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I AM AFRAID


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Today is THE DAY - delivery day that is for my APQS Freedom!!

Her room is all ready - freshly painted and she will be the first one to move in. Everything else (desks, tables, quilting paraphanalia) will be settled in around "her".

I am NOT a technical whiz and thinking about setting up this wonderful machine is scary. My husband will be my "technician" and setup man, since we live in Hawaii and there are no APQS reps here. I am anxious about the possible glitches that could happen (and may not) in setting up the machine with no experience. ARRRGGGHHHHH

Any practical tips will be appreciated; and I have been reading posts like crazy, hoping that the information will beef up my courage to just "get on with it".

The hydraulic lift has arrived early, however there does not seem to be any instructions in that box for setup.

Mahalo (thank you) to everyone for being so helpful to all of us "newbies".

Hawaii Barbara:)

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Hi Barbara. Do not be afraid. You can do this. You can do this! I did it all by myself, except when I needed help lifting the rails on to the legs and the rollers (those are long and heavy and need two people). Other than that, I just read the manual carefully and followed the instructions. Just take your time and you will be fine. :)

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Barbara,

Don't be afraid...and know that you are going through the same -"what was I thinking" syndrome that the rest if us have gone through...you will be fine.

The best advice I can give it to thread the machine with the color of your choice. Load the practice muslin. Needle down...needle up. Get ready...get set...go!! And have fun ;)

And if you need me....I can be on the next flight over....

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Hi Barbara,

DO NOT BE AFRAID!!! I put mine together myself with a little help from Hubbie in about 2.5 hours. It was a piece of cake. Now I didn't have the lift, but that shouldn't be a problem

Besides - Mary Beth will come over in no time :P

Have fun and enjoy and come visit at this forum daily. Its a blast. The ladies here are wonderful!

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Hi Barbara -

DO NOT BE AFRAID ! ! ! Is there an echo in here? I think you could call any rep anywhere in the country and they would be glad to talk you through any problems. Take a deep cleansing breath, continue to breath and now push - Oh wait, it's a birthing process but the wrong one. Just take it one step at a time.

Which island are you on? My nephew and family live on Kauaii and we will be going over to visit again in about 6 to 8 months. Are you anywhere close? Would love to meet up with you in person.

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Hi, I'm a newbie too. No machine....yet. My Freedom SR arrives in September but here I am chatting away with all these wonderful women (who by the way, never let a question go unanswered!). You all are fabulous!! I know when my machine comes, all will be well. I am a little nervous, just butterflies, but EXCITED. Can't wait, can't wait.... go for it girl.

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You folks are TOO funny as well as amazingly encouraging!!!

Yes, yes, yes - come for a trip to Paradise! - but I suspect that between the two of us (my wonderful homemade technician and me) - we will get it done! But, if you are in my corner of the world - COME VISIT!

FREEDOM is in her new studio (unassembled) - I checked all the boxes for freight damage and it looks like everything made it across the Pacific in good shape!!

We (my husband and I) are reading through the manual (me - at a glance and him - page by page) - by the way, that manual is WELL-WRITTEN and easy to understand, even for someone who is terribly intimated by technicalities! I watched the DVD and that Dawn Cavanaugh is a SUPER STAR in my books - very self-less in sharing her expertise! I will probably watch it again this morning.

We are planning a six hour session, this Saturday, with FREEDOM and hope to have her up and running by the weekend!

Will keep you all posted on progress - from a distance - I APPRECIATE YOU!

Hawaii Barbara

PS - No earthquake on this island (Oahu) and it looks like we may have rain, but will be by-passed by the hurricane!:)

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Received an email from a gal in southern California this week and she mentioned that there were very few longarm quilters in Hawaii. Now I can tell her there is one on the horizon. So are you on the Big Island of Hawaii? Was there about three or four times. The last time was when the Tsunami warning went off. They had us out of our rooms and up on the golf course in record time. My husband was in a business meeting at breakfast and the wait person came, started to pick up the silverware, etc. and the men all say "Wait a minute, we have not eaten", and she said it is now time to get on the bus. All the guys had to go back to the rooms and get the wives and medications they were taking or whatever. Got a tee shirt that said "I survived the Tsunami". WE were at the Hilton on the other side from the airport. Lovely place. Anyhow good luck on setting up the machine. It is not that hard especially since you have the homemade tech guy on your side. Also, welcome to the forum.

