about serial killers and bears as possible threats. No those threats were not real, but amazing how some people need the safety of a "house" around them. I guess if I survived a grizzly bear walking through our campsite, I can sleep in the bunkie.

We're not talking a decrepit old bunkie -no this place was pretty amazing.

The bed and look at that quilt!

It was nice to see that quilt on the bed. It was from a class that I taught at Sew Sisters - Northern Reflections by Marti Michell. And I quilted the quilt. How cool is that? But what a quaint space. I think I could have stayed there a wee bit longer, but there's no time in my silly life for loafing around too long.

Here's a view of the screened in porch. Can you imagine sitting there with a book on a rainy day? It would be heaven.

Screened in porch on the bunkie

There was another small building on the premises. This is the tool shed. Gosh - how I would love to have someplace with everything laid out so neat. We are all neat in our own ways. I think this might be a bit overkill for me. While I appreciate the neatness and the lack of stuff, look how clean that floor is. I could have eaten off that floor. That will never happen at my house.

The tool shed

 But look what else is in the tool shed.  Yep - that's a flush toilet. OK - this is the lap of luxury at the cottage. I see the toilet is right by the beer fridge. So you can do all the stops in this one place.

The loo

Don't you just love this picture? I think it's hilarious. Very practical and all designed by a VERY practical person.

The lawnmower and the loo

I just found a quote that makes me happy.  "One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries."  A. A. Milne    THANK YOU - I was feeling a wee bit bad because I'm not that orderly and I'll never be and I realize - I DO NOT want to be. I would die if I lived like that.

But it was time to head home and I had a LOT of stuff to do on the way home. I had wanted to visit a specific place, but it didn't open until 1 PM. Good grief - so I had to kill some time. I decided to visit some quilt shops as I meandered my way home.

I needed some directions but my GPS couldn't find the address so I got a chance to try out this. A couple of weeks ago, I had purchased a phone holder for the car. I had tried it before but didn't like it. My phone case is a fold over one and as soon as the phone shut off, well you couldn't very easily turn it on again. I was tempted to ditch the holder. BUT I discovered that if I'm using Google Maps, the phone stays on and this worked like a cham.

Phone holder

The only problem with this and my regular GPS - it's hard to see the stupid screens. Why? Because my glasses don't like that short distance. I can see the screens perfectly without my glasses and I can see the road not so bad without my glasses - I'm tempted to ditch the glasses - I only wear them for driving the car.

Anyway - I'm still wearing the glasses for driving - don't anyone panic! Gosh - I had to drive to work one day without them because I needed to leave and couldn't find them. But that was a bad thing - I know!!

So the first stop was Wilton Creek Fabrics in Harrowsmith. I had never been to this shop but had wanted to after seeing the row or license plate it had for Row by Row in the past.

Wilton Creek Fabrics

I've so conditioned myself to NOT buy fabric that it's hard to know what to buy in the shop. I did pick up a couple of things and I'll share them another day.

I was going to head to my next stop but decided that there were two quilt stores nearby (in Kingston) so I went to them first. Shoot - this shop was closed!!!!  I've been here before. There was a notice on the door from FedEx as they had tried to deliver three packages. Apparently, the owner is on vacation. Also, the shop is only open on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday or something like that as the owner is retiring. I don't think the HOURS sign in the window reflected that.

My thoughts? If you're going to be away - then you should have a notice on your door. What if someone was in the area and decided to come back the next day only to find that the shop is still closed. I'd be royally ticked. SIGNS people - PLEASE!!!!  I even tried to call the store - NO message as there was no answer to the telephone. At least get an answering machine and put that information on. I guess she is retiring, she doesn't care. At least, I didn't have to find anything to buy!!!

Quilt Thyme

Then I popped into this next shop, also in Kingston. I'd never been to this one. A nice big store with LOTS of interesting fabric. Why are there so many cool Halloween fabrics? And why do I feel the need to buy them????

