What Does Steak Have to do with Quilting????

Have you ever been to a restaurant that served many, many, MANY types of food – Italian…. Steak…. Mexican…. Chicken…. Chinese…. American…. etc? Usually when trying to prepare many diverse things, none of them are done particularly well. Then you visit the restaurant that serves ONE thing – let’s say steak. Big steak …… or little steak ……. is the only choice. You KNOW you are going to get a great steak at that place.

I’ve been feeling like that first restaurant lately. Longarm quilter……pattern designer…..quilting teacher……retail store owner…..website manager…..bookkeeper…..blogger…..retreat organizer…… I don’t feel like I’ve been doing any of those as well as I could if I weren’t spread so thin.

So I’ve spent a lot of time lately thinking about which parts of the business I’m best at,  which ones I enjoy the most, and which parts fit in best with my personality quirks  (I’m not good at long term planning, and I have the attention span of a gnat – both things that are not conducive to running a fabric store!). I find that I need to create – not plan things out six months in advance…….not haggle with vendors over mistakes on orders…….not guess which fabrics to order that people will want to buy, only to find out my crystal ball was broken that day…..not spend a lot of time on marketing and merchandising and trying to convince people to buy things they probably don’t really need anyway. (I mean……really……how many of us are actually in danger of running out of fabric?!?!?!?!? LOL)

After much consideration, I have decided to narrow the focus of my business. I’m going to concentrate primarily on the longarm quilting, and possibly some time spent designing patterns. I really love the creativity of these parts of my business. I’ve had pattern ideas in my head for a long time, but just not enough uninterrupted time to get them worked out (there’s a lot of math involved in writing patterns!). I’ve also toyed with the idea of designing digitized quilting patterns for the computerized longarm systems. And I’ve still kept in the back of my mind the requests to teach longarm quilting classes. (Gee, that doesn’t seem like I’m really letting some things go, does it???)

Anyway, in order to free me up for these pursuits,

I’M HAVING A CLEARANCE SALE!!

New Sale Prices in Effect beginning Aug. 11, 2012 – all regular width fabrics $6.99/yd or less! Everything else has been reduced by 30% (sale prices not valid on batting or wide backs)

(CLICK HERE TO SHOP NOW)

I’m going to clearance out all of the retail quilting supplies, other than batting and wide quilt backs, which I will continue to carry. So all of my 44″ wide fabrics, pre-cut fabrics, notions, books, kits, etc. will be first come-first served, while supplies last.

I also need to take some time off this summer to recharge my batteries. I will be open Tues, Weds. and Thurs. from 10 am to 5 pm for July & August, other days will be by chance or appointment. The best thing to do if you are coming from out of town is to email or call to see if I will be open. And if you are not already on my mailing list, sign up here and/or Like Me on Facebook to be kept up-to-date on my hours. (I’ll probably be taking a full week off late Aug. or early Sept.)

I’m sorry for the inconvenience this may cause, but hopefully the great buys on sale items will make it up to you a little bit. And keep in mind, while in the future the Studio may no longer have the most extensive ‘menu’ around, you’ll know that what we do offer will be the tenderest, juiciest, most flavorful ‘steak’ ever!

(CLICK HERE TO SHOP NOW)

Quilting Studio Tour

If you couldn’t make it to my Quilt Market Review on Saturday, would you like to now join me on a photo tour of the Studio?

Here is the front entryway:

Don’t you love the hayfork? I found that in an antique store in Missouri a few years back:

This is the view that greets you as you come in the door to the Studio:

As you look to the left, you come to the “Civil War Corner”:

A closer look (hmm, I didn’t know they had stereos like that back then <grin>):

Looking across the room reveals more fabric, patterns, and Paintstick supplies & samples:

And to the right more books and the “Twirling Tulips” sample:

Let’s go into the back room now for some refreshments:

And while you’re snacking you can see a demo of the AccuQuilt GO!

or browse through some new books and lines of fabric:

Finally, if you need to sit for a while, maybe you would like to help me sew some blocks for this sample that isn’t quite finished yet?:

Thank you again for coming, whether in person or in a virtual visit. I hope you’ll come back very soon!

WOW!

WOW!! Thank you so much to all who came to my Quilt Market Review event today! For a while it seemed like we might need to have folks take a number and wait to get inside!! I hope you enjoyed visiting my Studio as much as I enjoyed having you. I especially appreciate those of you who drove 30 or 50 or more miles to attend. And I’m sorry if I didn’t get to personally spend time with each of you, but hopefully my *extremely* underpaid  but very capable assistants Betsy, Becky and Roxy were able to answer your questions. (I’m lucky they’re willing to work in exchange for being the first ones to fondle my new fabric LOL.) Thanks, gals, you’re the best!

