Been organizing

I started my annual reorganizing. Here are some quilt kits I'm making for the coming year.


I'm listing the kits on a sheet or two of paper so I know what is stored and where.


I got tired of loosing quilts that should get finished. I was tired of looking for a fabric belonging in a quilt.....only to realize it had been cut up and used for a different quilt. I was tired of quilts missing birthdays because they didn't get finished. I was tired of constantly loosing things!

Last year's reorganizing was supposed to remedy that problem but it didn't. Now I'm trying a different way of keeping track. It may not help me move faster but it should help me keep up with what should be done and where to find it.

I had completely lost my thrifty and very organized nature over the last year and a half. What happened? My son's suicide had a major impact on my life. I worked everyday though I didn't realize that was all I was doing. I functioned while not really being myself.

A very good friend once said I was like a person walking down a road, something might put a rock in my path, and I just kind of side step it to keep going on my way. She's right. My son's death was more like a boulder instead of a rock. Since he was not the first child I had lost, the trip around the boulder in my path seemed to take much longer to go around. I have grieved and now my life must go on. I have other kids to think about. I will see the lost kids again someday.

I won't get back to the organizing today. I'm taking an all day class at a college near me. It's a photography class about taking pictures of quilts to enter contests. The class is more about using a digital camera than the quilts. This is what I need to know.

I have pretty much given up on entering any more contests. They are all requiring photos for entry these days. I have no hope of getting into a show if I can't even take a decent picture to put into a blog. If I can learn about using my camera maybe I will try entering again.

Many big time quilters are paying professionals to take pictures of their quilts. I can't afford to pay a professional in the hope I might get into a show. Paying an entry fee then not get into the show is expensive enough. I'm not even sure I want to do that anymore. I may try a couple more times to enter a big show.....but after that...I will stop wasting my money.

My quilts are happily received by those who get them. Most don't even care if it is perfect or not. They love the quilts anyway.

So now its time for me to go get some things together for my class. Hopefully it won't take me long to locate what I need. Hmmm....I wonder where I put the camera instruction booklet? Do I have fresh batteries? Oh yes, I need bus fare and I need my list of things to pick up at the office supply store......

A quiet day

Yesterday I decided not to go back to the fair. Since I had already planned for a day off; I decided maybe I should stay home to get some work done without interruptions. When I start organizing I first find what is not working, give it a ton of thought for a solution, then make the change.

I looked at my machine and decided it was high time I worked out the problem of shifting tops while quilting. When I load a backing onto the machine then tighten it up, one end is very tight while the other end is loose. As I progress through the quilting the end that was loose gradually becomes tight while the opposite happens on the other side; it becomes loose.

I’ve never been able to figure out a fix for this problem. I measured the distance between the belly bar and the take up bar. There was an inch or more difference. Logically a person could move the bars closer together to make them equal distance apart, right? Well, nothing about a Gammill is logical. I realized it’s not the belly bar that should be straight with the take up bar. It’s the bar down under the table that is the problem. One end of the backing gets attached to the take up bar leader and the other end of the backing gets attached to the backing bar and leader under the table. So how is it possible to measure the distance apart of those two bars? I never figured that one out.

I removed the leaders and put new ones on. I also cleaned dust from parts I normally don’t look at - like under the table where the batting is stored. The frame itself rarely gets any cleaning attention. I also cleaned and oiled the bobbin area, then tightened all the bolts of the table. The clean parts of my machine may not be visible – but – I know they are thoroughly clean.

I sure wish the rest of the house was just as clean. ;-}

Machine quilter blog ring

This morning it appears I no longer have to read and try to understand how to create a blog ring for machine quilters…..someone already started one. This is the site for where you can find the information. http://blog.saltcreekquiltco.com/

I’m sure glad one has been started!! I wasn’t all that keen on devoting the time necessary to run one. I knew there was a need; I just don’t know that much about computers.

I took my quilts to the fair Saturday. As usual I was finishing my entries up the night before they had to be dropped off. This year the show should be interesting. I took 6 quilts and there was another Estes dropping off 6 quilts at the same time. My customers are going to be confused by the name Estes on 12 quilts. They may wonder why I entered that many instead of completing their quilts.

I went to guild meeting Sunday. The drawings for everyone are done. I didn’t take all the work I had done on mine because I didn’t want the others to think they should have more done on theirs. I try to get as much of mine done before the Christmas rush gets into full swing so I always have much more finished than the rest of the group. During August through December I usually don’t do much piecing of my own.

