Is it a real job?

This is the finished quilt for today. I didn't think I would have it done by the end of the day but I did.


The other half.

Ok, I thought about this all day. I also remembered that I did start my blog to give my views about how to be a professional machine quilter and still have a life. I’m trying to stay focused on this but sometimes I get side tracked with other quilty things. Grin… don’t we all have this problem?

I was asked how I manage to be both a topper and a machine quilter. How do I get my own UFOs quilted when it seems that the customer quilts are always waiting? Let me say first…. Machine quilting is my job, piecing quilts is my hobby.

Ok, about the job. Many years ago when I decided to go into the machine quilting business it was a struggle not only in getting customers but financially as well. I decided to take the risk to open this business even though very few people accepted machine quilting. I had been taught that in order to go into business for myself I needed to be a risk taker so that’s what I did.

A couple of years later I found myself in need of a loan from someone so I could buy my child a coat for winter. That person gave me the loan but also asked me “Why don’t you give up this quilting stuff and get a real job?” I replied “Excuse me!! This is my real job!” That conversation really got me to thinking. Apparently no one thought of my business as a real working job. They all believed it was simply a money making hobby. Only I and the tax man understood that what I did was really a business and not just a hobby. This included all my friends, my kids, my other family members, and even my customers. All of them believed what I did was nothing more than earn money from a hobby.

So let me ask you this…. How does everyone view your machine quilting? Is it a hobby or is it respected as a business?

Think about what it would be like if you actually left home each morning to go to work at an outside job. You are expected to be there at your scheduled time, you work a full day, and you leave to go home when your shift is finished. Right?

When you have an outside job you know when you are to clock in and when you are to clock out. At an outside job; can you stop work to chat with family or friends whenever they want and still get paid? Without giving notice to the boss; can you take several days off each week and keep the job? Can you expect your job to still be there for you if you constantly leave work to baby sit the grandkids or to clean house? Can you take long leisurely lunches with your spouse while the boss is back at work watching the clock? Can you sit and play on the internet when the boss wants a project finished? How would it be if you went to a fabric store and found a closed sign even though the hours posted said it should be open? What if you thought maybe it was a temporary closing so you go back the next day only to find it closed again? How many times would you return if you kept finding the closed sign?

I hope I’m getting the point across here. A job is a job and you are expected to work as you are scheduled. Just because you work at home doesn’t make your regular work hours any less important. Personally, when I go from the back part of my house, across the furkid gate, into my studio each morning it is the same as commuting across town to an outside job where I am expected to open the door for business. Home is left behind, no matter what didn’t get done.

If you are continually leaving your quilting machine in order to keep your friends and family happy it means your work is not respected as a real job. They are thinking this machine quilting stuff is just another hobby and they are humoring you. Or they are thinking your hours of operation are just for show; that you can take time off whenever you want and still remain in business.

Ask yourself, would they feel the same if you worked at home at… hmmm… owning a restaurant on the first floor and you lived upstairs? Wouldn’t the family and friends understand the restaurant must have regular hours in order to be a real job?

Getting the respect that what you do is a real job is probably the most difficult hurdle in being a professional machine quilter. I set my work hours early so my day is finished early. Yes, it is very hard to say no a lot! But, it is necessary if I want to keep my job and my paycheck. Just like working at an outside job, an occasional day off to do something special doesn’t hurt. So long as it is only occasionally or you have someone willing to do the work for you while you receive the paycheck. (grin, I wish)

Ok, let’s talk about hobbies. If you had an outside job…. when would you find time for your hobbies? It doesn’t matter what your hobby is… piecing quilts, watching movies, antique shopping, guild meetings, internet surfing, reading books, or whatever. Wouldn’t you enjoy your hobby after regular work hours or on your days off?

So why is it you are treating your quilt piecing hobby as part of the work day just because you are a machine quilter? Hey, my hobby is piecing tops too. (smile) I piece them before or after my regular work hours. My weekend off day is used like any outside job worker. I shop or visit or play with my hobbies.

