For the first time, I don't have much in the way of customer quilts in the line up. I'm a little nervous. I had hoped that the band ad would generate a bunch of t-shirt quilts . . . .but that hasn't happened. :(
I have a pair from a friend, and she's in no hurry (she said, heck, it took me five years to get them to this point, don't rush!) And the rest are charity quilts - basting one for mom, the blue Ohio stars for the Edna Martin Christian center, 2 Quilts of Valor for a friend, and . . . . . that's it! My round robin is haning in line, and I have a Grandmother's flower garden to do for myself, a flannel patchwork top that I purchased, and maybe a couple other unimportant tops of my own here and there in various near-complete stages.
On the horizon is one t-shirt quilt for the Dance teacher (we are bartering Marci's tumbling lessons) - her hubby is gathering the shirts now, so it may be a few more weeks. I think she'd like it by Christmas, which shouldn't be a problem. The only other one is also a t-shirt type memory quilt that will need light, simple quilting. It's from a repeat customer and she expects to have it to me in mid-November.
But then that's it. I have two bills that rely on my quilting to pay them, so it makes me nervous. God hasn't ever let me down in the quilting business, so I'm sure it will be fine, but if I am honest . . . I am nervous.
I will try to be appreciative of the upcoming free time, and work on a few of my own things. Time to make a list, prioritize and make some progress. Perhaps this can be a year that I get to make a few more homemade gifts, that would be a good thing! Lord knows, that Marci is due a pieced quilt from me. Her sister has two AND a doll quilt; her brother has one AND a recovered one that was in Mr. Calico's family. Marci has the little t-shirt lap quilt I made last year (mostly as a sample for the new t-shirt customers I was hoping to have this year) doesn't seem too fair. I do have about half of a lime, black and hot pink one cut out for her, so time to get piecing! Oooh! And I'm sure I can squeeze a matching doll quilt out of the leftovers too - that would be awesome!!
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Friday, September 20, 2013
Getting ready for a big push!
Well, I tweaked the design of my business cards and brochures (and intake forms and receipts, LOL) to be specific for tshirt quilts. And all that prep is to be ready for my first ad being placed - yikes! I'll be putting a quarter page ad in the band program that is distributed at IHSMA District contest here in October. I figure my target customer is one who doesn't quilt, so I've really aimed it at those folks who just want to give me their tshirts and write a check when the quilt is done.
I think I can complete two per month - that would give me 3/4 of a week to piece one, a week to quilt it (two weekends) and 2 days to bind it. I plan to accept 1 for October, 2 for November, and 1 for December. I may also offer 2 slots to have their top pieced in time to give as a Christmas gift, but they'll return it to me afterwards for quilting. And then it will be all out, two a month hopefully :)
I'll try to find a way to scan and post them :) For now, good thoughts!!
I think I can complete two per month - that would give me 3/4 of a week to piece one, a week to quilt it (two weekends) and 2 days to bind it. I plan to accept 1 for October, 2 for November, and 1 for December. I may also offer 2 slots to have their top pieced in time to give as a Christmas gift, but they'll return it to me afterwards for quilting. And then it will be all out, two a month hopefully :)
I'll try to find a way to scan and post them :) For now, good thoughts!!
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Late summer days
What would summer be without canning? This summer nearly slipped by without putting anything up around here, but luckily, one of the members at Bethel had extra tomatoes and was willing to share - yeah! So now we have 30 pints of salsa at home! It actually went pretty well and I even tidied up as I go, so the kitchen isn't even a disaster. Pears and apples should be coming on soon, so ginger pear jelly and lots of apple goodies will be up next.
It has finally gotten hot - just in time for hte kids to go back to school, poor things. But the worst one is niece Ciara - she's gone to Butler college and discovered there is no AC in the dorm - YIKES! She's gone from a comfy 70 degrees to SUMMER! It's making her miserable and hopefully we'll have some better temps soon so she can begin to enjoy her college experience.
Ellen got sick again, same virus. We went for blood work and it all came back normal, and no mono. So, I'm kinda holding my breath to see if it comes back again. If it does, I'll begin to be very concerned and want the doctors to start looking a whole lot harder.