I’m hoping to change that this year though. I was browsing through my fabric stash and pattern stash thinking of ways to get it better organized. I came across some patterns of things I really want to make but the organizing must be done first. A quilted coat is definitely on my agenda.

While looking through all my quilting stuff I was trying to think about how much time I want to devote to the different types of quilt work I do. It occurred to me that the best way to get good organizing perspective on quilt plans is to list them. Give it a try. You will see what I mean. Here is my hurried up list for this morning.

Art quilts – I love the art part of quilting! I really want to make some for the galleries that keep asking me to make some. How many? It should be at least 6.

Charity quilts – 5 for the nursing home, 5 for the women’s shelter, and 5 for the homeless men.

Contest quilts – one or two for MQS and MQX then one for Paducah and one for Nashville. Yes, I want to try for those shows even though I’ve not tried before.

Machine quilting for customers – always a heavy schedule!

Charity quilts for auction – Art for the animals, Farnsley Moorman House, the Mayor, and a couple of others have requested an art quilt that can be auctioned. Not a traditional pieced quilt but large art pieces.

Quilts for the grandkids – I have 16 ½ grandkids and 4 great-grandkids. I haven’t made one for them in several years.

Custom made clothing quilts – I can never know how many I will be commissioned to do in this area. Last year I did 35 custom made clothing quilts.

Gee, looking at it all written here sure lets me know where I have gone wrong. Listing everything sure puts it into a different perspective doesn’t it? No way can I do all this work! No wonder
I was feeling overwhelmed and complaining I didn’t have a life.

Ok, I’ve worked myself into a panic mode writing it all down. It’s time for me to go do some machine quilting while I think of which to eliminate and which to keep on the agenda.

Scheduling?

Here are today's pictures of finished quilts.




The last few days I’ve been invited to join several new web groups. Hmm… they must have heard I’m trying to cut back on my internet time and thought they would tempt me to abandon my goal. There are far too many web groups and all of them very tempting! It seems that all the ‘big name’ quilters are starting web sites or groups that require membership to read the information contained in the site or whatever they may call it.

These sites are what I call ‘online guilds’. They operate much the same way an ‘in person guild’ operates. There is membership, participation, teaching, challenges, activities, show and tell, along with other things common to guilds. So how many guilds can one person belong to and still operate a machine quilting business?

I had to ask myself; would I join 15 or 20 ‘in person’ quilt guilds here in Louisville? If I did join that many guilds, when would I have time for actually working? I would be constantly going to guild meetings and participating in their activities. Where would that leave the time devoted to customer quilts? The only difference between an ‘in person’ guild and an ‘on line’ guild is the distance I would commute to participate. On line I am traveling to another part of my house; in person I would travel to another house.

I have noticed one common question in place after place on the quilt net circuit. It might be on an email list. It might be on a discussion forum. It might be on a blog ring. It might be on a website. The most common question seems to be “how do you schedule your time”. The people asking this question appear to be the same names I see in place after place while surfing around myself. I keep wondering why they are participating in several daily online groups instead of quilting? Did they schedule online time among their machine quilting time?

So let me ask you this…. How often do you see the “big name” quilters on the sites of other “big name” quilters? Do you see Linda Taylor (Gammill fame) posting to any discussion group? Do you see the names Sharon Schamber or Karen McTavish or Carol Beyer Fallert or Ricky Tims or Alex Anderson, or any one of dozens of big name quilters, show up on any site or discussion group other than their own? Why? It’s my opinion they don’t participate in discussion groups because they now have a “big name” so there is no need to market themselves in groups anymore. They have graduated from being one of the online crowds to a marketable personality.

I also believe the big name people are extremely smart business people, or maybe it is the significant other who is extremely smart. They saw the need for one person to do nothing but quilt while the other took over all other duties. I don’t even believe the quilter is the one actually running the sites. I believe it is the significant other who is running the site and posting.

Heavens, if I had someone do everything for me while I did nothing but create quilts I could become a famous name person too! Yes, I do believe that. I have the knowledge and capability. I just don’t have someone who believes in me enough to be willing to take over all other duties for me while I create. I don’t have anyone to market me.

Nor do I have anyone to pay the bills for me while I indulge my fantasy to create a quilt to win a major quilt show someday. No one believes in me that much. Not my kids, not my friends, no one but me believes in me.

So this has been my thoughts for today. I could finish this post and surf around for two or three hours but customer quilts are waiting. I could go join a group or two but that won’t get the work done or the bills paid. No, I will stick with the one or two sites I belong to for now. Maybe later I will unsubscribe from one and join another...who knows what the future will be? I am sticking to my rule of limited internet time until I find someone who believes in me too.