WE MANAGED TO GET THE BIKE RIDE IN ON DAY THREE OF THE 31 DAY BLOG CHALLENGE!

Thank you to all of you for your encouragement about keeping up with the 31 day blog writing challenge!  Thanks to my sister, Maria, the blog is and comments are now working properly. So please leave me comments below, and I promise to read them and hopefully find time to respond to them!  

Yesterday, I said I was going for a bike ride.  Well, that never happened!  Instead, I spent the whole day sewing, cooking and raking!  I was on a roll, and hated to stop working on my BOM project.  I had planned to spend an hour trimming the blocks and piecing the 12 blocks together.  I had forgotten to tear away all the stabilizer on the back!  By 10 at night, I was able to accomplish sewing the blocks and even one of the half square triangle borders, but we never did get to go out for a ride.   

Today, Jeff and I finally got our bike ride in.  Up until now, the temperature reading had to be over 50 degrees F for Jeff to convince me to get outside and ride. Today, my cold weather threshold was decreased by 10 degrees!  Even though I did complain a few times in the first 3 or 4 miles, by the 5th mile I was actually enjoying myself!  Truly, it was a beautiful day outside. So that photo is of me riding through an old train tunnel, with a winter coat, ear warmers and gloves.  You warm weather people probably think we are crazy!  

One of the reasons I love to ride around New England towns is that I have a strange fascination with old mill buildings.  Maybe it is simply because I used to work at Cranston Print Works Co, the oldest textile printing company in the USA.  For some strange reason, the mills fascinate me, and I take photos of them wherever I go.  Rail trails, like the one we rode on today, often ride past these old mills just as the trains did years ago.  

  

To the right is the Goodwill Shoe manufacturing company building in Holliston, MA.  This was once the largest shoe manufacturer in Massachusetts that specialized in leather shoes and steel toe “Safety First” boots.  At one time, my father worked in the shoe mills in Brocton, MA. I guess manufacturing is in my blood and I am passionate about keeping manufacturing jobs in the USA. 

Did you know that all my tools, books and patterns are made in the USA?  It is extremely important to me to give my manufacturing business to American companies.  

And here is something you may not know about my small business.  I have three consultants that work with me at Sue Pelland Designs.  Penny Bentley does all my event planning and scheduling.  If you are trying to book an SPD lecture for your guild, you will be speaking to Penny!  She keeps me organized and tells me where I need to be.  Joanne Bertrand helps me with sewing, vending and a million other things.  Donna Hopkins keeps my bookkeeping straight, and is the brains behind the SPD team!  I never make a move without running the idea by Donna. They all keep the business running so I can keep creating!   

So if you are a SPD customer, you have helped to keep my small business, and several other American companies in business this year!  For this, I am very thankful!