Got a great inspiration from this store for an embellishment. Again - I'll share with you another day what I picked up. I'd go back again!

Stitch by Stitch

Now that I've killed some more time, I had just enough time to have a bite before I hit the 1 PM event. I'll always remember Neil's suggestion from our Cross Canada bike trip. You can eat at Tim's every day. When you're in a different town, try the local bakery or the home grown restaurant. Way more interesting. So keeping that in mind, I passed tons of chain restaurants and once I had found where I was going, I checked out a place to eat. I found a small grocery store/deli and this is what I had for lunch. It was very good and I got to enjoy it outside by myself.

Lunch - a grilled Reuben, a weird drink FULL of pulp and a date squres

Then I was off to the Agnes Queen's Art Gallery. The doors opened at 1 PM on Saturday and Sunday.

Agnes Queen's ARt Gallery

The display I went to see was on Log Cabin quilts. The display had been put together as part of a student's practicum in Art History. Now, how cool is that? The show has been on for months and I had wanted to go to it, but it's a long way from home. Since I was in the area, I took the opportunity to go. The show closes TODAY!!!  The timing couldn't have been more perfect.

Log cabin art exhibit

There was a decent showing of log cabin quilts in various settings. Here's one of the quilts.

Log cabin quilt in the art gallery

 I purchased a book of the Quilts in the University's collection and then it was time to hit the road. I still had one more stop on the way home, but it was in Toronto so I now had a long drive ahead of me.

I did stop at one of the service areas along the way for a quick break and then back in the car.

I made it to the North York Center so I could see the TorontoLove display of quilted banners to honor the victims that were killed when a van intentionally drove onto the sidewalk a while back.

Toronto Love art installation

This show is on until Sept 8.  The banners are 4 inches wide by 20 feet long. There are beautiful messages on the banners - made with LONG skinny letters. A call was put out after the crash. I didn't have time to participate. But it's beautiful.

Toronto Love art installation

Front row

Middle row

Last row

If anyone is intersted in going - it's in the North York Centre (5140 Yonge STreet). I had a little bit of trouble finding it as the newspaper had put NorthYork Civic Centre which is 5100 Yonge Street, but the security guard directed me to the correct place. I had literally parked right in front of this building!!!

It's a bit of a shame though as of EVERYONE who was in the shopping mall that day NO ONE looked up. Maybe they have already seen it???  Amazing how everyone walks with their head down or stuck in a phone. NO ONE is enjoying what is around them????? NO ONE pays attention to what's around them. Why is that????

Apparently, little metal hearts have been imbedded in the sidewalk near the actual scene. I was getting so tired by then - I just wanted to get home so I didn't walk to see the little hearts.

And that was my day!  I left the cottage just before 10 AM and got home about 5:30 PM.

It was loads of fun but I was glad to be home. OH - I was listening to an audiobook while I was on the highway and listened to a LOT of the book. I love audiobooks in the car - it's so easy to connect the phone to the car audio system and I was good to go.

On that note, I'm out of here for tody. I'll tell you about yesterday and today, tomorrow. Life is just stupid and seriously - something has to give. Oh yes -let's get that ratted long arm working and I'll be OK.

Have a great day!!!!


Ciao!!!!

Zipping NOT ripping

As you know, Susan W and I went zip lining on Friday. I thought I'd share some photos with you.

Why did we go? Zip lining was not on my bucket list. Matter of fact, I'm not that fond of heights. I remember going to the CN Tower - the very top observation deck and had my back plastered to the inside wall. It does take me a few minutes to warm up to heights. And roller coasters? Well, that's a whole different ball game and loads of stories to tell you about that experience.

But here's a quote by Mark Twain that I think sums up the experience rather nicely. This quote has been on my calendar since May and I haven't turned the page knowing that this experience was coming up.

An amazing quote by which to choose what you do

Shoot - I thought this next photo would be easier to read.