I book my own finished quilt tops onto my waiting list the same as if a customer had brought it to me. My own quilts are no less important than any of my customer’s quilts. After all, someone is going to get my personally made quilt so they are essentially the customer. Even if it is a grandchild, they are the customer waiting for a finished quilt.

Internet time and writing this blog is also a hobby. I write my blog entry or answer list emails before or after work. I try to post early in the morning, while I’m drinking my coffee and getting ready for work. My computer has a clock on it that I glance at every once in awhile. When my time for work arrives the computer gets turned off; regardless of whether or not I have finished looking at pictures, shopping websites, answering emails or writing a blog entry. I’m a very good employee; I’m almost always on time for work. Hmmm…. You think the boss could give me a raise for that?

40 and counting down

41 and counting down

I'm doing a late evening blog today. I skipped computer time this morning in favor of getting an early start on work. First I will show you the next quilt I finished. It is the other t-shirt quilt.



The other half.



The last few days I’ve had several people ask me questions through email that were pretty close to the same topics. Instead of writing similar but different long emails I will put it here so I can save a little time. Answering emails and writing a blog all in one sure does save time. I like this kind of blogging! I’m much better at writing if I have specific thoughts to write about. I hope those who wrote to me don’t mind me answering this way. I’m not being impersonal, just being practical and organized.

I was asked how I stay so organized. Well, for years I read books and magazines, strolled through organizing isles at the stores, took classes, and bought countless items to get things organized. I bought hundreds of shelves, hooks, bins, boxes, calendars, address books, binders, file cards, dry erase boards, and almost any gadgets or gizmos out there that were advertised for organizing. Then I would spend what should have been vacation time or quality time with the kids at home sorting and purging and tossing things into the trash.

What a waste of time and money!! What I finally figured out is that I had to find what works for me. Not something designed for making someone else rich. How I figured this out was when I tried to organize my teenage daughter 17 years ago. I was throwing a tantrum for her to clean up all the junk around her room.

She had piles of clothes in one spot, piles of books in another and so forth. She calmly told me that her stuff was organized chaos. She knew where everything was. More importantly she could get at it quickly and also put it back just as quickly. I tested her on this. I asked her to find me her pink pajamas. She walked to a pile of clothes on her chair. Put her hand down into the pile somewhere near the middle and pulled out a pair of pink pajamas. I left her organized chaos alone after that. I got to thinking about it later that evening. I realized she never seemed to ask me if I knew where any of her things were like her brothers had. Maybe she really was organized in her own way? That’s when I realized there is a difference between ways of being organized.

If my daughter always knew where everything was then obviously her style of organizing worked for her. I’m more of a neatly cleaned up organized person. I like things lined up in neat rows. If I must hang things on the wall for easy access then I want it to look like a piece of art. All positioned the right way.

I no longer spend money to make other people rich on their idea of how I should be organized. Sure I do have things organized. BUT; I did what works for me. I buy something only after giving it plenty of thought about how it will work for me. I always, always ask myself…. is this a need or is it a want; will it save me money; will it save me time; and can I find an alternative.

Here is an example: Once, long ago, I got the tops and backs of two customers mixed up then quilted both. Ack! Disaster! Needless to say I had to face both customers and explain the problem. I gave them the quilts at no charge since this was agreeable to them. All that work for free!

Ok, I told myself, I have to find a solution to prevent this from happening again. I couldn’t afford to work for free and support my family. I had some unused plastic boxes in the corner of a closet that were too good (and too expensive) to just toss out. I started using those just to see if it would work. Yes, it did. As soon as a customer brought me a quilt to finish it went into its own individual plastic box.