Quilting is going well. I delivered another one over the weekend, and she was pleased. I also worked last week on a new brochure & busines cards for the t-shirt quilting part of my business. They have come in and I really like them. Fall sports season is just starting so I'm hoping to catch all those football, cheerleader, band & cross country moms who want quilts made out of Bobby or Sally's shirts (well more like
It has finally gotten hot - just in time for hte kids to go back to school, poor things. But the worst one is niece Ciara - she's gone to Butler college and discovered there is no AC in the dorm - YIKES! She's gone from a comfy 70 degrees to SUMMER! It's making her miserable and hopefully we'll have some better temps soon so she can begin to enjoy her college experience.
Ellen got sick again, same virus. We went for blood work and it all came back normal, and no mono. So, I'm kinda holding my breath to see if it comes back again. If it does, I'll begin to be very concerned and want the doctors to start looking a whole lot harder.
Quilting is going well. I delivered another one over the weekend, and she was pleased. I also worked last week on a new brochure & busines cards for the t-shirt quilting part of my business. They have come in and I really like them. Fall sports season is just starting so I'm hoping to catch all those football, cheerleader, band & cross country moms who want quilts made out of Bobby or Sally's shirts (well more like
Thursday, July 25, 2013
And flew by again, LOL!
Well, four more months flew by, LOL!
Much is same ole' same ole', but some is new - Much to my mother's horror if she knew, I was baptized at First Apostolic Church in North Vernon on May 19th! Of course, I'd been going with Mr. Calico and Marci for many months, probably since last fall. Reading the Bible and studying about what I'd been taught growing up in the Catholic church, and what I was now hearing and learning at FAC. That night, the Spirit moved me to step out and take this next step. The cool thing was, it just so happened that our Pastor was out of town for the Sunday night service - so I got to be baptized by Brother Rod Raines who was preaching that night instead. He and his wife Angela were the ones to come meet with me when I first had questions and wanted to talk with someone. How neat that it came full circle like that! God works in mysterious ways, and often has plans better than ours!
Marci had her tryouts for High School cheer, but didn't make the squad. She was pretty crushed. Only one girl from Northside made it (and even Marci agrees, she is pretty darn spectacular!) all the rest were from Central. She has bounced back, but every now and then I feel sad for her because I know how much she loves the sport. She and Ellen will pick up their class schedules and books next week, school starts the Monday after that, August 5th to be exact.
Ellen caught something yucky. She had a horrible fever last Wednesday night - like 103 - 104! We went to the Dr. the next day and it was 102.6 - and I told them, she is much, much better than last night! Tested for strep and negative. She didn't want to give blood for a mono test, so he sent her home and said "if it's a virus, you'll feel some better by Monday, if you don't feel better, then we need to do a mono test, so come back." Well, we went back, but the mono spot test was negative. So now it's Thursday - a week and a day since she was knocked down by this, she still has a headache (I'd have killed myself by now having a headache for 9 days!!) sore throat, and fatigue. She says it's better than the first day, but she's not "better." Also, one of the little ones she watches on Sundays in the nursery has come down with what sounds like the exact same thing - though he had a seizure from the high fever the first night :( So we are having her rest and push fluids, hoping she gets better.
Max, oh dear sweet Max. All I can do is shake my head some days! We got a call from the Insurance office July 2nd. Seems they had a fellow in there saying Max's truck had hit his in a parking lot. So I questioned Max, and it turns out he'd parked at McDonald's after work one night and must not have had the truck in gear and it rolled back across the lot and hit this guys car, smashing its' bumper. I asked insurance when this had happened ------ she says "June 2nd" WHAT! A MONTH AGO???? MMMMAAAAAAXXXXXXXXX! So we had a talk about "if your car touches someone else's car without permission then you need to come home and tell mommy and daddy right away, ok???" The only good thing was, Tim had noticed some red on the bumper of the truck a couple weeks earlier and was going nuts trying to figure out what it was or where it came from. So I asked Max, "Was this other car by any chance red?" "Yeah, how'd you know?" Mystery solved! Max said the guy said he would look for a bumper in a junk yard, but some how Max didn't piece together the part of that where he or his insurance would still have to PAY for said bumper! It was a $981 repair, and that's without the likely 3 days of rental car in there yet. *sigh* It's always something new with that kid, LOL! We took away his computer and told him when his room was clean (spotless really!) he could have it back. He made a great dent, but hasn't finished it quite yet, and found where I'd stashed his computer and took it back, so I'll be repossessing it and bringing it here to work to keep his grubby mitts off it until his room passes inspection!