Venture quote by Mark Twain

Shoot - you still can't read that?  It says - Venture - Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones that you did do.

As I had mentioned, the place was far from my house. It's called The Skywood Eco Adventure just off The Thousand Islands Parkway east of Kingston.

Skywood Eco Adventure

I had to laugh as I drove down The Thousand Islands Parkway because while I've never actually driven on the parkway before, I've been on the bike path a couple of times. This is one of the BEST cycling paths I've ever ridden on. You're right beside the secondary highway but you have your own bike highway. It's a beautiful ride and goes on for quite a distance. I forget - I don't remember those kinds of things. More on that another day!

The bike path beside The Thousand Island Parkway

I had gotten there a bit early as I wanted to beat the traffic. No worries, I listened to my audiobook, but finally, the call of nature required that I go Base Camp to find the washrooms.

Off to base camp

Susan was waiting for me when I got back from the washrooms and we were set to get outfitted. That's a whole experience in itself. You have this big web harness on with all kinds of cables and stuff hanging off. It's a wee bit intimidating to say the least.

Suited up!

 Here's Susan getting herself outfitted. The two crew members we had were amazing. Anna and Garrett.

We felt like horses. You had to stand up to that railing. It was almost like you had two sets of harness. One for your body and one for the attachments to the cables. They flipped part of the harness over the railing while they got one part of the harness securely tightened onto your body. Then they flipped that other part back and you got to put your safety clips (part of the Smart Belay System) in your holsters. Just like guns! Except they were awkward to get the safety clips back in so no danger of shooting anyone.

Susan getting suited up

Susan and I chatted up a storm and frankly, we had NO time to even think about what we were going to do. It worked out perfectly since I don't either of us was super confident.

Then it was onto to the small demo/training area. But let's read the signs first.

OK - that's a sobering thought

Just in case you heard about that honeymoon couple who had a zip line accident in Honduras and one of them died. There was a serious thing that happened. She went first and had NOT arrived on the platform before he followed. Because he was heavier, he went faster and crashed into her. This was most certainly NOT allowed to happen where we were. They had walkie talkies and we were NOT allowed to leave the launch platform until the person in front had unclipped from the zip line on the landing platform. We did NOT know about the accident before we left, otherwise, I would have chatted up the guides.

Here's the little practise course. Trust me - it was worth it. There were so many steps. Unclip, clip, unclip, clip and it had to be done in a certain sequence and you couldn't disconnect your two safety clips at the same time - only one released at a time. I thought we were never get the hang of it.

While we had zip lines to go down, we also had to get between the trees if one zip didn't start where the other ended. We had "puzzles" to cross. In our case, there were super simple. Logs VERY SECURELY attached to each other with cables - big cables. Strong cables. It was half way across this bridge that we had to put faith in our harness and we had to lean back into the harness (feet on the cable, but no hands allowed) to show us that it would support us. It did and it wasn't so bad. I'm not sure I would have felt the same confidence if I had fallen, but none of us did.

Walking on the log bridge

 We had a fair number of these to walk on. You had two cables to hold onto and your safety clips were strapped to another cable. You'll see better in a bit. But imagine if it's wet? Yep - they run the course in the rain so those logs would be a tad slippery. I'm glad they weren't slippery.

Each time we got to the landing platform, we had to use our two safety clips to unclip from the safety line overhead to the safety line on the tree. One clip at a time so you were always connected.

Then we got to try the mini zip line. Oh boy - more stuff to connect. Thankfully the guides were with us the entire time, I don't think I could have remembered all the steps. Well, that's not ture - I'll show you where they weren't with us.

Here's Susan just coming in for a landing on the mini zip line.

Susan landing on the pracitse zip line

 Oh - there's a better picture of her.