Beverly

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Those homemade tech guys are wonderful to have around. They just love all the technical things of putting it together and timing it. Mine always talks about the old teletype machine that he worked on when he first went in the Coast Guard.

We spent two years living at Red Hill on Oahu when he was in the Coast Guard. Beautiful place to visit, but it was too far from family for me.

I bet you will have lots of call for quilting there.

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Aloha Barbara

That is such bad timing! I was in Hawaii all last week with my family on holiday. I would have loved to have written down a set-up in Hawaii as a business expense! I don't think buying the triple adapter power cord at Ace on the North Shore will cut it with the tax man.

Seriously I would love to have met you. Where are you located? We stayed in Waikiki - it was awesome. We took The Bus all over the island of Oahu. There was a large brush fire near North Shore on the day before we left - hope you aren't there.

I tried to find a quilt shop on the island but couldn't and finding an Hawaiin quilt that was made in Hawaii wasn't possible for a tourist either - so I am sure you will get lots of work when you want it. I chatted to a lovely American lady who works at the Cultural Centre at the top of the island - Cathy Uren, and she told me lots about traditional Hawaiin quilting - I've come homes with several books about Hawaiian quilting a kit - can't wait to sit down and start the applique part.

I know you've had lots of offers to get you started in your quilting and setting up your machine - add me to the bottom of your list.

Good luck and have fun.

Sue in Australia

Dealer for APQS in Australia

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Sue, Am SOOOO sorry our timing on this machine set-up did not tie out with your vacation!!!! That would have been too perfect! (sigh....).

Ah well - my homemade techman is STILL reading through the manual in the evening (he is a landscaper contractor and comes home tired, but not too tired!) He has scheduled a block of time this Saturday, to work my setup job on the machine of my dreams!!

There are quilt shops on this island (not too many and scattered), I usually buy my fabrics online or on vacation and I have a stash that is spilling out ALL OVER the place (shame on me)! There are also longarm quilters sprinkled throughout the islands, but there is a 3 - 6 month backlog to get a quilt quilted. I need to get up to speed on my new machine and quilt my UFO's (for practice) before I even consider what direction to take... hobby/business???

The hurricane passed us by, leaving gusts of wind and some rain, but not enough to put out the fire on the North Shore (still burning).

As I said earlier, this group is wonderfully supportive - I love it! And even though you folks are oceans away - I feel connected and encouraged! Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Hawaii Barbara:D

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Hawaii Barbara....

I will be in Hawaii NEXT august. My daughter is getting married there on the beach (Maui), south side "i think". The whole family will be there for a week. We plan on Island hopping, so i'd love to get locations of your quilt shops etc. We are anxiously awaiting this trip, as the $$ already piling up on this wedding, but she's our only daughter. One son 3 yrs younger than she is, so hopefully his future wife's family can have that whole expense! LOL.

Welcome aboard Barbara and good luck setting her up. There are wonderful people here and the on-line tech's are GREAT! You couldn't ask for a better bunch of people than here.

U2U me if you can, to send me info on those shops!!!

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Well, the storm missed Hawaii but we have Erin in progress here. It's just a tropical storm but it's moving soooo sloooowly that it's sucking up all the water in the Gulf. It's supposed to go in tomorrow somewhere south of Freeport (15 miles from here) but we are on the "dirty side" so we may be floating by this time tomorrow! My DD & GS were supposed to be here tomorrow but I just called her and told her to wait until Friday so I can see where we stand.

Then Hurricane Dean is right behind her, not sure yet if it's going to come into the Gulf or not.

Here's the Mapquest link showing where we are:

http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?searchtype=address&country=US&addtohistory=&searchtab=home&formtype=address&popflag=0&latitude=&longitude=&name=&phone=&level=&cat=&address=&city=alvin&state=tx&zipcode=

Barbara, Did you get your machine set up? How did it go? Have used it yet? I just know when I get mine I'll just stand there for days staring at it with my mouth open and forget that it has a purpose!

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