Speaking of insurance . . . . . Mr. Calico and I were at the insurance office to talk about Life policies and changing ours to a "return of premium" policy. Rates will go up versus what we have, but we'll have better options at the end of the term. Well, I will anyway. Turns out he's been chewing tobacco (I just found out on Sunday on the way home from church that it wasn't Mint snuff anymore) and so that means for him to change policies would cost $1,900 instead of $800 a year as a non-tobacco user! I was ticked to be sure. The only thing we can do is have him quit and then start the new policy in a year when the tobacco is out of his system - but the policies are going up by 40% next year, so we'll still take a hit. I could just kill him! And right now so I could collect on the policy we have in place, yeah, the one he'll be keeping for a year at least! Most of the companies wouldn't even allow him a policy as a man over 45 and tobacco user. Amazing how little choices make big impact when we least expect it. I've gotten my irritation out mostly, and didn't even fuss anymore once we left the office (though I have enjoyed telling the story to a few friends!) The bright spot is that I discovered that I will be rated as "Preferred" which is a lower premium, and heck, if I can lose 5 pounds in a week (the nurse comes to swab my mouth, and weigh and all that) then I can be "Preferred Plus" - so that's cool!
As to quilting .. . . . .ugh. I haven't had anything on the frame in almost a month. There was a HUGE push to finish the two commissioned Tshirt quilts for high school grads in time for graduation. And I made it. Then there was a simple Chinese coin quilt for a guild member dying of cancer, and that got done. But after that . . . .zip. I will say, it's been HOT the last week or two, and it's hard to get quilting when it's too hot, plus in the summer I get little bugs flying around the light on the longarm and on the top as I'm quilting. It only takes quilting over a couple to determine that you have to quit when the tiny bugs come out in the evening - so that shortens my opportunity to work. But really, I just need to quit procrastinating and get with it. My previous post I was doing so much better at getting things done and not giving in to the depression - but "overwhelmed" is the word of the last 6 to 8 weeks. Everything just seems like too much to face: the laundry, the dishes, quilting, heck just getting up. I did have a couple of good days this week, and am hopeful that I'm on an upswing. Whatever the case, I have a deadline for 2 quilts coming in a week and a half, so they'll have to get done whether I like it or not. And hopefully that will get my mojo flowing and I can climb back on top of the world!
Oh, and in chicken world, good news, good news, and bad news. We had Miss Abigail hatch out 6 babies over July 3 and 4 - 4 black and 2 white. She sat on them in the basement window sill just below the kitchen window and behind all the viney brush there. I was worried that the eggs or babies would fall off the window sill! And some of the eggs did, but still she kept a small clutch and hatched 6. Then 3 days ago Dannibelle and Bitsybelle wandered off. I found Dannibelle a day later, but no Bitsybelle yet. She's a scardy cat and I figure the bigger girls ran her off. All the polish had been staying caged but we'd let them out since there weren't any shows coming up and it was so hot. I wanted them to be in the run where there's shade and overgrowth. Unfortunately, the door to the run was open one morning and I didn't know, so when I put them in there from the coop, they wandered out into the yard. I'm still praying that Bitsybelle will come back or that God will lead me to find her and bring her home. Lucybelle and Leopold are still in the basement, it's cooler, but I worry about the dampness. She was already having a hard time with the heat in early May when the temps began to hit the high 70's. Just like Ellen, the heatstroke she had last year will have lingering effects and I'll have to baby her in the summer.
Much is same ole' same ole', but some is new - Much to my mother's horror if she knew, I was baptized at First Apostolic Church in North Vernon on May 19th! Of course, I'd been going with Mr. Calico and Marci for many months, probably since last fall. Reading the Bible and studying about what I'd been taught growing up in the Catholic church, and what I was now hearing and learning at FAC. That night, the Spirit moved me to step out and take this next step. The cool thing was, it just so happened that our Pastor was out of town for the Sunday night service - so I got to be baptized by Brother Rod Raines who was preaching that night instead. He and his wife Angela were the ones to come meet with me when I first had questions and wanted to talk with someone. How neat that it came full circle like that! God works in mysterious ways, and often has plans better than ours!