Yeah Susan made it safely to the end of the practise zip

 I should mention how we got the pictures. I took my phone with me and so I snapped some of the photos. But when we were in the trees, I had to give my phone to one of the guides (I had no pockets) and they put it in their back pack. Susan had her camera with a strap and she also had pockets but I think she also gave her camera to one of the guides. And then we had to get the camera or phone back out to take pictures. Next time - yes there will be a next time - I'll know to take a small pouch or a small bag with a clip that can attach to the harness. We had NO idea what to expect.


Here we are going up the ladder to the first platform. One guide was already ahead of us. Once we were on the platform, we had a series of log bridges to cross. We were on our own to remember to clip/unclip. I mean you couldn't go ahead if you didn't unclip. We all managed just fine.

Climbing up!

Honestly, I didn't give two thoughts to the heights. I just went up. What's the matter with me? Perhaps heights are no longer an issue?

Here I am walking one of the log bridges. That third cable (the safety one) was an issue as it was the same height as me and kept hitting my helmet. Susan had the same problem.

Walking the log bridge

How far apart are the platforms?? Most were about 200 - 300 feet. Susan took the picture below with the zoom on her camera.

The landing platform

But it was also this far away. This is what it looked like to us from the launch platform.

AH - there's the landing platform

One must have good form. I was the last one (of the guests) on the first couple of zips and then Susan and I swapped places to take pictures. She was much better at that than I was.

Here's my zipping form. They said to be aerodynamic and so lifting your legs make you more aerodynamic. No need for a push at the start. I kept coming in to the landing platform with a LOT of speed. I love speed.

Good zip line form

The first zip, I don't think we saw anything except the landing platform. But once you got the hang of it, you could actually look around and enjoy the ride.

Here I am getting ready to clip to the zip line and release my safety clips.

Getting ready to clip to the zip line

Then we got to a larger platform where we had a water break and Ann took this picture of Susan and myself. What fun we had. We had to walk down three log bridges to get to this platform.

Susan and I enjoying the break

It's deceiving because part of the course is laid out on the edge of the escarpment. But in the distance is the platform which was on the tallest tree or the tree that we were the greatest height from the ground. Way in the distance. 

Highest platform from the ground in the distance

That platform was a double decker. There was a landing platform and then you had to take a ladder down to the launch platform. Getting attached to that ladder was a tad scary. I was on the ladder when our guide left the other platform and everything just shook like crazy.  AH - what's going on here?  OH - OK. That wasn't so bad.

Going down the ladder to the launch platform

I have to say that my legs were a wee bit shakey on the very first platform, but after that, I was totally fine. Perhaps because Susan and I talked up a storm either with ourselves or with the guides. I'm sure the family of four with us were saying - just SHUT UP already!!! But DAMMIT - we were there to enjoy ourselves and we certainly did that.

Oh here's a better view of that two level platform.

Two level platform

And from that platform was the longest zip line - 600 feet.  Yahoo!!!!  Of course, I had to do a yahoo every time I left the platform. Why not????

In the picture below, the upper cable was leading away from the double platform for the incoming zip line and the cable in the lower left was the 600 foot outgoing zip line. Great shots Susan!!!!

Incoming and outgoing zip lines

Too bad we didn't get all the safety clips, but this is what it looked like in the tree. We each had two safety clips attached to the safety line (red).

The safety clips secured to the safety cable

And then we were on the ground. Oh shoot - we were having a blast and wanted MORE!!!!

There was ZERO free fall. If you just sat in the harness and let your weight support you, it was just like going down a slide. I'm not kidding - it was amazing.

Time to get out of the harness. No - I'm not flapping my arms - Garrett was just loosening the safety harness and it was easier if I lifted my arms.

Removing the safety harness

Here's Susan getting rid of her harness.

Just before the harness came off

And here's a picture of Susan and myself with our two guides. Thanks to Anna and Garrett for a great day. It was loads of fun. I highly recommend if you get the chance - you should go. It wasn't nearly as bad as what I thought it was going to be. NO - I didn't even allow myself to think of it as scary. I just wanted to go.