Some of the items I had either were not available yet, or sold out early in the day. For those who filled out the Wish List sheets, I’ll let you know as soon as the items you indicated become available. Don’t forget the special savings on the AccuQuilt GO! will be available for all orders placed by Friday, June 11. Call or email if you have any questions on anything you saw today.

I’ll post some photos tomorrow for those of you who couldn’t join me in person, but for now it’s time for bed…..

Applique Reveal

Did you guess that I wasn’t really going to applique the word “EEL” somewhere on my project? This is mostly finished, I need to add some quilting and some buttons that I haven’t received yet.

Isn’t it cute? It’s from Nancy Halvorsen’s “Garden Song” book. She always has such fun ideas, including tea towels that are decorated or made into aprons. I’ll have the books, wire hangers and tea towels available at my “Quilt Market Review” this Saturday, June 5 from 11am – 3pm. Those are just a few of the new products I’ll be showing and demonstrating.

(If you’d like to know more about Quilt Market Review or any of the other events at my shop, you can view my newsletter here – and if you don’t already receive it via email, scroll down to the bottom of the newsletter to sign up.)

And since I like real flowers as well as the applique kind, I thought I’d show you what is blooming in the prairie garden right now:

These are shell-leaf penstemon. I was unfamiliar with this native prairie plant until we had a few blooming last year. This year those original plants seem to be gone, but now there are many of them in a newer part of the garden. We’ve slowly been turning part of our yard back to the native prairie plants that would have been here before the land was developed. Each year we tear up some of the lawn and replace it with native plants. The section we did last year was started mainly from seed – that’s where the penstemon are now. We’ve also purchased plants for some areas from a nursery called Morning Sky Greenery in Minnesota. We’re expecting a shipment of about 50 plants from them on Friday. It’s a good thing I have to work at the Studio on Saturday! LOL

Studio Progress

Remember what the studio looked like last time I showed it? I rearranged already

Then did a little destruction at the old studio:

Oh, no, what happened to my Prodigy???

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And added a few things to the new studio:

I’m even working on my second customer quilt on the new machine! Oh, and it’s now easier for people to find me:

I took that as I was driving away today, I’ll have to try for a better shot without all the glare. But if you look really hard, you can kinda see me in the photo .

It’s Here!

This is how things looked last week:

And then:

Now we just have to move the other one in, along with all the stuff that goes with it!

Score!!

I was starting to stress over all the money it takes to set up a new studio. There are so many little things I need to buy that add up. I wanted to turn the back room into a work room where I could have Quilts of Valor work days, or maybe do a few group ‘sew-ins’. But I couldn’t justify spending a lot on cabinets and counters when those activities wouldn’t be bringing in any income.

I saw an ad in the paper for a photography studio that was going out of business and selling furniture, among other things. I almost forgot about it, but remembered late Friday afternoon. DH and I went, and look what I found!:

Just the cabinet, the coffeepot came from home

This has a top but we had to take it apart to move it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are probably 6' tall with lots of shelves inside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is 3 sided, about 5' tall, is on wheels, and is made of slatwall so I can use it for display or hang rulers and other tools from it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We didn’t have the pickup with us, so told them we’d be back on Sat. to pick up my finds. While DH was working to haul everything out on Sat., I did some more shopping. I found the wicker plant stand you can just about see in the previous photo, and 3 really large drawing pads – like maybe 24″ x 32″. They’ll be great for when I’m trying to sketch quilting ideas in a large area. Won’t the plant stand be cute when I paint it in one of my bright colors and add a trailing green plant?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was just about to leave, when I thought to ask if they had a credit card machine or cash register. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the best part is, all of this cost me only……………….

Wait! Why should I tell? It would be more fun if you guessed! I think I’ll have a blog contest! Whoever comes the closest without going over (sounds like the Showcase Showdown on Let’s Make a Deal, doesn’t it?) will win a prize. I don’t know what the prize will be, yet. Depends on what I don’t want to have to move LOL. Maybe one of my UFOs. (Unfinished Objects, for those of you who are not quilters.) Okay, it won’t be one of those, I promise. It will be something nice.

Post a comment here with your guess by 8am (CST) Mon., Sept. 15 and we’ll see who guesses the closest!