Marci had her tryouts for High School cheer, but didn't make the squad. She was pretty crushed. Only one girl from Northside made it (and even Marci agrees, she is pretty darn spectacular!) all the rest were from Central. She has bounced back, but every now and then I feel sad for her because I know how much she loves the sport. She and Ellen will pick up their class schedules and books next week, school starts the Monday after that, August 5th to be exact.
Ellen caught something yucky. She had a horrible fever last Wednesday night - like 103 - 104! We went to the Dr. the next day and it was 102.6 - and I told them, she is much, much better than last night! Tested for strep and negative. She didn't want to give blood for a mono test, so he sent her home and said "if it's a virus, you'll feel some better by Monday, if you don't feel better, then we need to do a mono test, so come back." Well, we went back, but the mono spot test was negative. So now it's Thursday - a week and a day since she was knocked down by this, she still has a headache (I'd have killed myself by now having a headache for 9 days!!) sore throat, and fatigue. She says it's better than the first day, but she's not "better." Also, one of the little ones she watches on Sundays in the nursery has come down with what sounds like the exact same thing - though he had a seizure from the high fever the first night :( So we are having her rest and push fluids, hoping she gets better.
Max, oh dear sweet Max. All I can do is shake my head some days! We got a call from the Insurance office July 2nd. Seems they had a fellow in there saying Max's truck had hit his in a parking lot. So I questioned Max, and it turns out he'd parked at McDonald's after work one night and must not have had the truck in gear and it rolled back across the lot and hit this guys car, smashing its' bumper. I asked insurance when this had happened ------ she says "June 2nd" WHAT! A MONTH AGO???? MMMMAAAAAAXXXXXXXXX! So we had a talk about "if your car touches someone else's car without permission then you need to come home and tell mommy and daddy right away, ok???" The only good thing was, Tim had noticed some red on the bumper of the truck a couple weeks earlier and was going nuts trying to figure out what it was or where it came from. So I asked Max, "Was this other car by any chance red?" "Yeah, how'd you know?" Mystery solved! Max said the guy said he would look for a bumper in a junk yard, but some how Max didn't piece together the part of that where he or his insurance would still have to PAY for said bumper! It was a $981 repair, and that's without the likely 3 days of rental car in there yet. *sigh* It's always something new with that kid, LOL! We took away his computer and told him when his room was clean (spotless really!) he could have it back. He made a great dent, but hasn't finished it quite yet, and found where I'd stashed his computer and took it back, so I'll be repossessing it and bringing it here to work to keep his grubby mitts off it until his room passes inspection!
Speaking of insurance . . . . . Mr. Calico and I were at the insurance office to talk about Life policies and changing ours to a "return of premium" policy. Rates will go up versus what we have, but we'll have better options at the end of the term. Well, I will anyway. Turns out he's been chewing tobacco (I just found out on Sunday on the way home from church that it wasn't Mint snuff anymore) and so that means for him to change policies would cost $1,900 instead of $800 a year as a non-tobacco user! I was ticked to be sure. The only thing we can do is have him quit and then start the new policy in a year when the tobacco is out of his system - but the policies are going up by 40% next year, so we'll still take a hit. I could just kill him! And right now so I could collect on the policy we have in place, yeah, the one he'll be keeping for a year at least! Most of the companies wouldn't even allow him a policy as a man over 45 and tobacco user. Amazing how little choices make big impact when we least expect it. I've gotten my irritation out mostly, and didn't even fuss anymore once we left the office (though I have enjoyed telling the story to a few friends!) The bright spot is that I discovered that I will be rated as "Preferred" which is a lower premium, and heck, if I can lose 5 pounds in a week (the nurse comes to swab my mouth, and weigh and all that) then I can be "Preferred Plus" - so that's cool!