Anna, ME, Susan and Garrett

Before we left, we went back to look at the adventure course. That's the one with the obstacles and you need to get through the obstacles in order to move on. I'm not sure that we could do that. It requires a LOT of upper body strength and I'm not sure I would have the strength or the courage. Anyway - it looked interesting and might be fun to try. At least it goes by level - you start with the beginner, then intermediate and then expert. You can get off at the end of any of the sections. Hmmm - Susan???  Are you going to start doing push-ups on the dock each morning?

Part of the adventure course

So there you have it. Way more information about zip lining than you ever wanted to know.

It was a long day to get home and I'll tell you about that another day.

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!!

On an adventure

Today’s blog is a bit different. First off, I’m not sitting at the computer at home. Nope - I’ve got my butt parked on a slightly damp dock and watching a slight mist on the lake. Flocks of Canada Geese have already gone wild and flew off in two low clouds right in front of me.

It’s early in the morning of a long weekend at the cottage and it’s deathly quiet except for the occasional duck, bird, goose or other natural sounds. Let’s not forget the loon that woke me at 3 AM just so I wouldn’t forget them.

Something very weird happened at the dock yesterday as we were sitting here. A mommy duck and five little babies came swimming along the shore. As they approached the dock so they could go out around the dock, they went crazy and flapping their wings. We could see something chasing them in the water and thought it was a huge fish. Nope - it turned out that the loon mommy? Or could have been the daddy? was swimming underwater and chasing the ducks. Now, why is that???  The loon left its own baby to do that.  Just checked the internet and yep - it’s a common thing for loons to attack ducks. Bad loon - there were five cute little duck babies!!!

By the way, I hear the loon back. What a haunting cry!!!  Oh - I thought I saw the lone loon, but from the HONK it just gave - that’s a goose.

Well if you followed me on IG and FB yesterday, you know that I was NOT quilting. I was on an adventure.

I’m going to blame this all on Susan S from Saskatchewan. A number of years ago, she went zip lining and said how fun it was. For some reason, that stuck with me. At one of our quilting retreats, we (Susan W and I) said that we should go. It had never been on my bucket list, but why not? Life is too short.

I believe that seed was planted before I went to work. I was very limited on time and we’ve been trying for several years to make that happen. It never did - the timing was never right. Well, the timing wasn’t right yesterday, but no matter - we planned the date, booked the session and we were good.

The only problem, the zip line place was over 3 hours from my house and we had an appointment for 9:30. Needless to say, I had to get up a wee bit early. I was on the road by 5 AM after checking the tire pressure in my tires (one was low) and filled up with gas and breakfast from Tim’s. That was a strange thing, but it would have been a bit difficult to eat my oatmeal while driving.

I wanted to leave early to clear the traffic in that ridiculous city. Hard to imagine that one can drive at 100-120K for almost one hour and still be in the “big” city. It’s a bit crazy. And hard to believe how much traffic there is on the road at that time of day - huge trucks and lots of cars. It’s just insane.

But no issues and I was good. I arrived about 40 minutes earlier than I needed to, but I had already connected my audiobook to the car so I just sat there and waited and listened.

It was a glorious day. I’m not going to tell you about it today - I’ll do that tomorrow when I have pictures. Let’s just say that it was amazing and I’m so glad that we did it.

Then back to Susan’s (W) cottage which was about 40 minutes away. I won’t say much about that either until I have the pictures. Let’s just say that it’s a beautiful place on a beautiful quiet lake.

I’m not sure that I’m a cottage person. It’s nice to get away, but oh what work to maintain. I think I would rent a place, but the water is nothing to me so I wouldn’t even need to be on the lake although early in the morning when all is peaceful, it’s kind of fun to sit here and look out at the great view.

I have a couple of things to do on my way home and you’ll hear all about them tomorrow.

Have a great day!