I later bought some plastic roll around drawers that just fit under the machine table. It was a perfect solution so that I no longer had to unstack the boxes to get at the bottom one. Drawers allow me to pull out the whole thing when I’m ready or put it back if I can’t start it yet. I later added clear stick on business card holders to the drawers so I could slip a piece of paper into it with the customer’s name. Now I can see at a glance which drawer holds the next quilt to go on the machine. Here's the drawers…


Another example: I had a really good pair of thread nippers I used everywhere in my studio. The problem was that each time I needed the nippers they were always where I left them on the other side of the room. This was obviously not working for me. In order to make it work I bought more nippers. Now I have a pair in each spot where I need them. See…

The other spot.


On the domestic machine.

It is hard to see it in the picture but it is hanging on the household machine near the wheel.

The point of all this rambling is that in order to get organized and more efficient at machine quilting you first must find what is not working for you so you can start looking for something that will work. If something is already working.... don't fix it cause it ain't broke.


I'm way behind on answering emails. I hope to get atleast some of them read before my eyes get too heavy and I have to get to bed.

Tomorrow I will talk about my typical work day and how I keep from having machine quilter UFOs.

42 and counting down

I finished this quilt for a customer yesterday and have another on the machine I hope to finish today or tomorrow. It is just like this one but with different t-shirts.



A view of the other side.


There are different readers of my blog… toppers and machine quilters. I love knowing I’m passing along my knowledge to others. If I don’t pass it along now it may be too late later. Tomorrow is not promised to anyone. So with this in mind here is my first helpful hint for toppers. Please be patient if I don’t post a helpful hint everyday. My customers are my first priority (smile) which means I may not have the time for hints.

TOPPER HELPFUL HINT:

You see this sashing? How the blocks are just a little off from each other and the sashing is friendly? (It waves at you)

What usually happens is a topper will sew whole rows of blocks together then sew one long sashing strip between them. Rarely are the blocks matched up at the corners doing it this way. It’s so much easier to match things up if the sashing is cut to fit the blocks and treated as a part of the block. Like this.

I usually sew the sashing to all the blocks by sewing it to two sides. The outside row of blocks along one side and along the bottom will get three sashing strips. One final corner block will get all four sides with sashing. This may sound confusing and I don’t have any pictures to show of the technique. I can draw a diagram for you though.

Here is a sample of squares that represent your blocks.


Next I draw in the sashing on one side of the blocks. They would be sewn onto the side of the block like this.



Notice that along the right side the blocks don’t have sashing? These outsides will get a sashing too.


Next is to put sashing on the top of the blocks. To get the right measurement the sashing should be sewn onto the left and measured. Now your blocks will look like this.


Notice that the bottom row of blocks doesn’t have a bottom sashing? This row will need a third sashing strip sewn on too, like this.


The very last block in the right hand corner will get a sashing strip on all four sides, like this. When the sashing is sewn as a part of the block it should all match up at the corners.


HELPFUL HINT FOR MACHINE QUILTERS:

I like to keep several battings in stock rather than order as needed. I prefer Quilter’s Dream Batting because I can order it in individual packages. For me this is the most convenient way to store batting. The packages fit neatly under my quilting machine.

It was a problem for me keeping up with what I had in stock and what I needed to order. I had to take an inventory each time I planned to order batting. Taking inventory required me to get down onto the floor behind my machine and count each size. I would then struggle to get up off the floor and figure out what to order. Getting up and down off the floor is hard to do with arthritis in my hip joints!

I do it differently now and it’s so much easier. I decided how many of each type and size I needed to keep in stock. I ordered the right number to start off my inventory. These days, instead of throwing away the label from the package; when I open it, I keep it. I stack them up near my machine. When it’s time to order I can just count the labels of the batting that has been used. Ta da! No more getting down to the floor or straining to get back up.

One more note before I finish this post. If you send me an email and I don’t answer right away, don’t worry, I’m not ignoring you. When I shut off the computer it is the equivalent of leaving home for an outside job. I can’t be late for work even if it is only in another room of the house. Time to go....