As to quilting .. . . . .ugh. I haven't had anything on the frame in almost a month. There was a HUGE push to finish the two commissioned Tshirt quilts for high school grads in time for graduation. And I made it. Then there was a simple Chinese coin quilt for a guild member dying of cancer, and that got done. But after that . . . .zip. I will say, it's been HOT the last week or two, and it's hard to get quilting when it's too hot, plus in the summer I get little bugs flying around the light on the longarm and on the top as I'm quilting. It only takes quilting over a couple to determine that you have to quit when the tiny bugs come out in the evening - so that shortens my opportunity to work. But really, I just need to quit procrastinating and get with it. My previous post I was doing so much better at getting things done and not giving in to the depression - but "overwhelmed" is the word of the last 6 to 8 weeks. Everything just seems like too much to face: the laundry, the dishes, quilting, heck just getting up. I did have a couple of good days this week, and am hopeful that I'm on an upswing. Whatever the case, I have a deadline for 2 quilts coming in a week and a half, so they'll have to get done whether I like it or not. And hopefully that will get my mojo flowing and I can climb back on top of the world!
Oh, and in chicken world, good news, good news, and bad news. We had Miss Abigail hatch out 6 babies over July 3 and 4 - 4 black and 2 white. She sat on them in the basement window sill just below the kitchen window and behind all the viney brush there. I was worried that the eggs or babies would fall off the window sill! And some of the eggs did, but still she kept a small clutch and hatched 6. Then 3 days ago Dannibelle and Bitsybelle wandered off. I found Dannibelle a day later, but no Bitsybelle yet. She's a scardy cat and I figure the bigger girls ran her off. All the polish had been staying caged but we'd let them out since there weren't any shows coming up and it was so hot. I wanted them to be in the run where there's shade and overgrowth. Unfortunately, the door to the run was open one morning and I didn't know, so when I put them in there from the coop, they wandered out into the yard. I'm still praying that Bitsybelle will come back or that God will lead me to find her and bring her home. Lucybelle and Leopold are still in the basement, it's cooler, but I worry about the dampness. She was already having a hard time with the heat in early May when the temps began to hit the high 70's. Just like Ellen, the heatstroke she had last year will have lingering effects and I'll have to baby her in the summer.
Friday, March 1, 2013
4 months just flew right by!
Yikes! 4 months and no posts - oops! I do mean well, and often I compose blog entries in my head. Unfortunately, it's usually when I'm lying my head down on my pillow at night, and as you can see - those posts don't make it to the blog.
I'm actually have a good streak right now, not sure why, but happy for it all the same! House is tidy, and Mt. Washmore is sooooo close to being conquered. Been feeling good and being productive - can't ask for more than that! I'm in the middle of rearranging the quilting room. Max and Marci each want to get rid of a tall bookshelf. So the 2 shelves I have now will go out to the barn - they have a larger footprint and I find that they stick too much out into the walkway.
So right now it's complete chaos, things piled on the longarm table and stuff half moved, LOL! The pix below show the fireplace wall. It will keep the design wall in place and the treadle in front of the fireplace, but the thread cabinet will go beside the design wall. The rolling garment rack will go across the room to hold customer quilts and a box of batting scraps probably.
And this last pix shows the two shelves that are getting replaced. They are really nice shelves, but just not so practical for what I need in here, and sticking out further at the base is annoying too. The thread cabinet/hutch in between them will be moved across the room, and the garment rack will go in this area somewhere - depends on how much room is left around the longarm. I'd like enough room to scoot to the other side, but can give it up and go the long way if I have to. That's one of those things I'll just have to move the furniture around and see how it works best.
In family news. Marci finished cheering and had a great season. Next up is a clinic to brush up on try out skills and then try outs for High School - wow! Can't believe my last baby is going to be in High School next year. Here are some pix from one of the last games -
The middle pix is with her two awesome coaches, Jamie and Mollie. She sure learned a lot from them and I really think she has a good chance to make the High School squad. Those tryouts are in April - stay tuned, LOL.
Ellen got her first job about a month ago - she is working at Chuckie Cheese's, tee hee. Corny place, but she seems to like it ok. She doesn't like one boss, but everyone else is nice. And for the most part, no one likes this one boss. She isn't very nice to the kids. My only beef with the job is that I am her taxi and they don't always let her off on time. Last night she was scheduled 5 - 8 pm. I arrived at 8 pm to pick her up and sat in my car for 1 hour and 45 minutes. The bad part is, that's not unusual. She gets off on time about once a week, and is about an hour late all the other times. Of course, she's supposed to be checking into getting her driver's permit so she can learn to drive, get her license and drive herself - hasn't lifted a finger yet *sigh*.
Guess that's all the news for now - time to go home and start the weekend!
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