Ciao!!

Just one of those days

We've all had them. Totally useless days. NO - that's not true as it wasn't a totally useless day but it seemed like I got nothing accomplished and it was marked by frustrations the entire day.

See even as I write this, I'm frustrated and being frustrated isn't a good thing for me. Frustration makes me eat. NO - I'm not overeating, but I want to! Bring on a bag of licorice, bring on the cookies!!!  But NO - I'll behave.

So what got me so frustrated? I had a lot of things going on today - nothing new there. I attended my video class and while it's great, there's so much to learn, it's a bit intimidating.

What has really frustrated me? By the time I got to look at the motor on the long arm and got a response from the support team, I'm supposed to remove the metal plate, not worry about the wires. So I tried to remove the screws - couldn't budge one of them. Got the other one out, only to get a response and a picture from the support team that only the one that I can't budge is the one that's supposed to come out. Seriously????  Could they not have said that to start with? Normally, I've had amazing luck with the support team, but this one person isn't so swift. The instructions don't match my machine and even when I ask, I don't get the proper answer.

So am I frustrated? You bet. I will have to wait for a stronger pair of hands to remove that stupid screw which won't happen until Saturday. Am I frustrated? YES - because I've got deadlines. As a side note, Ronda stopped by to help. Still no go even though we tried  Google search on how to release that tough screw. Got some tips from my DAd which I'll try tomorrow.

Oh well.

Where's the liquor bottle?

It doesn't help that I'm off on an adventure today. I almost hate to book any trips away because there's usually something happening right before I leave. It never fails. I must figure out how to make that stop because it makes me not want to go away anymore.

It will be a fun day (I hope) and I'm sure you'll hear all about it on Facebook and Instagram. A totally frivolous day - but I think I need it about now!!!

Enough griping. Time to chill out.

Pop on over to QUILTsocial to see the last day of the sewing marathon. I'll have more information about the quilts in the blog to share with you later next week.

On that note, I've got a long drive ahead of me and I had better get myself in gear.

Have a super day!!!!!

Ciao!!!!

Help!

I can procrastinate like no tomorrow. Especially if the task to be done isn't one that I want to do.

I've been procrastinating on a couple of things and waiting until the absolute last minute to get them done. Why? Who knows. It's ridiculous because it puts enormous pressure on myself. Half the time, once I get started, the task wasn't such a big deal.

So yesterday was the time to get working on those now very urgent tasks.

The last of the blog posts got completed and I'm VOWING to start right now for the next series. Good grief - it won't take much. Already got the machine to work on so there is NO excuse.

I have a quilt to make and it wasn't until late in the day when I got my butt in gear to get that cut. I got half of it cut. Then I went searching for the fabrics to make the second half of the quilt. I had to dig deep into the bowels of the stash room to find what I was looking for.

I'm searching through the bags of stuff and then WHOA - what's this???  OH MY GOD - I found some samples of crazy quilting that had been missing for YEARS.

Three crazy quilt blocks (works in progress)

But this was the one that I was really looking for. OH MY GOD - do you see the year on there???? 2004!!!!   That hilarious. Anyway - I found the darn thing and all of these will go in the box with the crazy quilt stuff. Yeah - one more thing off the LOST list.

Crazy quilt block started in 2004

Don't you think we should all keep a "lost things" list? It would be great to see if we're actually winning the race of finding things. At this moment, I think I'm still missing two things - a cheque (I know - don't ask - I have 50 days to find it) and that second orange USB stick.

I sorted through the box of stuff that was deep in the corner. Hmm - I found what I needed but not enough. I popped in the car and off to Salvation Army where I was able to get more of what I needed. Of course, I'm not going to share with you what I was looking for. Then home and threw everything in the washer and now I'm going to have a task to do when I watch my online class later today. So that task is essentially under control.

That's two for two for the day!

Next up was the motor. My thought was to at least take the motor off the long arm and get ready to install the new one.