Its been a week already?

It’s been a whole week since I posted a message? Wow time is flying by. It seems like only yesterday it was January but now it's June. I know there were a couple of people worried about me. I’m sorry to cause anyone to worry but at the same time I’ve very grateful to have friends who really care. It means a lot to me.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I had trouble with getting into blogger. So I kind of left the computer alone to let blogger do whatever it was doing and get things straight before attempting to log on again.

Last Sunday, I went to teach a lady how to work with this machine.


I had a really nice time and she paid for breakfast; a real country breakfast from Cracker Barrel. I was so stuffed when we left the restaurant. I really hope I was helpful to her. I am not sure so I will try to call and check on her progress one day this week.

On Monday I went to a meeting with my mother’s doctors at the nursing home regarding her care. We discussed options about a sore on her foot. She’s diabetic and is very slow to heal. They have tried some new type thing with medicated beads. It seems to be working so they plan to continue with another set of the beads.

On Tuesday I finished the quilting on this one.


The other half.


Wednesday I had some branches cut from the trees that were sitting on my roof. I helped clean up the stuff after everything was cut apart. Here are a couple of before and after pictures.


A view from the side of the house.



See how they touch the roof?

Look at what a difference it made.

I want to show you a picture of the newest visitor to our neighborhood. Look carefully on the left side of the tree trunk.

I think she is mad at me for cutting the branches off the larger trees, just look how she took out her anger on my house!


Just kidding, I think she is after termites. I do get termite treatments on a regular basis. I’ve been paying a yearly fee for about 25 years or so. I guess they had better come check this out because the treatments apparently aren’t working.

Thursday I did the quilting on this one.  This is the right side.

This is the left side.

Friday, my grandson arrived here from Alaska by way of New Orleans. He got stranded in New Orleans without any money and I had to spend a lot of time on the phone making arrangements to get him here. He will be staying here for awhile. I hope he is able to find work really quick.

And; yesterday I started the piecing on this one.


Today, my daughter, my grandson, and I spent the whole day just visiting with each other. It has been about 3 or 4 years since he was here last time.

Ok, that's about it for this past week. I got a bunch of emails I haven't answered and some phone calls to make. I think I'm at 43 and counting down??

A good deed day

Yesterday I finished the quilt that was on the machine.


The other side.


Then I finished this one for my grandson that has the nicknames of the kids in his karate group. He did the letters. I enlarged the letters so I could make the quilt. UPS is scheduled to pick it up on Tuesday. I wish I could deliver it in person so I could see his face.


I also worked more on this quilt. It started as a leader and ender project. I think it may become a quilt to enter into the fair and then given to charity. It will be a full size quilt. After the fair I will probably save it until I see a family on TV that will need it.


Today I’m going to the home of a lady who has a brand new Hinterberg table for her household machine. I’m going to show her how to load a quilt on the frame. I never charge for these visits because it is just fun to do. Working on the household machines and the Hinterberg table is kind of like playing in a dollhouse. So much smaller than the Gammill.

This trip away from home will feel so good! If I were still in a panic about staying ahead of customer tops to be finished I would have to work extra, extra hard to make up for the day away from my machine. Since I'm no longer in a panic mode the day will be an enjoyable time away from work.
We will be stopping at the fabric store on the way back home if we have time. I have to get more fabrics so I can start on a king size custom quilt that is due to be completely finished by June 15th. I am supposed to have the top finished by June 5th to see if they approve the construction. I always give the customer one last look before it goes onto the machine. It is their last chance to make changes before it is completed. If I don’t make it to the fabric store today then my daughter and I will go tomorrow.

I need to start working on a quilt to be given to Art for the Animals. This event is the first week of August I believe. I try to create a small wall hanging each year to give anonymously. It is a good way to use up some of my stash fabrics. Hmmm…. I’m gonna get off the computer because I just thought of a design. I want to see if I can sketch it out before I leave.