Where Did I Leave Off?

Wow. What a crazy couple of weeks. I finally remembered to bring my camera home and made time to sit and blog.

We held a party at the shop on June 2 to celebrate being selected for Quilt Sampler magazine and to review new stuff found at Quilt Market. Subsequently, I spent most of that week furiously making samples - don't get me wrong, I had help - but I'm just going to show what I personally worked on.



This is a new pattern by Laundry Basket Quilts called "Peonies". It is all fused batiks. I started to quilt it but ran out of time before the party. I'll get it finished eventually.








Here's a sample block of another Laundry Basket Quilts pattern called "Dresden Star". The little white spokes are actually a triangle folded and pieced into the dresden blades and then pressed flat. It is hand appliqued onto the background and the circle is appliqued on top of it all. It was a fun block to make, and I intend to make more - I just don't know when!



This is one of a series of small quilts that we kitted up for the party. This little guy is only 15" square.










The Sunday following the party we began the technology upgrade. We upgraded our Point-of-Sale software, our hardware, our network and our credit card processor. What should have taken 6 hours took 6 days! I spent most of last week working furiously to get it all working together again. Outside of getting Publisher installed on a new machine (and needing to deal with Microsoft support), everything seems to be working well.

Remember when I talked about cleaning and organizing our back storeroom? I didn't get very far and last Saturday 3 of us spent the whole day totally tearing it apart and organizing it. It looks wonderful, but I would have never gotten it done on my own.


This weekend I actually got some quilting done. I finally quilted the sample from "Bundles of Fun" that I showed the top for a couple of weeks ago. I also quilted this UFO and promptly donated it to Project Linus. I know it's not the lovliest piece I've ever done, but a finish is a finish. And a UFO finish is even better! I finished quilting another sample tonight that was pieced by my friend Sarah. I'll get a photo when it's trimmed and bound.





Here's my token garden photo for the day. I have purple coneflowers in several flower beds. They have reached 'weed' proportion - they are growing in the lawn and I have yanked out more seedlings than I let stay. But riddle me this - where did the white ones come from? I have never planted white ones.....are they mutations or the result of evolution? Were they lonely in whatever yard they came from (none of the neighbors have them) and decided to come live at my house? Do they know they are different and feel special, or are they bewildered and feel like they don't belong? There are days when I feel like this white coneflower. I own my own business doing what I love and am surrounded by people who share the same passion as I do. We are all very much alike, yet I am distinctly different. Being the boss and bearing the responsibility for every decision and action regarding the business is sometimes daunting and often sets me apart from the group. There are days when I am so overwhelmed that I become paralyzed. And there are days when I reflect upon what I've built and am very proud. Some days I just want to be a purple conflower like everybody else and go home at the end of the day and leave work behind. It's a fine line, and I am doing my best to walk it well.

See? This is what happens when I have time to think. I just wish I knew if the past few weeks have been unusual or are becoming the new "normal". Anybody have a crystal ball?