The first couple of pages was removing the covers. No problem, most of them were already off or half off.

So this is the instruction in the manual on how to disconnect the old motor. Looks easy right?

Disconnecting the old motor

However, this is what my motor looks like.  That is NOT an easy connector to just slip out. Needless to say, I have sent an urgent message to Iowa to see what the next step is. It's not looking good at this point.

Hmm - that's doesn't look like an easy connection to dismantle

Here's a picture of the motor. That's the new one. Motors are heavy in case you didn't know. 

The new motor

Well, that could throw a monkey wrench in my plans for the month of August. I had a schedule and now I'm two weeks behind. That's not good!!!!  I'll wait and see what happens today but I hope it doesn't mean it has to be sent back to Iowa?????  Gulp - I have a quilt that needs to be done and in the mail - well should be today, but that's not going to happen.

I desperately need to book some travel arrangements but not sure I'll have time today. I have one more urgent thing that I want to get finished today and that's going to be my focus. I WANT it done.

Isn't life fun when it throws you a curve ball? Well - let's just see what can be done.

I see that Miss Lexi finally calmed down and was able to post about all the excitement in the backyard. Seriously, she and Murphy are just two crazed dogs.

Here's the link to the QUILTsocial blog for today. I sure hope you're flipping over and reading them. The number of people who have commented about the great tips - well you had better check it out. There's a lot of great info and I put my heart and soul into those posts.

On that note, I'm out of here for the day. It's going to be crazy - an online class, an in-person class and that urgent item that needs to be tidied up and hopefully some good news on the motor installation.

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!

Christmas in July

Well, that's not quite right, but I did get something special in the mail yesterday.

Let's just say that it wasn't a very productive day. No, it was, just not much to show for it.

In case you're wondering - YES - the motor did arrive yesterday. It arrived at 4:17 but I wasn't home. I had left a note that if it needed a signature to see my neighbor. It was on my step when I got home at 7 PM so not sure if the UPS left it there or the neighbor did. Doesn't matter - I got it.

The package

I did get it opened up last night and I got a nice set of instructions as well as the motor. I have to say that I've never been let down by the instructions from APQS. There are lots of pictures and explanations. Sometimes I take it in small bites because I do have to search for the appropriate thing at times but mostly because I don't know the official names of some of the parts. Sometimes it's a mental challenge. It took me three days to install the computer, but I'm hoping this will be easy. The first page (opening up the machine is already done!)

The motor (wrapped in plastic) and the instructions

Hopefully later today, I'll get a chance to get the motor installed. I have a couple of urgent things to do and I have TWO days to get them done. One will be done by noon today - that's my focus for this morning. The other two will be dealt with in their own time. Then, I'll hope to have some time to work on the long arm.

I can't be too worried about those deadlines as I went to the movies yesterday. We saw Mama Mia!
Oh - it was such a good movie. Kind of sad in parts, but the music was so well done and to compensate for the "bad" singing in the last one, they had a lot of young actors (very well cast) to do the singing. I loved it!!! And CHER - oh my god! Her voice is still beautiful - a wee bit stiff in legs but she's 72!!!

Then I signed up for an online class on the long arm software. I wasn't going to but decided to forge ahead - I need to learn that to properly get my money's worth. That took up a couple of hours but I did some hand embroidery while I listened and watched. It's the first of 8 classes over the next four weeks. Am I going to be busy? Oh yes!!

I cranked out 32 KM this morning on the bike. It was a great class and when you get in the zone, you're not thinking about anything. Just focus on breathing and pedaling. Awesome class.

Don't forget to checkout QUILTsocial today. There are some great tips on machine quilting - needles, machine settings, thread color, etc. Be sure to check it out.

The girls are up to no good this morning and I haven't seen them since they went out - not even for breakfast. I'm sure Lexi will tell you all about it when they calm down.

Now I'm ready to tackle the day.

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!